State TV censures dialogue on Alevis, Sunnis

ISTANBUL

Photo shows the main character from the movie. Hürriyet photo

Turkey's state broadcaster TRT recently censured a section of dialogue discussing the sectarian affiliation of a movie character following his dramatized conversion to Islam, daily Hürriyet reported.
 
In the 2006 film “Killing the Shadows” (Hacivat Karagöz Neden Öldürüldü), which focuses on two legendary characters from Turkish shadow theater, Hacivat and Karagöz, one of the characters asks another, identified as Eredna, whether he has converted to Islam.
 
Eredna confirms that he has, prompting the former to ask, “Alevi or Sunni?"
 
Eredna then responds by saying he "has left the [matter] to the ulama” and that he was awaiting an answer.
 
Both lines were cut out of the movie during its airing on TRT, enraging the movie's director, Ezel Akay, who accused the channel of having political motives.
 
"It's a shame for Turkey, for cinema, for art and for the age we live in," Akay said.
 
TRT caused other public outrage recently when a presenter censored John Lennon’s iconic song “Imagine” at the closing ceremonies for the 2012 London Olympics by refusing to translate the portion of the song that called for a world without religion.
 
The verses of the song which called for people to imagine a world with no countries and no reason to kill or die for were correctly translated into Turkish, but the presenter chose not to deliver the part where Lennon sang for "no religion."