Claims About the Coronavirus and the Prayer Bans
The "He Compared Turkey to East Turkestan" Claim
Out of context
Claim
Fact
The sentence really was uttered. In the statement he made after those who wanted to perform the tarawih prayer in Adana on the night of 21 May 2020 were beaten and taken into custody, Alparslan Kuytul said, "You will not be able to turn Turkey into East Turkestan." What was cut away is not the sentence but its grounds.
The comparison does not rest on a single tarawih ban. Two days later, in his talk of 23 May 2020, Kuytul listed one by one the chain he was relying on:
- the raid carried out with fifty or sixty police officers on two people reading the Qur'an in a mosque in Osmaniye,
- the raid on the home of a few women who were reading the Qur'an in a house in Mardin,
- the person in Bursa who hung a "Welcome, Ramadan" banner on their own house being taken to the police and beaten,
- the cutting down, on a curfew night, of "Welcome, Ramadan" banners in several cities and, in Elazığ, of a banner that carried only a verse,
- more than a hundred conferences cancelled from April 2014 onwards.
The distinction he drew himself is on the recording as well:
"Our comparing it to East Turkestan is not because a single tarawih prayer was not allowed… Otherwise we did not say, looking at one incident, that Turkey had become East Turkestan."
Why is this labelled "Out of context"?
The part that is true is plain: the sentence was uttered, and it is a heavy sentence at that. We do not deny it.
But this part, the part that is true, is not a fault. Setting the incidents above one beneath the other and arriving at a conclusion is an assessment whose grounds were stated from the outset. Someone may find the comparison disproportionate — but they make their objection by discussing that list. A statement whose basis is set out openly is not something to be hidden; it is a view to be talked about.
This is exactly where the claim skips: in the retelling the comparison has been reduced to a single tarawih ban, and the list spanning six years has quietly been dropped.
When, and after what incident, was the sentence uttered?
On the night of 21 May 2020 in Adana, the police intervened against a small group that wanted to perform the tarawih prayer in Merkez Park while keeping social distance; the number of people taken into custody that night reached 47, and many of them obtained medical reports of assault. In the statement he made the same night, Kuytul listed the bans and then said, "You will not be able to turn Turkey into East Turkestan."
This is where the sentence was born, and from here it was taken and put into circulation without its grounds.
What exactly was the criticism?
The next day posts along these lines appeared on social media: "Turkey cannot be compared to East Turkestan merely because there is a curfew or a ban on congregational prayer on account of a virus."
This is an objection that is consistent in itself — if the comparison really does rest on a single ban. The whole of Kuytul's reply of 23 May 2020 is built on that "if", and he states in addition that some of those criticising him were acting in good will.
The incidents the comparison rests on
The chain Kuytul listed begins long before the tarawih:
- From April 2014 onwards: conferences held in sports halls began to be cancelled at the last minute; within two or three years more than a hundred conferences were cancelled. When wedding halls were used instead, those were blocked too.
- May 2020, Osmaniye: two people sitting a few metres apart and reading the Qur'an in a mosque were raided with armoured vehicles and fifty or sixty police officers. The person who described what had happened in a short video was taken from their home the next day.
- May 2020, Mardin: the home of a few women who were reading the Qur'an in a house was raided, again with armoured vehicles.
- May 2020, Bursa: a person who hung a "Welcome, Ramadan" banner on the balcony of their own house was asked to take it down; when they did not, the fire brigade and TEDAŞ were called, and afterwards they were taken to the police.
- Ramadan 2020, several cities: banners carrying verses and hadiths were cut down on curfew nights. Kuytul sets the explanation "because the banners carried words of mine" against the fact that in Elazığ a banner carrying only a verse was cut down as well.
- The same period: the attempt to seal student houses by counting them as "dormitories".
The limit Kuytul set himself
In his reply he separates clearly what the comparison rests on from what it does not:
"This is one link in a chain, not that single matter… Our comparing it to East Turkestan is not because a single tarawih prayer was not allowed. Those who read the Qur'an are raided too; the three or five women reading the Qur'an at home are raided too… Otherwise we did not say, looking at one incident, that Turkey had become East Turkestan."
So what builds the comparison, in his view, is not the ban itself but what the bans are directed at: the mosque, the home, the banner, the conference, the student house. Whether the comparison is apt is a separate discussion, and that discussion can be had. But for it to be had, the grounds have to be on the table first.
Why do we not say "Unfounded"?
We cannot, because the sentence was uttered. To say "he said no such thing" would make everything this site says suspect in the eyes of a reader who listens to the recording.
The reason the label is "Out of context" is this: in the retelling the sentence remained and the grounds were dropped. What is left is a one-line caricature along the lines of "he compared the country to China because he could not pray" — whereas the recording itself lists a series of examples spanning six years. The honest way to discuss a statement is to discuss it together with what it rests on.
The other claim arising from the same night is dealt with under a separate heading: The Claim That They Staged a Prayer Provocation in Adana. The sequence of events of that night, in the words of those who lived through it, is here: The Night of 21 May 2020 in the Words of Those Who Were Beaten.