A Turkish woman, Safiye İnci, was arrested on July 22 following the prosecution regarding a video she shot at the mausoleum of the founder of modern Turkey. She was charged with insulting Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, after the mass reaction.
In the video she shared on social media, İnci is seen in front of the mausoleum, wearing a dark hijab and she says "I am ashamed to be at Anıtkabir [Atatürk's mausoleum]. I wish I had never been here. Atatürk was not the one who saved Turkey. Those Kemalists who do not like Tayyip [Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan]... Atatürk is inferior even to the shit of Tayyip." The video of İnci stirred heated criticism in the public opinion.
According to the testimony İnci gave, she said she had gone to Atatürk's mausoleum upon the insistence of her aunt and cousins, and that she shared the video only with her friends. İnci added that she shot the video of her own accord, not forced or assisted by anyone. She noted that she is wearing a headscarf since the age of 8, and has been wearing dark hijab for the last 6 years. İnci testified that her comments in the video were the result of a "momentary impulse, an ignorance."
In her testimony, İnci said that the second video of apology was shot by her cousin, following the warning of her aunt. "I am so very sorry about the statements I used in the video. I wasn't aware that they constituted a crime. I apologise to everyone."
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his ruling AKP party have been critical of Atatürk's legacy as a binding force, despite amorphous, for the majority of people in Turkey. Erdoğan had avoided even using the name Atatürk, meaning the ancestor of Turks, and instead described Atatürk as "Gazi (warrior) Mustafa Kemal." Despite this, both Erdoğan and pro-government figures revert discourse regarding Atatürk, praising and speaking highly of him from time to time to diminish the influence of this binding force when needed.
