Veteran cinema writer Dorsay resigns after protest of iconic Emek’s demolition

ISTANBUL

Atilla Dorsay. Hürriyet Photo

Prominent film critic and writer Atilla Dorsay has announced his resignation from Turkish daily Sabah in his column after yesterday’s protest against the demolition of Istanbul’s iconic Emek Cinema. Dorsay bid farewell to his readers referring a previous article in which he said, “If Emek is out, I am out, too.”
 
“The cinema itself and also the cultural foundation, historical preservation and the lifestyle it symbolized were important. Today Emek not exist,” Dorsay wrote. “We could not explain its real meaning and symbolic importance.”

Yesterday police sprayed water and tear gas to disperse a group of thousands, including Greek-French director Costa-Gavras and many actors, who had marched on İstiklal Avenue in support of Emek Cinema.

‘Wise person,’ director Yılmaz Erdoğan blasts police on Twitter

Actor and director Yılmaz Erdoğan, who was selected as one of the 63 “wise persons” who are set to support the ongoing peace process between the Turkish government and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), blasted the attitude of police.

“In this period in which artists have been asked to make their contributions to peace, I condemn and protest the treatment of the artistic community that wanted to protect their movie theater,” Erdoğan wrote on his Twitter account.