Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
March 21 2010

PM meets artists, backtracks on Armenian workers

Sunday, March 21, 2010
ISTANBUL – Daily News with wires

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an departed from the expected script
in a weekend meeting with the stars of Turkey’s cinema world, offering
praise to a late director of the radical left, defending the value of
artistic expression and retreating from threats earlier in the week to
deport undocumented Armenian workers.

ErdoÄ?an as a culture aficionado also drew broadly from international
cinema, citing the power of film to change societies and the
perceptions of long-held positions. The meeting at Istanbul’s
Dolmabahçe Palace with some 63 actors, artists and television
personalities was billed as a bid to gather support for the
`democratic initiative’ that aims to solve the decades-old Kurdish
problem.

Following a breakfast with the actors and directors, he continued with
an afternoon program with radio producers and programmers at the
Istanbul office of the Justice and Development Party, or AKP.

Among the biggest surprises for guests was ErdoÄ?an’s robust praise for
Yılmaz Güney, a Marxist director and icon of the very tendencies in
Turkish politics that have often clashed with the prime minister’s
social and political conservatism.

`If authorities of this country had lent an ear to Güney’s movies,
today Turkey would be in a different place,’ ErdoÄ?an said of the
novelist and actor of Kurdish descent who died in exile in Paris in
September 1984. `Theater and cinema have always been ahead of the
public. They have undertaken a courage that is miles ahead of politics
and political language,’ DoÄ?an news agency quoted him as saying.

The assembled stars included TV game show host Mehmet Ali Erbil,
director Mustafa Altıoklar and others from Turkey’s cultural "A list."
There were also 23 no-shows on the list of invitees, including
directors Sinan �etin and Zeki Demirkubuz and actors Müjde Ar, Halil
Ergün and Ayten Gökçer.

Movies that change the world

`For the past two centuries, we have witnessed that books, movies, TV
series and plays have the power to change life,’ ErdoÄ?an said. `An
artist is a person who hears, sees and feels what others cannot … As
the government, we are trying to put onto the agenda, without ulterior
motives, what artists have been voicing for years.’

ErdoÄ?an cited `Dances With Wolves’ as a movie that altered
perspectives on Native Americans, as well as `Malcolm X’ and
`Mississippi Burning’ as films that helped improve the situation of
African-Americans in the U.S.

Furthermore, he said `The Message’ was a movie that had helped change
the world’s perspective on Islam.

The prime minister, who threatened last Tuesday to expel undocumented
Armenian workers if foreign parliaments continued to pass resolutions
recognizing Armenian `genocide’ claims, struck a different note during
Saturday’s gathering.

ErdoÄ?an said his remarks were aimed "at drawing the world’s attention
to our tolerant approach toward those people" and that he did not
intend to `take such a step immediately."

"What I am saying is that those who pass these baseless resolutions
should see the humanitarian perspective from which we look at the
problem. They should not meddle in our ties with our neighbors," he
said.

`We are not speaking about citizens or immigrants or refugees. Still,
we have shown good will. We have displayed tolerance toward some needy
people and we will continue to do so. But we cannot stay silent when
some people take actions to tarnish the honor of Turkey and the
Turkish people, while we are displaying good will and tolerance."

Speaking against discrimination

Noting the problems of minorities, the prime minister thanked Tomris
GiritlioÄ?lu, a director who has highlighted the issue with films
`Salkım Hanımın Taneleri’ (The Beads of Salkım Hanım) and `Güz
Sancısı’ (Autumn Pain).

`I have said the state has been rough toward minorities that we have
been living together with for thousands of years,’ ErdoÄ?an said. `It
was me who first said the events of Sept. 6-7, 1955 [in which mobs
attacked Istanbul’s Greek community and also targeted Jews and
Armenians], constitute a heavy burden on our shoulders. Every citizen
of this country is a first-class citizen. We will not accept or
tolerate any discrimination toward them.’

After ErdoÄ?an’s speech, 25 artists voiced their opinions, largely on
the Kurdish issue. Author and columnist İclal Aydın, herself of
Kurdish origin, said she condemned those who block the path of the
initiative, while Yılmaz ErdoÄ?an, a popular Kurdish director,
screenwriter and actor, said he saw the process as one of
`normalization’ for Turkey.

According to the daily Milliyet, actors Cem Ã-zer and Oktay Kaynarca
raised tension at the meeting with the former saying that having
Kurdish origin provides `privileges’ in the art world, while the
latter said there was no Kurdish issue in Turkey.

The prime minister intervened before the argument became more serious,
Milliyet reported.