Turkey won't cancel TV show depicting Israelis as killers
Turkey's Deputy PM says his country's ties with Israel are strong and they do not hold an anti-Israeli stance.
By Haaretz Service and News Agencies Tags: Turkey Israel newsTurkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Friday that a controversial television drama which shows actors dressed as Israeli soldiers killing Palestinian children will not be taken off the air.
The TV program Ayrilik ("Separation") shows Israeli soldiers killing Palestinian children in Gaza. In one of the scenes, an Israeli soldier shoots an unarmed little girl at point-blank range.
Davutoglu withdrew responsibility from his government regarding this issue, saying the matter is up to the Turkish Radio and Television Corp., the state-run broadcaster which is airing the show.
"This is a matter to be evaluated entirely as part of their broadcast policies. Turkey does not have censorship," he said, while speaking to reporters in Ankara.
Turkish State Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said earlier Friday that his country's ties with Israel have always been strong and will surely remain that way in the future, according to Anotolia news agency.
"Any stance of Turkey against Israel is out of the question," Arinc was quoted as saying.
Arinc is responsible for the state-run broadcaster TRT on which a controversial series is aired.
"If Israel has reacted against the TV series, we will talk to them on the matter," he said. "The TV series does not have any political target."
Arinc also said that the Turkish government will not stop the broadcast of the show despite the growing diplomatic tension with Israel surrounding the broadcast.
"We do not think of [canceling the series]," the Turkish deputy premier said. "The Turkish government does not intervene in a TV drama. Moreover, Supreme Board of Radio and Television (RTUK) controls TV broadcasts."
The Foreign Ministry on Thursday rebuked the acting Turkish Ambassador to Israel, Ceylan Ozen, over the show.
Naor Gilon, the Foreign Ministry's deputy director for Western Europe, on Thursday said that Israel places great importance on its relations with Turkey, but that it cannot stand by while such images denigrating Israel and the IDF are depicted.
"This kind of incitement is likely to lead to physical harm being done to Jews and Israelis who arrive in Turkey as tourists," Gilon told the Turkish envoy.
Gilon added that such a program, which uses stereotypes to instill hatred, must concern anyone who seeks coexistence between people of different nations and faiths.
He said that Israel views the program with utmost gravity, especially in light of the fact that the soldiers they depict as bloodthirsty killers in real life were the ones to aid Turkey after an earthquake there in 1999.
Earlier Thursday, the show's producer said that his show does not portray the IDF as a whole, but only a certain group of soldiers who had murdered Palestinians.
Speaking in an interview with Israel Radio, the producer added that he and his colleagues loved Israel and were convinced that Israelis do not support acts of slaughter perpetrated against Palestinians.
The show features a love story that develops between the lead characters during Israel's offensive against Hamas in Gaza.
But a partial episode available on YouTube depicts multiple images of the IDF brutalizing the Palestinian population by shooting children in the chest and kicking elderly people on the ground, among other things.
On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that, "Broadcasting this series is incitement of the most severe kind, and it is done under government sponsorship."
Lieberman added: "Such a drama series, which doesn't even have the slightest link to reality and which presents Israeli soldiers as murderers of innocent children, isn't worthy of being broadcast even by enemy states and certainly not in a state which has full diplomatic relations with Israel."
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I agree .It is high time Israel acknowledges the truth and calls it a Genocide.I am really surprised you waited this long .Politics you call it ??Now you know better you supported deniers of the Genocide and called them your friends.It would have been nobler of you had you encouraged your so called friends to admit it and face the truth but its never too late .Thank you anyway
front row seats in their own reality show. It maybe third rate drama but this crushing occupation is real. Could Israel stand a TV show re-enacting documented abuses any better? Chomsky's book Fateful Triangle would make for great and factual television viewing to combat the nauseous propaganda from CNN, ABC, CBS,NBC and especially FOX....PEACE EVER?
Israel has population of 7 million people, Turkey has 77 million. Israel GDP $200 billion, Turkey has $900 billion. Israel manpower available for military service 2.3 million, Turkey 40 million. Israel had a friend in Turkey, after Gaza not anymore. Yeah sure to hell with them... :)
It is clear that Islamist-Jihadist Turkey is becoming another anti-Israel state in the region. This should be a warning to Europe (NATO) and America. It is time for them to review their relation with Turkey.
hmm, like Iran's mullahs are more 'religious'? If they knew any better, they'd opt for peace instead of an upcoming world war that they will surely lose.
i've seen the tv drama, it is about ridwan a palestinian, whose parents are on the way to hadj, but all pilgrims at an Israili check point aren't allowed to pass, although all their documents are ok. so ridwan's father protest, the answer is that he is been hitting dead by an Israili soldier with a gun. In the meantime Ridwan and his pregnant wife are on the way to hospital. Arrived at an other control point, the soldiers do not let them pass, and the woman gets her baby alone in a destroyed house, but her baby is been shot dead she bleed to dead shocked in the hospital. Here he see his mother and gets the information that his fathers is been killed.
You statements are unfortunate. You need to read more about the situastion in Turkey. You say "Kurds are not allowed to speak their own language in Turkey" that's intentional misinformation and actually such things are the real roots of misunderstandings. In todays Turkey, Kurds have exactly the same rights as all other Turkish citizens and even more. People in aras with Kurdish ajority are exempt from utility charges (electricity, running water..) or pay very trivial amounts and taxes while the people in other regions pay their share. Kurdish areas are not developed because despite constant government support for investment in those areas, the PKK attacks and kills the engineers, teachers, doctors as well as soldiers and destroys the machinery and installation which aim at making roads or factories there...
Turkish PM Erdogan's madrassah upbringing often gets the better of his judgement, such as when he called the IDF operation against the Hamas Kassam-bandits a "genocide," ignoring the historically low toll of Cast Lead on civilians. The corny new TRT series is Erdogan's clumsy attempt to throw the "genocide" ball in Israel's court.
Radical Turkish Islamists have been organizing nightly programs in cities across Turkey under the slogan, ?A free Al-Quds [the Muslim term for Jerusalem], A world without Israel.? The halls are decked out with photos of Hizbullah Chief Hassan Nasrallah and former Hamas Chief Ahmed Yassin. PLO flags are draped over the speaker?s podium. At the events, Hamas and Hizbullah are glorified as Israel and Western countries demonized, and jihadist speeches are delivered. Participants are offered the chance to donate to the groups or even to enroll in training to join them in their terrorist operations. Similar events are frequently held in the mainly Kurdish southeast and east of the country, with huge audiences turning out as efforts are increased to indoctrinate those populations. More about Turkey at : http://xrl.us/bediaa
Prior to WWII Turkey used to be called ?The Ill Person of Europe? it is now probably ?The Insane Person of Europe?. Erdogan has been leading his country backward, aligning himself with terror organizations like Hamas and the Axis of Evils Iran and Syria. The non Muslim world gives Israelis full credit for fighting Hamas that has been hiding and firing rockets from schools and other civilian facilities. The result of Gaza war was clear: halting those rockets that Hamas fired on Israelis towns for 8 years. Mr. Erdogan should know that Gaza war was forced on us and we had no choice but to fight back.
Ironic that one should say Turkey has no censorship as in Turkey they have no access to multiple sites including YouTube- while there when I asked a local why- he simply said teh government disallows it...
Eli. Have you ever been to Turkey? Who said that 'Kurds are not allowed to speak their own language in Turkey'. Kurds can speak their own language, also there is a state-run nation wide Kurdish TV. I am also a Kurd. There were some problems in the past but these problems were created by some anti-Islamic secular leaders who were very close to Israel.
Israel never portrayed Arab fighters in its movies as anything but honorable opponents. Thank goodness there is not even a hint of hypocrisy in this latest manufactured outrage.
Hello, i'm a turkish living abroad and turkey DOES have censorship...they even censor websites like youtube -because of a video that insults ataturk!! as a turkish i am fed up with this conservative government. enough is enough. when will turks learn they deserve something better than erdogan??
Turkey is becoming what they percived as a "beacon"" in the Arab world. they think there is a vacuum of leadership and Erdogan in his hashish dreams believes to become the moral guide in that world.somebody has to bring down Erdongan's dreams.first the EU should reject Turkey's admission, second to halt all the money the US gives them. Erdogan feels he can play a double game, to be friendly with Israel and US and on the other side to be cozy with Iran and Syria. He budy it doea not work this way.Next time you have a temblor dont ask for Israel to send people to rescue you, call the Syrians or the basij.
Israel should stop of trying to please the rest of the world, enough. There are so many producers in Israel than can make a ""real soap about Turks killing Armenians"" or how about Galipoli when those Turks behaved like animals towards British soldiers, or what the forgot already?.
When Likud members steal an election and then start shooting their own citizens in the streets, ban Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, CNN, and everything else, rape and torture opposition members and then execute them, or hang retarded teenagers in the public square - THEN all you terrorist groupies and Israel bashers can come talk to me. Meanwhile, your very predictable responses in every article do not amount to much. Are you not embarrassed by your own hypocrisy? Where is Goldstone's report on the Sri Lankans treatment of the Tamils. The Sri Lankans were cheered for their efforts!!! The Muslims have bombed more mosques than the Israelis ever have. Get some perspective people.
Anyone interested in filming a series of episodes showing the genocide of Armenians during WWI. Episode # could show Armenian civilians marched to a nearby prison in Mezireh by armed Turkish soldiers. Episode # could show how Armenians were marched out to the Syrian town of Deir ez-Zor and the surrounding desert. A good deal of evidence suggests that the Ottoman government did not provide any facilities or supplies to sustain the Armenians during their deportation, nor when they arrived.[50] By August 1915, The New York Times repeated an unattributed report that "the roads and the Euphrates are strewn with corpses of exiles. I am sure that Turkey would be very interested in airing such a program. Almost 100 years have gone by and Turkey is still in denial of its responsibility for unleashing the first genocide of the 20th century...... and this is a country that wants to join the EU...... Hope that Europe has better sense..... Jed Nightingale NYC
I'm quite sure that Israeli directors can do a fabulous, historically accurate piece on the Armenian genocide. Of course it should not change the names of either the murderers or the victims. Its time to do just that.
Freedom of speech is tantamount. Too bad the freedom is abused. In North America networks put on a disclaimer prior to showing programs that might be offensive to some viewers. The government won't step in so I wonder if there are any disclaimer laws set in as a buffer.
"Kurds are not allowed to speak their own language in Turkey. Armenian massacre is not allowed to be discussed among many other subjects that are taboo." That was true before the current government. But, as the government tried to access EU, it passes many laws against censorship over the past few years.
It was the moderator, not Peres, that cut off Erdogan's ditzy rambling nonsensical diatribe after the alloted time. To get back at Peres by ordering his TV station to create and air this outrageous propaganda piece is beyond belief. Western belief, that is. Turkey has fallen badly from the ideals of Attaturk.
... that was being considered Western and trusted by US and most of Europe? Chilling. At the very least, it is good Erdogan has laid his cards on the table for all to see.
Turkey is becoming more and more hostile to Israel. It's time for us to retaliate and to remind the Turks that they were the first in human history who commited a genocide against the Armenians in 1915
Once they suffer from the same violence as the Pakistanis, Iraqis and Afghanistanians are suffering from, they will learn to love Israel
They simply never show it.They were building their army and infrastructure to the point they will be able to dictate to US and Israel.
Turkey has a great history which is more than most of the powerfull countries.Not only it connects two big continents,it also has harmony of different cultures.We lived happily together so far and we will go on with''Peace at home,peace in the world!''
I used to think that they had more class than the Syrians.
I just spent a month in Istanbul, youtube is blocked for having anti turkish videos and talking about the armenian genocide is not allowed. Hypocrits.
Considering Turkey's history with the Armenians and Kurds, who are they to be doing this? If they want to continue like this, maybe Israel should stop accomodating Turkey for diplomatic reasons and recognize the Armenian genocide.
like it might enter the modern age standing for reason and fairness it elects an Islamist who sides with Iran and Syria. thanks for not joining the EU which is why Turkey was locked out.Turkey is going the wrong way and it is sad for its people that they will once again be subsumed in a mentality not unlike Iran. Turkey needs to get rid of its leader and The US needs to replace this new Carter and fast. all my friends regret voting for Obama just like with Carter and are looking forward to voting him out of office
The Israelis should now produce a film depicting the Armenian holocaust created by Turkey in the 1900 where millions were slaughtered.
and show how 'honorable' the Turks were then - they got a thin skin when it comes to armenia
Remember how a danish cartoon set off the muslim world. Those same people and I use that word loosely find no problem in calling israeli solider killers. They are members of a uniformed military reporting up to a civilian chain of command. Hamas is a terrorist group that report up to a terrorist group. Who are the real killers?
Israel too doesnt have censorship so perhaps the time has come for an independent film to be made and screened across the western world relating to the Armenian genocide carried out by the Turks
Such a movie may be a big seller in Turkey.
Methinks Israel doth protest too much! It's TV, for goodness sake! If Israel has simply ignored the programme, there wouldn't have been such attention brought to it...
Maybe Israel should look for a better making sence alliance. Israel, Greece, Cyprus, and Armenia. At that time the Turks will feel very secure I hope!
Yes, you know what Turkey has done and doing now, yet Israel doesn't recognize Armenian Genocide, even Jewish lobby was Turkey's best friend to help USA not to recognize it. Israel was again silent when thousands of Kurdish villages in eastern and south-eastern Turkey were burned and the people were forced to leave their home and land, Turkish military even burned the forests so that PKK cant hide in there. You were silent when these happened, and it is just hypocrite to mention them now.
No man(Eli), Kurdish people can speak their own language as a freedom in Turkey. But official language is Turkish. Let's come to Armenia... We are open to share our archieves but any armenian dont want to search this stuation. So you can easy understand. Turkish people just want to moved Armenian to safe place because lot of armenian killed a lot of kurds and turks...
Perhaps you can get the family of Iman Al Hams to act in your film
Kurds are not allowed to speak their own language in Turkey. Armenian massacre is not allowed to be discussed among many other subjects that are taboo.
Kurds are not allowed to speak their own language in Turkey. Armenian massacre is not allowed to be discussed among many other subjects that are taboo.
Israel should wash its hands of the Turks and place obstacles in the way of Israeli's who wish to vacation there. Turkey is sliding into Islamo-Fascism. Ataturk should be spinning in his grave!
No need to make a film like that we already watched those brutal realities during IDF atach to Gaza on TVs.
israel should make a film depicting the turkish soldiers behaving in that same way and than see how the turks react.