FIRST TURKISH FILM TO SHOW ARMENIAN GENOCIDE WINS HARSH RECEPTION
Al-Monitor
Aug 7 2014
Author: Orhan Kemal Cengiz
Posted August 7, 2014
German-Turkish director Fatih Akin and the bilingual Turkish-Armenian
weekly Agos have been receiving death threats from nationalist Turks
since Agos interviewed the director about his new film last month. The
content of the messages, the outpouring of support for the threateners
and the authorities’ inaction come as a grim illustration of the
current atmosphere in Turkey. The death threats are an omen for the
coming year, the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.
Akin — the director of films such as “Head-On,” “Crossing the Bridge:
the Sound of Istanbul” and “Soul Kitchen” — gave a long interview
to Agos on July 30 about “The Cut,” his new film that focuses on the
Armenian genocide. The interview was received with great interest
and contained intriguing revelations.
For instance, Akin said he considered making a film about the life
of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, the former Agos editor who
was assassinated in 2007, but none of the Turkish actors he approached
would take the role.
Akin then began to work on a new project: the story of a Turkish
Armenian who embarks on a worldwide search for his daughters after
surviving the 1915 massacres. Akin wrote the script in German, but
later decided to shoot the film in English. He sought help from Mardik
Martin, an American screenwriter with Iraqi and Armenian roots who has
contributed to the scripts of Martin Scorsese films. According to Akin,
Martin not only translated but modified and “intensified” the script.
The film — starring French actor of Algerian origin Tahar Rahim and
Turkish actor Bartu Kucukcaglayan — was shot in Jordan, Cuba, Canada,
Malta and Germany. It is scheduled to premiere at the upcoming Venice
Film Festival, and only a trailer is currently available.
Akin told Agos he did not consider “The Cut” a film about the Armenian
genocide but rather an adventure movie. He said he had no political
motives in making the film and hoped it would “receive due respect
in Turkey and be shown in large, modern theaters.”
Akin was aware his film would not be treated as just another movie
in Turkey, even though he did not see it as the genocide. “The Cut,”
after all, is the first film by a Turkish director that addresses
the events of 1915. The director, however, remained optimistic that
the film’s showing in Turkey would be trouble free. “I’m confident
that the Turkish people, to which I belong, are ready for this film,”
he told Agos.
Yet as soon as the interview was published, a tweet by the
ultra-nationalist Pan-Turkist Turanist Association suggested that
Akin might have been overly optimistic.
The message read, “Efforts are underway, under the leadership of
the Agos newspaper, for the screening of Fatih Akin’s film about the
so-called Armenian genocide, ‘The Cut,’ in Turkey. ‘The Cut’ is the
first leg of a plot to make Turkey acknowledge the Armenian genocide
lies ahead of 2015 and we … will not allow it to be screened in
Turkey. We are now openly threatening the Agos newspaper, Armenian
fascists and the self-styled intellectuals. That film is not going
to be shown in a single theater in Turkey. We are following the
developments with our white berets on and our Azeri-flagged glider.
Let’s see if you can!”
The “white beret” metaphor carries a sinister message. Ogun Samast,
Dink’s suspected assassin, wore a white beret when he shot Dink in
the neck outside the Agos office in downtown Istanbul on Jan. 19, 2007.
The white beret has since become a symbol displayed frequently at
anti-Armenian racist and nationalist demonstrations.
The Turanist Association’s threat received a series of supportive
messages by other ultra-nationalist groups on social media.
The ensuing events demonstrated that the Turkish authorities haven’t
learned their lesson from Dink’s murder, which was preceded by similar
threats. Under the Turkish penal code, those messages constitute
a criminal offense on several grounds, from containing threats to
spreading hate speech. The prosecution of these offenses does not
require a complaint by injured parties. The law automatically entitles
prosecutors to launch probes. Sadly, hate speech against minorities
fails to attract prosecutors’ attention.
In remarks to Al-Monitor, Agos editor-in-chief Robert Koptas said
the publication has become used to receiving threats, describing
the authorities’ inaction as the norm. “For us, this is not an
extraordinary situation. And the fact that it is not extraordinary
is in itself an indication of what an atmosphere we live in,” he said.
“We had to file a complaint this time again, though the police and
the judiciary were supposed to have already taken action. We are not
asking for any special protection, but we are a publication whose
editor-in-chief was murdered outside his own office. Thus, the threats
we receive are supposed to have an extra meaning for the police and
prosecutors,” Koptas said. He added that no government official has
called him about the threats or made any public statement on the issue.
The threats indicate that certain tensions and troubles are in store
for Turkey in 2015, the centenary of the Armenian genocide. The debate
on the Armenian genocide in Turkey in recent years has become as free
as never before. Commemoration events are now held across Turkey
on April 24, the genocide remembrance day. Yet the latest incident
suggests that ultra-nationalist groups are in a state of alert as
the anniversary draws near.
The threats directed at Akin’s film demonstrate that some quarters
in Turkey have lost none of their intolerance and, emboldened by the
judiciary’s failure to act, feel free to target anyone they like. It
seems no lessons have been learned from the past.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/08/cengiz-film-about-1915-threats-armenians-agos-fatih-akin.html