DESPITE ASSURANCES, FILM “ARARAT” AIRED WITH ABRIDGEMENTS IN TURKEY

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Apr 17 2006

ISTANBUL, APRIL 17, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The film “Ararat”
of world-famous Canadian Armenian film director Atom Egoyan was finally
aired on April 13 in Turkey by Canal Turk television channel. However,
according to the newspaper “Marmara” (Istanbul), despite assurances
to air the film without abridgement and censorship, two scenes –
one showing a Turkish officer burning a group of Armenians and the
scene of an Armenian woman’s rape – were removed, while sound was
muted in the scenes cotaining swear-words. No Turkish company agreed
to dub the film, so the Turksih subtitiles were prepared by Canal
Turk. Prior to the film’s demonstration, program presenter Turkcai
Eozkan stated that “Ararat” contains “imperialistic propaganda”
and recommended the viewers “never to belive the lies expressed
in the film”. The airing of “Ararat” was followed by the program
“Truths”, in which Baskn Oran, progressive Turkish intellectual,
Kemal Yavuz, retired general, Hrant Dink, editor of the newspaper
“Akos” (Istanbul), and Necati Seonmez, film critic, were invited
to take part. At the beginning of the program, it was announced
that at the last moment Dink declined to take part due to some
private reasons. Baskn Oran also refused to participate in the TV
program. Kemal Yavuz said that the events shown in the film “do
not correspond to the reality” and that the international courts,
even US archives “failed to present any fact against a number of
Turkish officials who were put on trial for committing the genocide
and who were eventually recognized innocent”. Necati Seonmez in his
turn criticized Eozkan for putting pressure on the viewers before
the film’s demonstration. He noted that in his opinion, “Ararat”
is the “most unsuccessful” of Atom Egoyan’s films. Nevertheless,
he was appreciative of the film’s artistic structure.