Islamic Middle East Blog

•Jordan Bach-Lombardo, 11/16/08

•”A Risky New Film On Ataturk”, video report from the New York Times

•http://video.nytimes.com/, specific video link in scroll box on upper right

• Turkish director Can Dündar recently released a documentary about Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the father of modern Turkey.  To us in the United States, this may not seem monumental, but in Turkey, where Ataturk is so revered that to criticize his memory is a crime, to present anything even somewhat dubious about Ataturk is a risky undertaking.  Drawing on Ataturk’s letters and diaries that had been sealed from the public in military archives, the movie reflects “a man with his disappointments, his victories, and his failures as a husband and a little child,” Dündar says, showing the human side of a man usually presented as almost god-like.  The movie opened on October 29^th, National Day in Turkey, a symbolic date of release for a documentary that some see as blasphemous.  Reaction to the film has been mixed, being equally supported and opposed in all segments of Turkish society.  There has not been any official reaction yet.

• One quote about the documentary stuck out to me, about how this film represented a “step forward” for Turkish society.  It made me remember a class we had when we talked about whether or not Turkey should be admitted to the EU.  This, it seems, is one of the major road blocks on that path for Turkey.  It leads me to ask the question, “Do you think that Turkey should be allowed to become a part of the EU?”  (This question is more directed at the NMHers just because I haven’t heard their ideas yet, but if PA students want to chime in they should because maybe some new ideas will have been formed since we last talked about this.)