Dollar bills buy Turkish singer big trouble
Turkish pop star Mabel Matiz is the latest public figure under investigation after he had the misfortune to appear in a music video with one-dollar notes, which the government claims Gulenists use as a secret messaging system.
Prosecutors are investigating a Turkish pop singer and champion of gay rights for alleged links to Fethullah Gulen, the Sunni cleric accused of being at the center of the failed attempt to bloodily overthrow Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in July 2016, pro-government Sabah reported today.
The probe was prompted by a video clip in which Mabel Matiz is seen writhing to the rhythm with dollar bills stuffed in his jacket. It’s the dollars, not the lyrics of the chart-topping “Ya bu ne isler?” ("What’s going on?") that landed him in trouble.
The government claims that single dollar bills, particularly those marked with a serial number starting with the letter “F,” were part of a secret messaging system used by the coup plotters. Hence possession of them is proof of culpability. Matiz denied the charges.
Nearly half a million people have faced investigation over alleged links to the so-called Fethullah Terrorist Organization “FETO” since the abortive coup. More than 90,000 have been jailed for crimes such as teaching in Gulen-affiliated schools or holding an account in the Gulen-linked Bank Asya, which has been shuttered.
