Artist Apolas Lermi was to perform at the Kadırga Festival on Friday, July 21. The artist, who was targeted by nationalist groups on social media, announced that the concert was cancelled by Gümüşhane Özkürtün Municipality.
Lermi included the following words in his post:
“We were called by the mayor for the Kadırga Festival on July 21, 2023, and we accepted all the demands of the mayor without a contract or preconditions. Later, the municipality shared the poster with our name on the pages. “3-5 social media accounts that saw the poster and called themselves “nationalist Trabzonspor, Turkist” etc. put pressure on Özkürtün Municipality to cancel the concert.”
The cancellation of the Kadırga Festival concert is not the first time Apolas Lermi was censored. In November 2018, he was threatened by business owners in the region because of the song he made against the environmental destruction in Uzungöl. After Victory Party Chairman Ümit Özdağ targeted him online in May 2022, his concerts in Denizli and Istanbul were cancelled and lastly, his Giresun concert in July 2022 was banned by the governorate.
