Turkey's bizarre reason for canceling a concert by a Jew ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Thursday, September 04, 2025

Turkey's bizarre reason for canceling a concert by a Jew

The Istanbul Governor’s Office canceled the concert of Algerian-born French singer Enrico Macias that was scheduled for Friday at Harbiye Cemil Topuzlu Open-Air Theater.
The governor’s office said, “Intense calls have been made on social media platforms to protest the concert event scheduled for Sept. 5 in Sisli District Harbiye Cemil Topuzlu Open-Air Theater.”
Officials argued that protests would cause problems for demonstrators. The statement added, “Demonstrations to protest the genocide that Israel continues in Gaza and its supporters would put young people in an unlawful position and cause grievances.”
Authorities banned all public gatherings in and around the theater on Sept. 5 between 12:01 a.m. and 11:59 p.m. The ban covered concerts, demonstrations, press statements, and sit-ins.

I'm trying to parse out the reason given to stop the concert. I think I figured it out.

The reason seems to be to protect not the artist, not his fans, and not even the protesters. It is to protect the Istanbul police and municipality.

If there are the typical antisemitic protests, there might be violence, forcing the police to make arrests. And if there are arrests, then there will be more protests to protest the arrests themselves (those are the "grievances" that would be caused.)

And if that happens, then the Istanbul police and municipality will appear to support Zionism and Jews, which would make them lose all legitimacy.

This article doesn't mention that Macias is Jewish himself, which is key to understand how the protesters are antisemitic:

Calls for protest spread across social media in recent days. Public pressure led to the decision to cancel the concert.
The organization Free Thought and Education Rights Association (Ozgur-Der) had called for a protest in Harbiye.
It said, “We protest the presence in Türkiye of Zionist settler Enrico Macias, who called for death for Hamas.” After the cancellation, the group announced on its X account that the planned protest was no longer necessary.

Macias is a "Zionist settler"? A non-Jewish Zionist singer would never be called a "settler," but Macias being a Jew makes him subject to that label. His being against Hamas is yet more reason for mainstream Turks to oppose him.

The message is that all Jews are illegal settlers who must be uprooted, whether they live in Israel or not.