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Turkeyâ€™s Education Ministry banned screening of the documentary â€œSari Gelin â€“ true of the Armenian problemâ€ in the secondary schools

24 February 2009 16:46 (UTC +04:00)

Ankara -APA. Turkish education ministry banned the screening of documentary â€œSari Gelin â€“ true of the Armenian problemâ€ about the false â€œArmenian genocideâ€ in the secondary schools. The decision was made after the protests of Armenians living in Turkey and number of non-governmental organizations, APA reports. The ministry said the documentary was sent to the school not as the direct, but supportive training aid. â€œThe minister of education found out that use of material stepped over the bounds of goal and banned spread of DVDs in the schoolsâ€.
Armenian community of Turkey asked Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to ban the screening of the documentary film. â€œIf you see important usefulness of this film for Turkish children, please ban its screening in the Armenian schools to protect the Armenian children from the feelings of oppression, isolation and guiltiness. Please to free the Armenian children educating in the public schools from watching this filmâ€.

The project of â€œSari Gelin â€“ true of the Armenian problemâ€ started in 1999 and lasted for 4 years. The film was shot in Turkey, Azerbaijan (Baku, Kalbajar), Armenia (Iravan, Gumru), Georgia, Russia, USA, Germany, Austria, Australia, France, Britain, Italia, Hungary, Lebanon and Syria. Turkish, Azerbaijani, Georgia. Russian, US, British, German, Austrian, Italian, French, Lebanese and Syrian archives were used in the film. The documentary, which is showing how the Armenian armed formations attacked and burned the Turkish villages in 1915, tortured and killed the people. The film was shown on TRT in 2003-2004. Turkish Coordination Council against the groundless genocide claims decided on March 15, 2007 to send DVDs to the Ministry of Education. The ministry received 56 388 DVDs on December 17, 2007 and spread the DVDs among the schools in summer of 2008.