By Fercan Yalinkilic and Ayla Albayrak<\/p>\n
ISTANBUL\u2013Hollywood film directors got a not-so-warm welcome from Turkish police on the weekend when they joined a protest while visiting Istanbul as guests of the city\u2019s annual international film festival.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, a group of acclaimed international filmmakers, including Mike Newell, Constantinos \u201cCosta\u201d Gavras and Marco Bechis, were met by police tear gas and water cannons when they joined some 2,000 people marching to protest against plans to replace a 90-year old Istanbul cinema with a shopping mall. Four people were arrested and later charged, including a Turkish member of the International Federation of Film Critics, Berke Gol. Turkish TV channels showed footage of one policeman grabbing the throat of Mr. Gol, who has been charged with \u201cillegal meeting and protest\u201d as well as resisting police and destroying public property.<\/p>\n
Turkish newspapers on Monday carried banner headlines about the altercation, which diverted attention from Istanbul\u2019s film festival, which is taking place throughout April to showcase some of the best Turkish and international cinema. One leading daily called the protest \u201ca battle,\u201d while Turkey\u2019s best-known film critic, Atilla Dorsay, said Monday that he would abandon his daily column in solidarity with protesters, citing his frustration with his \u201cinability to change anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Gavras and the film federation, known as FIPRESCI, released statements accusing the police of responding harshly to a peaceful protest.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe violence occurred after a peaceful demonstration, and was triggered by an unapparent cause,\u201d said Mr. Gavras, who acknowledged participating in the protest. \u201cThe peaceful protesters were unjustly attacked by the police with tear gas and water cannon, simply for insisting to enter the historical building,\u201d FIPRESCI said.<\/p>\n
Interior Minister Muammer G\u00fcler said the actions of the police were being investigated, but added that there were \u201cprovocateurs\u201d among the protesters who weren\u2019t artists and who had illegally entered the cinema building previously.<\/p>\n
Demonstrators were protesting to save Istanbul\u2019s Emek movie theater, an art-nouveau building opened in 1924. The cinema has become a symbol of Istanbul\u2019s cultural heritage, which many say is being sacrificed to give way for shopping malls and sprawling apartment complexes in the fast-growing metropolis. Turkish filmmakers, who have protested for nearly three years to save the theater, say it holds a special place in Turkey\u2019s storied film history, and accuse the government of suppressing their freedom of speech.<\/p>\n
Sunday\u2019s demonstration isn\u2019t the first time representatives of Turkey\u2019s performing-arts sector have held protests. Last year, Turkish artists and theater fans demonstrated against government\u2019s plans to privatize state theaters, another move seen as an attempt by the Islamic-rooted government to retain control over theater art, traditionally dominated by Turkey\u2019s secular, Westernized upper class.<\/p>\n
The government said the move was intended to make theater more competitive and less reliant on state subsidies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Fercan Yalinkilic and Ayla Albayrak ISTANBUL\u2013Hollywood film directors got a not-so-warm welcome from Turkish police on the weekend when they joined a protest while visiting Istanbul as guests of the city\u2019s annual international film festival. On Sunday, a group of acclaimed international filmmakers, including Mike Newell, Constantinos \u201cCosta\u201d Gavras and Marco Bechis, were met […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":23030,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2939],"tags":[6795,4404],"class_list":["post-69426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultureart","tag-hollywood","tag-turkish-film-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}