'Trustee' tension at the Nasreddin Hodja Festival: AKP member leaves the area

The 67th International Akşehir Nasreddin Hodja Festival, held this year in the Akşehir district of Konya, began with various events. The speech delivered by director and actor Müfit Can Saçıntı, who portrayed the representative Nasreddin Hodja during the opening program, became the development that overshadowed the ceremony.

THE FESTIVAL BEGAN WITH TRADITIONAL CEREMONIES

As part of the "Call to the Nasreddin Hodja Festival" ceremony held in front of the Nasreddin Hodja Tomb, town criers toured the streets and avenues accompanied by drums, inviting citizens to the festival.

Müfit Can Saçıntı, portraying the representative Nasreddin Hodja, also emerged from the tomb to invite participants to the festival events.

Within the scope of the program, the participants then moved to Akşehir Creek for the traditional yeast-spreading ceremony. In addition to the representative Nasreddin Hodja, artists portraying the characters Till Eulenspiegel, Hitar Petar, and Aldar Köse, who represent world humor culture, also spread yeast into the water in their own languages, saying "What if it takes?"

At the festival, Turkish folk dance groups as well as groups from North Macedonia, Poland, Serbia, Hungary, and Kazakhstan also held a cortege march on the Nasreddin Hodja Humor Path with their traditional costumes and bands.

Akşehir District Governor Mustafa Yiğit, Tuzlukçu Mayor Nurettin Akbuğa, and protocol members attended the events. It was reported that the festival, which includes theater performances, folk dances, exhibitions, talks, children's events, and workshops, will continue until July 10.

'TRUSTEE' REMARKS SPARKED CONTROVERSY

The assessment made by Müfit Can Saçıntı, speaking as the representative Nasreddin Hodja at the opening ceremony, through the "trustee" analogy was the most notable part of the program.

Saçıntı used the following expressions in his speech:

"We have awakened, but the people of Akşehir are just as they were in the National Struggle… Welcome, my grandchildren, my companions. Everything I will tell you here today is true; if I am lying, may God give me a husband from those marriage programs. I heard such things are happening now.

Today, it was my fate to be appointed as a trustee to Nasreddin Hodja's donkey. We have Bulgarian dancers at this festival. They heard about it and are asking me, 'What is a trustee?' How can I explain a trustee to someone who is not Turkish? I said; my brother, you loved someone, they loved you back, you got married, you went to the wedding night. You wake up the next morning, and there is a Mahmut in your spouse's place. We call that Mahmut a trustee, what else should we call it."

REACTION FROM THE DEPUTY

AK Party Konya Deputy Mehmet Baykan reacted to Saçıntı's speech on the grounds that it contained political content.

It was learned that Baykan stated he would not attend the remainder of the events following the speech and left the area.

News Source: 12punto