Agence France Presse
February 21, 2009 Saturday 5:14 PM GMT

Armenians, activists protest ‘racist’ Turkish documentary

ISTANBUL, Feb 21 2009

Armenian and other rights groups called for action Saturday over
Turkish school screenings of a controversial documentary on the
Ottoman mass killings of Armenians, charging that the film incited
racism and enmity.

The call follows an outcry in the small Armenian community following
reports earlier this week that the education ministry had asked school
teachers to show the documentary to students and file reports on the
result of the screenings.

The documentary, called "Blonde Bride – The True Face of the Armenian
Question," has come under fire for taking Turkey’s official line that
Armenians were not the victims of genocide at the hands of Ottoman
Turks in 1915-1917.

The film has also been criticised for violent images of Armenian gangs
attacking Turks and piles of corpses it says were of Turks killed by
Armenians.

"This documentary is a propaganda film … It is not only biased and
hostile but also provocative and openly racist," said a declaration
signed by seven rights organizations, among them Armenian foundations
and the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly.

"This is not an objective production … It has been made to poison
people’s souls and to turn Turks and Armenians into enemies," it
added.

It called on the education ministry to launch an internal
investigation and "expose and punish" those behind the order for
school screenings.

Earlier this week, the ministry said it had sent copies of the film to
schools to be viewed by teachers as additional material and not by
students.

It added that it had halted the distribution in July 2008 after
discovering "uses outside its original purpose."

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their people were massacred during
World War I under Turkey’s predecessor, the Ottoman Empire, and term
the killings as genocide.

Turkey rejects the label of genocide and argues that 300,000-500,000
Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when
Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided
with invading Russian troops.