The 100th anniversary of the birth of the republic will be celebrated in Turkey on 29 October. For the occasion, the US streaming platform Disney+ should have released Atatürk, a series of 6 episodes on the story of the “founding father” of modern Turkey: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. However, Disney+ has made it known that it has decided not to distribute the series anymore, causing a lot of criticism and the launch of an investigation by the Turkish Supreme Council of Radio and Television (the Turkish government agency that deals with regulating radio and television broadcasts).
Some institutional representatives have strongly criticized Disney+, arguing that it has succumbed to pressure from the Armenian community, which holds Atatürk among those responsible for the genocide carried out against Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. For over a century, Turkey, heir to the Ottoman Empire, has refused to admit the genocide of the Armenians, which has also been recognized as such by 34 countries and by the European Parliament.
Disney + has not confirmed or denied this hypothesis, and explained its decision by simply saying that it “has reviewed its content distribution strategy”.
In Turkey Atatürk is considered a national hero, he is celebrated with statues in all major cities and his image can be found hanging in offices, restaurants and homes across the country. There is also a law that provides for sentences of up to three years in prison for anyone who insults his memory. Ömer Çelik, spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party, he defined Disney+’s decision “disrespectful” towards the values of the republic and the Turkish nation.
During the years of the genocide, which began in 1915, Atatürk was a military commander defending the Ottoman Empire from British attacks on the Gallipoli peninsula: he became prime minister five years later, in 1920. According to Armenian associations that have criticized the TV series, however, celebrating his figure is a way of ignoring his complicity with the genocide.
Aram Hamparian, head of the Armenian National Committee of America, the largest Armenian-American organization in the United States campaigning against Disney+’s distribution of the series, told Politico that “everything that looks at Atatürk without placing his responsibility for the genocide at the center risks normalizing what he did”.
Disney + has announced that the Atatürk series will still be distributed by Fox, which has been part of the Disney group since 2019: a first part will air on October 29 on a Fox channel and the second will be released two months later in cinemas. The series will then be revived on television next summer.