Amid all of Turkey's current controversies — the attempted coup, the subsequent purge of thousands of alleged conspirators, the war in Syria, to name just a few — Istanbul's “art critics" are creating their own turmoil.

On Nov. 3, a group of angry young Islamists chanting "Allahu Akbar" showed up at the annual Contemporary Istanbul art exhibit demanding that a sculpture be removed from the gallery. The statue that caused such an uproar is a sculpture of a woman wearing a bathing suit. Painted on her belly is a man wearing a fez and a military uniform with his tongue sticking out and curved upward. This man is Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II. Abdulhamid Han, as he is referred to among Turkish Islamists, reigned for 33 years and is the most revered sultan.

During a show that lasted only four days, the statue was removed, put back up the next day and finally removed again at the request of the artist, who told the press he was concerned about the reaction to his work. Considering the tense times in the country, artist Ali Elmaci decided it was better not to add to the unease.

Yet several news outlets used inflammatory descriptions of the incident, such as “Bigots attack art” and “Under the guise of political sensitivity these actions resembled the Paris attacks of the Islamic State.” Some even said the exhibit had been raided. On social media, both sides were vocal. While the secularists condemned the Islamists' attack on the art, those who were offended by the statue questioned how it could be considered art. On Twitter, there were comments such as “What kind of art is this? How can one ridicule [his] own history and leaders?" Others said things like, “If it was [Mustafa] Ataturk painted there [on the belly of the sculpture], hell would break lose. When it is Abdulhamid, it is of course called art.”