The British band Muse announced on Wednesday that its concert in Istanbul will be postponed due to protests against the government of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The decision follows calls from fans to cancel the event after the promoter insulted anti-government demonstrators.
“After careful consideration and hearing the feedback from our fans whilst fully respecting their concerns, our show in Istanbul will be now postponed until 2026 so we can ensure DBL Entertainment will not be involved,” the band stated on the social media platform X.
The rock band’s concert was originally scheduled for June 11 in Istanbul, with tickets set to be available on April 3.
On Saturday, Abdulkadir Ozkan, the owner of DBL Entertainment, made comments on social media about a video of the protests in Turkey, criticizing the demonstrators. “It is a clear and evident hostility against capital! It’s treason,” he wrote on X.
After careful consideration and hearing the feedback from our fans whilst fully respecting their concerns, our show in Istanbul will be now postponed until 2026 so we can ensure DBL Entertainment will not be involved.
Thank you for your ongoing support, it means everything to…
— muse (@muse) April 2, 2025
On Tuesday, as fans began calling for a boycott of concerts organized by DBL Entertainment, Ozkan issued a statement claiming his previous post had been “taken out of context” and defended himself as a “person who believes that freedom of expression and protest, one of Turkey’s core values, should be exercised non-violently.”
KAMUOYUNA SAYGIYLA DUYURULUR
Yakın zamanda kişisel sosyal medya hesabımda yaptığım bir paylaşımın, bağlamından koparılarak farklı anlamlara çekilmesi ve kamuoyunda yarattığı hassasiyeti üzülerek takip ediyorum. Paylaşımımda, belirli bir işyerine yönelik şiddet eylemini…
— Abdülkadir Özkan (@akadir137) April 1, 2025
Calls for boycotts against the government have intensified recently following the detention of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who is considered a main rival to President Erdogan.
Imamoglu, held in pretrial detention, faces charges from the Public Prosecutor of corruption, bribery, municipal public tender manipulation, and collaboration with terrorism.
However, the opposition argues that these are mere pretexts to remove the popular mayor from the political race. Imamoglu won the 2019 Istanbul elections and renewed his mandate in March 2024 with a one million vote lead over Erdogan’s Islamist AKP party.
