ANKARA, 28 December 2003 — A Turkish minister yesterday said he was in favor of allowing a controversial movie on the mass killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire to be screened in the country, but played it down as “ridiculous propaganda,” Anatolia news agency reported.
Culture and Tourism Minister Erkan Mumcu said he welcomed a decision by a cinema watchdog to allow the movie “Ararat” by Canadian director Atom Egoyan, who is of Armenian descent, to be shown in Turkish theatres.
“If some people are curious, they can go and see it... According to information I have... it is a film which is very much didactic and can even be described as ridiculous propaganda,” Mumcu said in the southern town of Kemer, according to Anatolia.
The massacres of Armenians during World War I is one of the most controversial episodes in Turkish history. The mass-selling daily Hurriyet Saturday quoted Mumcu as saying that “one or two scenes of offensive quality” had been censored in the film, which is expected to hit the screens in mid-January.
