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Turkey's 'Midnight Express' About Israel

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  • Turkey's 'Midnight Express' About Israel

    TURKEY'S 'MIDNIGHT EXPRESS' ABOUT ISRAEL
    Orhan Kemal Cengiz

    Al Arabiya TV
    http://www.alarabiya.net/views/2009/10/28/89543 .html
    Oct 28 2009
    UAE

    Have you seen the film "Midnight Express"? It's about an American
    who was caught in possession of drugs and sent to prison in Turkey.

    When I watched it, I was a little disappointed. I like Alan Parker's
    work, but I found "Midnight Express" below his usual artistic
    standard. Parker portrayed Turkish prisons as a man-made hell. This
    is not the part I found problematic. In the '70s, Turkish prisons
    were indeed terrible. The problem was that in the film every single
    Turkish character was portrayed as evil. This obvious bias turned
    this film into anti-Turkish propaganda.

    A recent debate over the TV series "Ayrılık," which caused a
    diplomatic row between Turkey and Israel, reminded me of "Midnight
    Express." Before this diplomatic crisis, I did not know Turkey's
    state-sponsored television channel TRT had been broadcasting this
    series for a while. I recently watched a video clip of the series on
    the Internet. It is a very cheap drama that portrays Israeli soldiers
    attacking Palestinians; the soldiers are brutal, sadistic people who
    kill children and so on. I did not watch the series, but I do not
    think this portrayal will show any good Israeli. It is the Turks'
    "Midnight Express" about Israel.

    A recent debate over the TV series "Ayrılık," which caused a
    diplomatic row between Turkey and Israel, reminded me of "Midnight
    Express." Before this diplomatic crisis, I did not know Turkey's
    state-sponsored television channel TRT had been broadcasting this
    series for a while. I recently watched a video clip of the series on
    the Internet. It is a very cheap drama that portrays Israeli soldiers
    attacking Palestinians; the soldiers are brutal, sadistic people who
    kill children and so on. I did not watch the series, but I do not
    think this portrayal will show any good Israeli. It is the Turks'
    "Midnight Express" about Israel.

    Let me clarify one thing: There is no doubt Israel has been
    systematically and on a widespread basis violating the Palestinians'
    basic human rights. These are facts established by international
    human rights NGOs and, very recently, by a UN report.

    However, I found Turkey's approach to this film quite problematic.

    First of all, it is still not possible for Turkish filmmakers to
    shoot this kind of film in the context of human rights violations
    perpetrated by Turkish security forces. If you make a film in Turkey
    showing "sadistic" Turkish soldiers burning a Kurdish village,
    it is very likely that you can get into legal trouble for insulting
    "Turkishness" or the military. Second, Turkey is not a country that can
    tolerate a similar film about its problems made by another country. For
    example, had Israel broadcast a film on Israeli state-sponsored TV
    about massacres of Armenians, our officers would consider cutting
    all diplomatic ties with Israel. Third, these kinds of films do not
    help in promoting human rights awareness or any other sensible social
    awareness. They only use graphic images of violence and resort to
    cheap emotional exploitation.

    The problems, human rights violations and handicaps of others are
    always much easier to handle but not useful at all. What is progressive
    is to have insight into your own problems first. If Turkish state
    television would really like to contribute to the promotion of human
    rights, it can prepare a documentary on the destruction of Kurdish
    villages, for example. Or, if they really want to kill two birds with
    one stone, they can shoot a documentary about Israeli peace and human
    rights movements. Israel has a very strong and viable civil society
    sector in the human rights field. If Turkish television stations
    introduce these movements to the Turkish public, they will not only
    show the humane side of Israel but can also demonstrate to Turkish
    civil society how unbiased NGOs act and work even in the most intense
    and conflict-ridden situations.

    "Midnight Express"-type films do not contribute to promoting any kind
    of sensitivity for human rights or a real empathy for human suffering.

    They just make us angry; they cause absolute labeling. They make us
    anti-Turkish, anti-Jewish, anti-American and so on.

    I want to finish this article on a positive note. While planning to
    write this article, I came across an interview Parker gave to the
    Hartford Courant on Oct. 25. I like the way he described Turkey:

    "But visiting Turkey was an experience. It's a modern world mixed
    together with ancient history. If you're interested in history, how
    could you not want to visit Troy, Ephesus and Gallipoli? ... I was
    just fascinated by the place. Ä°stanbul has been the meeting point
    where East touches West for centuries, and you can feel the energy
    of this cultural collision just walking through the city."

    I hope Parker will shoot another film about Turkey, showing its
    positive and negative sides at the same time. Seeing Ä°stanbul through
    his camera lens is very interesting indeed!

    *Published in Turkey's TODAY'S ZAMAN on Oct. 28.
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