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TURKEY MARKS HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY
January 27, 2012
VOA News
Turkey's Chief Rabbi Izak Haleva (C) and Istanbul Governor Huseyin
Avni Mutlu (L) light candles, in memory of holocaust victims, during a
commemoration to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day at Neve
Shalom Synagogue in Istanbul, January 26, 2012..Turkey's observance
of International Holocaust Remembrance Day began with a broadcast of
a French documentary on the Holocaust on state run television.
Filmmaker Claude Lanzmann's Shoah was shown late Thursday, on the
eve of the observance.
Lanzmann says the broadcast marked the first time a predominantly
Muslim country has shown his 1985 biographical film of the Holocaust
era.
The nine-hour film was aired to help build understanding between
Muslims and Jews, and to combat denials that the Holocaust occurred.
In 2005, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution
designating January 27 as a day member countries honor victims of
the Holocaust.
Lanzmann's documentary aired at a sensitive time in Turkey's relations
with Israel and with Europe.
Turkey was outraged in 2010 when nine Israeli commandos stormed
a Turkish-led aid flotilla bound for Gaza and killed nine Turkish
activists. The confrontation caused a deterioration in relations
between Turkey and Israel.
The broadcast also comes amid an escalating dispute between Turkey
and France over a bill approved by the French Senate earlier this
week that makes it a crime to deny the mass killings of Armenians by
Turks nearly 100 years ago was genocide. France's lower house passed
the bill last month.
Armenia says 1.5 million Armenians were killed during WWI by troops
of Turkey's Ottoman Empire, which historians say was one of the
20th century's worst massacres. Turkey has acknowledged the loss of
Armenian lives, but says the death toll is exaggerated and does not
amount to genocide. It says the deaths were the result of civil war.
January 27, 2012
VOA News
Turkey's Chief Rabbi Izak Haleva (C) and Istanbul Governor Huseyin
Avni Mutlu (L) light candles, in memory of holocaust victims, during a
commemoration to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day at Neve
Shalom Synagogue in Istanbul, January 26, 2012..Turkey's observance
of International Holocaust Remembrance Day began with a broadcast of
a French documentary on the Holocaust on state run television.
Filmmaker Claude Lanzmann's Shoah was shown late Thursday, on the
eve of the observance.
Lanzmann says the broadcast marked the first time a predominantly
Muslim country has shown his 1985 biographical film of the Holocaust
era.
The nine-hour film was aired to help build understanding between
Muslims and Jews, and to combat denials that the Holocaust occurred.
In 2005, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution
designating January 27 as a day member countries honor victims of
the Holocaust.
Lanzmann's documentary aired at a sensitive time in Turkey's relations
with Israel and with Europe.
Turkey was outraged in 2010 when nine Israeli commandos stormed
a Turkish-led aid flotilla bound for Gaza and killed nine Turkish
activists. The confrontation caused a deterioration in relations
between Turkey and Israel.
The broadcast also comes amid an escalating dispute between Turkey
and France over a bill approved by the French Senate earlier this
week that makes it a crime to deny the mass killings of Armenians by
Turks nearly 100 years ago was genocide. France's lower house passed
the bill last month.
Armenia says 1.5 million Armenians were killed during WWI by troops
of Turkey's Ottoman Empire, which historians say was one of the
20th century's worst massacres. Turkey has acknowledged the loss of
Armenian lives, but says the death toll is exaggerated and does not
amount to genocide. It says the deaths were the result of civil war.