10.04.2025 17:10
Following the death of artist Volkan Konak, Çatalca Mufti Ahmet Mehmetalioğlu, who sparked reactions with his post saying "He has died," has made a statement. Mehmetalioğlu said, "I wanted to express my individual reaction in this way. What did I say? I said, 'he died on stage.' The word 'died' is not a word that constitutes a legal offense."
Master artist Volkan Konak passed away due to a heart attack he suffered on stage in Cyprus. The sudden death of 58-year-old Volkan Konak deeply saddened his fans and plunged all of Turkey into mourning. His funeral was attended by many of his admirers, and tears flowed abundantly.
MUFTI'S CONTROVERSIAL POST AFTER VOLKAN KONAK'S DEATH Following Konak's death, Çatalca Mufti Ahmet Mehmetalioğlu made a scandalous post. In his post, Mehmetalioğlu stated, "He died on stage. Now they will ask us; how did you know him? Our answer is this. We knew him like this. For us, the one who drinks burns for us too."
ÇATALCA MUFTI'S NEW STATEMENT IS ALSO A SCANDAL After the shocking post, Mehmetalioğlu broke his silence. Making a scandalous statement, Mehmetalioğlu explained the process he went through. Mehmetalioğlu said: "Ahmet Mehmetalioğlu, on December 29, 2023, a sermon was read by the religious authority. While there were negative aspects related to the New Year in the sermon, of course, alcohol was also mentioned. However, this person named Volkan Konak made a statement about alcohol.
"TARGETING AN ENTIRE RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY" He said; 'O people of the religious community, O President of Religious Affairs, your salaries are paid with the taxes collected from our alcohol. Therefore, I will drink a little more tonight to contribute to your salaries. Please accept it,' he made such a statement. I follow social media and the media well. I waited for a while. Maybe he would repent, maybe his conscience would be disturbed, and he would apologize to the religious community. He is targeting the entire religious community. Besides, he is targeting our imam hatip schools and Quran courses.
"THE WORD 'DIED' DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A LEGAL CRIME" I was waiting for an apology, to be honest. When the apology did not come, suddenly, when he died drinking on stage, I wanted to express my individual reaction completely outside of the official authority as a person from this community. What did I say? I said, 'he died on stage.' The word 'died' is not a word that constitutes a legal crime. It is a word that expresses the meaning of death in the Turkish Language Institution.
Çatalca Mufti Ahmet Mehmetalioğlu "WE HAVE NO RIGHT TO SAY HE 'WALKED TO THE TRUTH'" However, of course, we had no right to say 'he walked to the truth' which is used for friends of Allah. 'Died' is ultimately an Arabic word. It is a word that contains the meaning of entering the grave. Since we have knowledge of Arabic, I expressed this death with this word. Otherwise, our perspective on art and artists has never been like our perspective on Volkan Konak.
"WE EXPRESSED OUR REACTION" Stating that he and the religious community were targeted, Mehmetalioğlu continued his words as follows: "Ferdi Tayfur died very recently. İbrahim Erkal died. Other artists have died. We never talked about such things regarding them. As a Muslim individual, we expressed our reaction in this way to an artist who directly takes a stance against religion, the religious community, verses, and hadiths. However, on the days we expressed our reaction, you know the events in Saraçhane, where a segment of the public was standing up due to Ekrem İmamoğlu's arrest.
"WE NEVER HAD A WRONG VIEW OF ARTISTS" When this coincided, the individuals we saw during the previous protests, people who behaved disrespectfully in the mosque, came into play again. They have now lifted this statement over me. They saw it as a direct target against religion, the government, and a political party. This is entirely their own business. We have never had a wrong view of art and artists. But we think that our institution should take action against those who blaspheme against God and religion, but individually, we must also show our will.
"WE IDENTIFIED NEARLY 200 ACCOUNTS" Describing what he experienced after the post, Mehmetalioğlu said, "In this process, unwanted incidents occurred. I think many of them are due to their ignorance, and I believe many of them are attacking consciously. There were attacks. The attacks occurred in three dimensions: insults, threats, and curses. In this situation, we also got involved with our lawyer. Currently, we have identified nearly 200 accounts. We filed a criminal complaint against all of them. The investigation is still ongoing. As long as insults, threats, and curses continue to come, the passwords of our social media accounts are with my lawyers. They are busy with these matters daily. At the same time, there is something even more interesting on social media. Due to threats that we will publish your personal information obtained through WhatsApp, we filed a criminal complaint directly with the prosecutor without waiting for the lawyer. The prosecutor is currently working on those processes," he said.