Queer Art of Sodomitical Sabo- tage, Queer Ethics of Surfaces: Embodying Militarism and Mascu- linity in Erinç Seymen’s Portrait of a

So the story goes, in the late 1980s, the Turkish general Kenan Evren, who led the 1980 coup d’etat in Turkey, encountered the popular Turkish music icon known widely as ‘the Pasha of Art’, Zeki Müren, who was a much respected performer – well-known for his extravagant costumes on stage and his mannered queer performance. This encounter was followed by a conversation initiated by the general’s curiosity about the honorary title bestowed on Müren by the Turkish public, namely pasha, a title reserved under the Ottoman sultanate for high-ranking military personnel.2 Evren asked Müren why this symbolic title had been given to him. After some hesitation, and at the general’s insistence, Müren answered the question: ‘This nation was so angry about what you did during the military coup, but they couldn’t be very open with their anger. Rather than calling you and your colleagues faggots (ibne), they called me pasha’.