ishtartv.com-
AINA
2016-04-26
The
Turkish Embassy in Sweden officially asked the Swedish television channel TV4
last week to not air a documentary on the Assyrian Genocide. The documentary Seyfo 1915 -- The Assyrian
Genocide by the director Aziz Said and produced by the Assyrian Federation
of Sweden was scheduled to be aired on Sunday 24 April, the day Assyrians and
Armenians commemorate the victims of the genocide perpetrated by the ruling
Young Turks during the late phase of the Ottoman Empire.
TV4
received an email note from the Turkish Embassy, signed by Arif Gulen, the
press counselor of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm. The editors of TV4
published the note
on the TV4's media blog in Swedish and English.
The
Embassy's press officer asks the TV4 editors to reconsider airing the
documentary, because "conventional wisdom suggests that broadcasting of a
documentary film comprising one-sided views of 'the 1915 events' will fail to
serve the principle of objectivity of broadcasting."
The
letter goes on stating that "there is no historical, academic or legal
consensus on how to define 'the 1915 events'" and that "only a
competent international tribunal can determine whether a particular event is
genocide."
The
letter triggered an immediate but strong response by TV4's program director:
"We can never accept this. We will protest against any attempt to exert
pressure that threatens freedom of expression," commented Viveka Hansson
in a written statement. "The email is polite, though the message cannot be
mistaken," she added and called the letter a "a clear attempt to
censor Swedish media" based on opinions not appreciated in Turkey.
The
Turkish Embassy's censorship attempt was also condemned by Swedish politicians.
"It is unacceptable that the country [Turkey] is seeking to silence media
in Sweden and it [the government] must take a hard stance against such
actions," said Jonas Sjostedt, Swedish MP from the Left Party. He even
suggested that Sweden should recall its ambassador from Turkey "to make
clear that what you are doing in Turkey, which is very bad for the media, you
cannot do in Sweden."
The
Liberal party directed an appeal to the Swedish Foreign Ministry to respond to
the Turkish attempt. "It is totally unreasonable for the Turkish Embassy
in Sweden trying to stop the broadcast of a documentary on a Swedish TV channel
and I assume that the Foreign Ministry will now call the Turkish ambassador for
a discussion on what press freedom means and what rules apply in Sweden and in
the Swedish democracy,"said MP Redrik Malm, on TV4 News.
The
director of the Seyfo documentary Aziz Said, who lives in Germany, said to
AINA, that he is "...encouraged by the strong response of TV4's program
director and the Swedish media and politicians in general in not accepting
Turkish interference in free speech, and by the courageous journalism."
Seyfo
(sword) is the Assyrian word for the genocide their people during the time of
the World War I. The documentary depicts survivor stories along with
testimonies from several European, Turkish and Assyrian historians.
Afram
Yacoub, the president of the Assyrian Federation in Sweden, is not surprised
about what happened. "The only way to force Turkey to face its dark
history is for democratic countries like Sweden stand up for the freedom of
speech and historical truth," he said. He called on the Swedish Government
to follow the Parliament's 2010 recognition of the genocide. The Swedish
Parliament was the first assembly in Europe to officially recognize the
Assyrian, Armenian and Greek Genocide in March 12, 2010 (AINA 2010-03-11). Turkey
protested the decision at the time and issued a strong condemnation in a press
release from the office of the Prime Minister (Recep Tayyip Erdogan). The
protest culminated in Turkey recalling its ambassador to Sweden for
consultations.
Sweden's
genocide recognition explicitly referred to Assyrians and Pontic Greeks
victims. Their suffering during the World War I has been mostly forgotten for
decades, but in December 2007 the International Association of Genocide
Scholars (IAGS) did vote overwhelmingly to recognize the genocides
of the Assyrian and Greek populations of the Ottoman Empire between 1914 and
1923. For the Assyrians in Sweden, the recognition of the genocide was a
milestone in their effort for political acknowledgment.
Eleven
countries and institutions have recognized the Assyrian genocide.
The
documentary Seyfo 1915 -- The Assyrian Genocide was aired as scheduled; however
this incident is another chapter in Turkey's recent attempts to ban freedom of
speech and silence journalism outside its own borders. The second part of the
documentary is scheduled to be aired on TV4 on Sunday, May 1st.
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