ARMENIANS PROTEST TURKISH FILM
Peninsula On-line
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Feb 22 2009
Qatar
ISTANBUL: Armenian and other rights groups called for action yesterday
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 organisations, 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.