Coronavirus: North accused of double standards over Turkish band’s fake PCR tests

The leniency exhibited by Turkish Cypriot authorities towards the band members of a famous Turkish singer who arrived for a concert in the north on fake PCR tests has been roundly condemned by Turkish Cypriot media.

The 21-member entourage and musicians of popular Turkish singer and trans woman, Bulent Ersoy, appeared in court on Sunday after trying to enter the north on fake PCR tests.

Each was bailed for around €1,000. They had been arrested after the concert they were slated to give in the north at a hotel casino on Saturday.

A representative of Ersoy said she and her bodyguard had arrived in the north earlier and that he had arranged for their PCR tests, but that it was true that the band members presented fake PCR test results.

According to reports from the north, when the group arrived at Tymbou (Ercan) airport it was discovered their PCR tests were forgeries.

They all had to undergo testing once in Cyprus and all were found negative for Covid.

They were allowed to go ahead with the concert under the supervision of police, with authorities justifying this move in order, they said, not to upset those who paid to see them. Afterwards, all 21 were arrested as well as one employee of the Trikomo ‘municipality’ believed to be involved in the case. The band members were also banned from leaving the north and were asked to present to the police twice per week until the trial.

Turkish Cypriot daily Avrupa on Monday reported the case under the headline ‘If it were one of us, we would be immediately arrested’.

Yeniduzen referred on Monday to a ‘fake test scandal’, also reporting reactions by lawyers who criticised the leniency exhibited on the band members.

Deputy chairman of the Turkish Cypriot Bar Association Erdas Erbilen told Yeniduzen that it was completely wrong to allow these 21 band members to go to the concert instead of immediately arresting them. If anyone else was caught doing the same, he said, they would be most probably detained, but these people were released and allowed to perform at the concert.

Erbilen also said that those who allowed the band to leave the airport were also at fault, pointing out that issuing and presenting false documents to official places, was a very serious offence.

Ersoy, 69, whose genre is Turkish classical music began her career as a male singer who studied at Istanbul Municipal Conservatory. Already popular, she caused a stir by undergoing gender reassignment surgery in the UK in 1981.

This earned her, and other transgender artists in Turkey a ban on performing under the government of Kenan Evren who came to power under the 1980 coup.

Ersoy took the matter to court to be legally recognised as a woman but lost. She then left Turkey for Germany and forged a music and film career there until the Evren policies were rescinded when he left office in 1989.