CHP municipality cancels film festival after row over censorship
Turkey's main opposition CHP's Antalya Municipality cancelled 60-year-old Golden Orange Film Festival after the Culture Ministry's pressures about a political documentary titled ''The Decree (Kanun Hükmü).'' The government deemed the movie about about the struggle of two civil servants dismissed by a decree-law after the 2016 coup attempt as ''terrorist propaganda.''
Duvar English
Southern Turkey's Antalya Municipality run by the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) on Sept. 29 cancelled 60-year-old Golden Orange Film Festival after a controversy over a political documentary named ''The Decree (Kanun Hükmü).''
"I regret to inform filmgoers that we cancelled this year's Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival scheduled for Oct. 7-14 due to events beyond our control," Antalya Mayor Muhittin Böcek said in a post on X.
The festival had previously been canceled only after the military coup of Sept. 12, 1980.
The festival, Turkey's most prestigious, last week removed documentary about a physician and a teacher who were dismissed from their government jobs under a state of emergency after a failed coup attempt in Turkey in 2016.
The festival on Sept. 28 reversed that decision after many directors withdrew films from the festival and jury members resigned, saying they were protesting censorship and threats to artistic expression."
Turkey's Culture and Tourism Ministry withdrew its support from the festival on Sept. 28, accusing the organisers of allowing "terror propaganda." The festival then eliminated the documentary again and the city on Sept. 29 cancelled the entire festival.
Nejla Demirci, the director of the documentary, rejected the government's propaganda accusation, saying that none of the featured people was convicted of any crime.
After the failed coup, the government dismissed more than 125,000 state employees, saying they were connected to the coup attempt and defending the move as necessary for national security. Critics said the Turkish government used the failed putsch as a pretext to quash dissent.