In Turkey, the authorities have found another way to win the sympathy of the electorate. Since last fall, the police have been conducting mass raids on stars of television series, show business, and the media. Dozens of celebrities have been detained. All of them are forcibly tested for drugs in their blood and hair. Every week, the local media is full of new details from the lives of celebrities.

On the one hand, the use of most drugs is illegal throughout the world. With the exception of a few countries that have decriminalized marijuana and certain hallucinogenic mushrooms, everything else is prohibited everywhere.

On the other hand, in the free world, there is an unspoken reconciliation between the authorities and the recreational use of stimulants. The repressive mechanism is usually only activated when a person commits a crime. Criminalizing the drug trade, rather than the consumer, has been a trend in democratic countries for the last 30-40 years.

However, Turkish populism has found a new way to win additional applause from the masses: punishing the rich and successful to divert attention from economic failures. The most famous victim of the crackdown was Mehmet Akif Ersoy, head of news broadcasting at HaberTürk TV. The media group, which included several other niche TV channels, including the Turkish version of Bloomberg, had been balancing between power and independence for many years. On September 11, 2025, the Turkish authorities confiscated the group's assets, and subsequently several executives and presenters of the channel were accused of drug use. This was followed by accusations of “creating places of debauchery,” and resources controlled by the authorities spread information about sexual orgies taking place among media professionals. In Turkey, there are currently no legal prohibitions on sexual practices. However, such public information effectively means the end of a career for anyone involved. The presence of drugs adds a legal basis for prosecution to the PR campaign.

The fact that Ersoy and several other “exposed” media figures come from religious families adds spice to the story. For the authorities, this is a great opportunity to prove that they do not divide lawbreakers into their own and secular ones. For the secular part of the country, it is an excuse to laugh at graduates of religious institutions (imam-hatips), whose status and money allowed them to lead a lifestyle far removed from the teachings of the Almighty.

Among the biggest victims of the anti-drug campaign is former TV star and host of popular TV channels Ela Rumeysa Cebeci. The police leaked all the correspondence from her mobile phones to bloggers under their control.

These chats contain all the details of her personal life. And, as is often the case in Turkey, what a man can be forgiven for is a life sentence without parole for a woman. Rumeysa is accused of using drugs and encouraging others to use them, and she has been in prison for two months.

Having dealt with the TV stars, they turned their attention to YouTubers and influencers. Some of them managed to leave the country. The rest are being forced to take tests. Many of those detained have “disappointed” the authorities: their tests came back negative. However, the authorities have not given up hope: celebrities are being detained again, some for the third time, because they attended parties or clubs where, according to the police, drugs are inevitably involved.

Doğukan Güngör, star of the most popular Turkish TV series, was unlucky. His tests came back positive. Due to the media campaign, the actor was forced to leave the series because, according to unwritten rules, TV channels refuse to show people accused of crimes on screen, even if their guilt has not yet been proven in court.

Aleyna Tilki, Irem Dilerci, and Nisa Bölükbaşı are just a few of the top stars of the Turkish stage whose names appear in reports on police operations.

Some tested positive for illegal substances, while others were clean. However, no one is interested anymore in who is a “drug addict” and who just “got caught up in the raid.” The myth of the depravity of the entire Turkish entertainment industry and film market, which has not shown much loyalty to the current government, has already taken hold. In addition, hyperinflation, which has been going on in the country for the fifth year, has led to the impoverishment of the majority of the population. Why not find the culprits who allow themselves expensive illegal entertainment while the rest of the country can barely cope with the cost of food and utilities?