Does singing after dark pose a threat to public safety? The Ankara governor’s office thinks so. On May 26, it announced a comprehensive ban on protesting after dark that covers everything from singing folk songs and chanting in public to making news announcements and participating in any kind of assembly.

The announcement said that with the holy month of Ramadan underway, along with the arrival of spring weather, many people are drawn outside in the evenings, and singing and other such activity "disturbs our citizens, disrupts public order and security, increases the risk of terrorist organizations attacking [and] bombing communities, and makes it difficult for security forces to intervene in these events."

Since a widely contested referendum in April that granted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan unprecedented power, Ankara has increasingly become a hotbed of discontent.

Bans on folk songs strike a nerve with Turks and have a bitter history in the country. Folk songs were banned from radio programs in Turkey from 1934 to 1936 with the goal of making Turkish music more Western. The ban backfired when people all around the country started listening to foreign radio stations.