Naci Bostancı is an academic—political scientist, sociologist, and communications scholar. He currently serves as the rector of Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University. But that’s not the whole story. For many years, he was a member of parliament, holding senior roles within the ruling AKP. At one point, he even occupied the position of second-in-command after President Erdoğan within the party hierarchy. In the 2023 elections, he chose not to run again and returned to academia.
A CONCERT OVERSHADOWED BY CONTROVERSY
Linet is a singer. She is Jewish—but also a Turkish citizen. She also holds Israeli citizenship, making her a dual national. Naturally, she travels back and forth to Israel, but her musical career is based in Turkey. Recently, an incident placed her name in the same sentence as Bostancı’s—and that sentence included words like “attack,” “lynch,” and “curse.” Due to Turkey’s rapidly shifting agenda, the controversy did not receive the attention it warranted.
Linet was scheduled to perform a concert in Istanbul on May 19. While preparing backstage, a group carrying Palestinian flags staged a protest. Linet fled the stage, then released a tearful video saying she no longer felt safe and pleaded for help. Protesters cited her remarks about Hamas as the reason for their action. The concert was ultimately cancelled, and Linet was escorted out through the back door by police.
Bostancı was the first to publicly react: “You may or may not like the singer Linet, but her concert is not the proper address for expressing anger at Israel’s oppression. These misguided actions do not help the Palestinians but harm them. A concert ban rooted in tribalism is unacceptable.”
CALL FOR INVESTIGATION
The harshest response to Bostancı’s comments came from Oktay Saral, President Erdoğan’s chief advisor. Saral shouted, “What the hell is Linet to you?” and demanded Bostancı’s resignation as rector, along with an official investigation. It’s hardly necessary to even mention the commentary from pro-government pundits. Some even went so far as to remove Bostancı’s past writings from Şalom, a publication of Turkey’s Jewish community.
SLOGANS BOSTANCI WOULD NEVER CHANT
Like many during Turkey’s turbulent politics, Bostancı once leaned toward nationalism. He was even imprisoned during the 1980 military coup. In those Cold War years, the dominant nationalist slogan was “Communists to Moscow.” But you wouldn’t have heard that from Bostancı. Nor would you catch him chanting “Love it or leave it.”
UNWRITTEN RULES
In the past, attacks were rarely directed at the powerless. Violence is always brute force, always a crime. But even violence had its own kind of internal logic—an unspoken code. You cannot attack children, women, animals, nature—and certainly not a performer on stage.
NOT A HAWK BUT A DOVE
Bostancı viewed politics as a competition, but never as warfare. Parties, institutions, and societies are not monolithic. Throughout his political career, he maintained open channels of dialogue—even with rivals. To use a classic metaphor: he was not a hawk, but a dove. And perhaps—no, almost certainly—it is this stance that made him the target of such a lynching.
