Turkish singer appears in court over religious schools joke

ISTANBUL (AP) — A Turkish pop singer accused of “inciting hatred and enmity” with a joke about Turkey’s religious schools has denied the charge during her first court appearance. Singer-songwriter Gulsen was charged and briefly jailed over the joke she made during a concert in April, when she quipped that the “perversion” of one of her musicians came from attending a religious school. The 46-year-old singer, whose full name is Gulsen Colakoglu, was taken away from her Istanbul home in August after a video from the concert began circulating on social media. She requested an acquittal on Friday, saying “It was just a joke between two people. It was not a statement.”