Turkey’s governing party has criticized a reported decision by Walt Disney Co’s Disney+ not to broadcast a documentary series about modern Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk on its streaming service.
Ebubekir Sahin, chairman of Turkey’s television watchdog RTUK, announced the probe on Tuesday night in a statement, describing Ataturk as “our most important social value”.
The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) called on Disney+ in June to cancel the show, saying that it “glorifies a Turkish dictator and genocide killer”. Last month, Disney+ Turkey announced the Ataturk series would be on air “very soon”.
Several Turkish and Armenian news reports said Disney had decided to cancel the series, including the Armenian independent media outlet 301, saying the decision was influenced by the lobbying activities of ANCA.
In May 1915, Ottoman commanders began the mass deportation of Armenians from eastern Turkey. Armenia has claimed some 1.5 million ethnic Armenians died in massacres or of starvation and exhaustion in the desert.
Turkey has disputed the number, but acknowledges that killings did take place. However, Turkey has said that deaths occurred on all sides in the context of the conflict going on at the time, and refuses to recognize the deaths as a “genocide”.
Source from www.aljazeera.com