Anyma Breaks Silence on İstanbul Cancellation: “My Art Was Turned Into Propaganda”

Anyma calls the 'satanic ritual' claims behind his cancelled İstanbul show a false narrative, says his visuals were altered with AI and confirms an appeal. Refunds via Passo from 7 September.

Written By Techno Airlines

Published September 7, 2026

Reading Time 3 Minutes

Credit: Photo: ObAnyma / Wikimedia Commons, CC0 (cropped)

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Anyma has broken his silence three days after the İstanbul Governor’s Office pulled his 12 September ÆDEN show at Ataköy Marina Arena. In a four-part statement posted to Instagram on 6 September, Matteo Milleri called the “satanic ritual” claims a “false sinister narrative”, said clips of his visuals had been “manipulated with AI” and confirmed that he intends to appeal the decision.

What happened

The cancellation was confirmed on 3 September by Emin Gökçegözoğlu, the İstanbul Governor’s Office press director, after a wave of social media posts claimed that Anyma’s live visuals contained “satanic elements”. The clips in circulation were pulled from earlier shows and paired with other music, and campaigners used them to call for the İstanbul date to be blocked. At the time of the decision, tickets for the show were still on sale through Passo, and neither Anyma nor his team had commented.

The İstanbul stop was part of the ÆDEN World Tour, the new live show Anyma debuted at Coachella in April. It has since sold out Shanghai, Brussels, two nights at London’s Printworks, Gdańsk, Mexico City and Vancouver. Turkish outlets note that Anyma had played the same Ataköy venue in 2024 without incident.

The statement

Anyma frames the ÆDEN show as narrative rather than provocation, and argues that the clips doing the rounds were cut from the darkest chapters of a story that resolves in light.

“The Anyma show is a science-fiction story about darkness and light, destruction and creation, fear and hope. Like many stories, it weaves through darker chapters before reaching resolution. Taking one scene from any film or work and presenting it out of context as the meaning of the entire project is fundamentally misleading. In my story, light ultimately prevails.”

He is explicit that the visual universe draws on art history, mythology and ancient literature, and that “there are no direct representations of religious figures and there is no intention to attack or disrespect any religion or culture”. The sharpest passage concerns how the clips were made.

“None of my visuals are AI-generated and the greatest irony is that AI was used to alter my work by those who condemn it. My art was turned into social media and political propaganda. What happened next is unacceptable.”

On process, he says that neither he, his team nor the promoter “received any meaningful warning or opportunity for dialogue” before the show was cancelled, and that nobody asked them to explain the work or discuss adaptations. He adds that the team has adjusted shows to local customs elsewhere and “would have willingly done the same in Türkiye, had legitimate concerns been raised through dialogue”. The statement ends with a line to ticket holders and a sign-off in his own name: “I hope we can come back and finish the story in Istanbul together. Matteo.”

Not the first İstanbul cancellation this year

The Anyma case follows a pattern that has built through 2026. In February, the Beşiktaş District Governorate cancelled Behemoth and Slaughter to Prevail at Zorlu PSM on “social values” grounds, and days later God Is An Astronaut’s İstanbul show was called off hours before doors. Those were metal and post-rock bookings. Anyma is the first name from the melodic techno world, and by some distance the biggest live production, to be caught by the same reasoning.

Anyma’s İstanbul appearance would have been one of the most technically ambitious electronic shows the city has hosted. ÆDEN runs on a custom LED and robotics stage built around the humanoid figures that have defined the Afterlife aesthetic since the Printworks residency in 2022, the same figures at the centre of the current claims.

What happens next

The appeal has been announced but no timetable has been given, and with the 12 September date now five days away a reversal looks unlikely. Promoter Only You Live has confirmed the cancellation and says ticket refunds are being processed by Passo from 7 September, so anyone holding a ticket should see the money returned through the platform they bought from. The ÆDEN tour continues in Milan on 19 September and Madrid on 26 September, with Athens, Mumbai, Paris and Santiago to follow before the end of the year.

Techno Airlines view: whatever one thinks of the visuals, the substance of Anyma’s argument is about context. The clips that triggered the campaign were short, re-scored and, by his account, edited with AI. A show built as a two-hour arc was judged on a few seconds of its darkest scene. That is a problem for any touring artist whose production is designed to be read start to finish, and it is why the “no dialogue” complaint may end up mattering more than the appeal itself.