Turkey gives in to hysteria over Genocide movie screening in Sweden

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey’s embassy in Stockholm has asked Sweden’s TV4 television network to pull a documentary on the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire, urging the channel to “reconsider” its decision because the film “will fail to serve the principle of objectivity.”

Ahead of the broadcast of a documentary titled “Seyfo 1915 – The Assyrian Genocide,” TV4 said it received an email from Turkish embassy press officer Arif Gulen, in which he opposes the film’s use of the term “genocide,” which is often used to describe the tragic death of Armenians at the hands of Ottoman Turks during WWI. The letter, which was subsequently published on TV4’s official website, asks the station to “reconsider your decision on broadcasting of the… documentary film with a balanced and sensible attitude,” while cautioning that “only a competent international tribunal can determine whether a particular event is genocide,” RT says.

His statement provoked a sharp reaction from the broadcaster, which denounced Gulen’s attempt to pressure the channel to cancel its broadcast, while promising to air the documentary despite the warning.

“We can never accept this. We will protest against any attempt to exert pressure that threatens freedom of expression,” said TV4’s program director, Viveka Hansson, in a written statement on the company’s website.

Swedish MP and Left Party chairman Jonas Sjöstedt also weighed in on the mounting controversy, urging the Swedish government to fend off Turkey’s attack on the national media.

“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,” he said, adding that Stockholm 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.”