Prior to the 9th Independent Turkey Concert, which was planned by Grup Yorum in Yenikapı on Sunday, 9 August, the arena was blockaded by the police.
The police proceeded to intervene against the group members who had opened up a banner that read ‘Grup Yorum is the people, it cannot be silenced’ on the arena, whose entrances and exits blocked. It was reported that 25 people were taken into custody during the intervention. Releasing a statement on those under custody, the Legal Bureau of the People reported that they were later released from the police station.
Preventing the reporters from recording what was transpiring during the intervention, the police confiscated the cameras and deleted the footage.
The Governorate of Istanbul had previously announced in a statement that they would not allow the concert, which was a tribute to Helin Bölek and İbrahim Gökçek, both of whom passed away in a hunger strike they had begun in protest at pressures on Grup Yorum and demanding fair trial.
On Wednesday, 5 August, Grup Yorum members who were rehearsing the concert in Beykoz, Polonezköy were taken into custody, with the police organising a raid to İdil Cultural Centre at the same hours.
The Legal Bureau of the People had reported that their clients Dilan Poyraz, Bahar Kurt, Betül Varan, Eren Erdem, Barış Yüksel and Sercan Toptancı, all of whom were Grup Yorum members, had been taken into custody in Polonezköy, Beykoz.
