TURKEY: MOVIE DEPICTING "REAL" ATATURK EVOKES

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ANKARA 001984

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/14/2018
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL OSCE TU
SUBJECT: TURKEY: MOVIE DEPICTING "REAL" ATATURK EVOKES
VISCERAL RESPONSES

Classified By: POL Counselor Daniel O'Grady, reasons 1.4 (b,d)


1. (C) Summary: Turkey's current box-office leader "Mustafa"
is stirring emotions due to its portrayal of the modern
Turkish Republic's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk as a lonely,
hard-drinking man beset by doubts. After opening to sold out
shows and rave reviews, hard-line Kemalist critics launched a
campaign of vicious media and Internet attacks against
filmmaker Can Dundar for allegedly denigrating Turkey's
founding father. Turkish democrats have raised their voices
in defense of what they believe is a bold attempt by Dundar
to present an intimate picture of a man whose psychological
attributes remain unknown to Turks despite his physical
omnipresence throughout Turkey through statues, busts and
photographs. The harsh visceral reaction to "Mustafa" shows
that it is still very difficult to conduct a level-headed
discussion about sensitive matters of Turkish history.
Still, the willingness of many to view, discuss, and even
defend Dundar's film reflects Turkey's ongoing, and at times
painful, modernization. End summary.

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Box-office Hit "Mustafa" Shows a "Human" Ataturk
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2. (U) The new movie "Mustafa" opened October 29 -- the 85th
anniversary of the Turkish Republic -- to sold out theaters,
standing ovations, and rave reviews but was soon attacked by
Kemalists and ultranationalists. The film, which chronicles
Ataturk's life from childhood to his death on November 10,
1983, presents an intimate and flawed man who writes love
letters during the battle of Gallipoli, dances, drinks raki,
wanders his palaces in lonely despair, and becomes more
withdrawn as he ages and is beset by illness. Asked why he
made the film, director Can Dundar, an esteemed "Milliyet"
journalists and documentary film-maker who also made a
popular 1993 documentary about Ataturk, told reporters, "I
wanted to present Mustafa Kemal in a more intimate,
affectionate light. All those statues, busts and flags have
created a leader devoid of human qualities."

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Enraged Kemalists Urge Boycott, Sue Director
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3. (U) After the initial positive reception, the film came
under a storm of criticism. Opposition Republican People's
Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal and Nationalist Action Party
(MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli claimed the movie degraded
Ataturk. Israfil Kumbasar, columnist for ultranationalist
"Yeni Cag", wrote, "Ataturk raised up a people about to be
erased from history, and here he is presented as a drunken
debaucher. Would you accept such a portrait of Churchill?"
Some critics described the movie as part of a Western-backed
plot to weaken Turkey's military in favor of "enlightened
Islam." Court of Appeals Chief Prosecutor Sabih Kanadoglu
commented cryptically that the movie was made "upon orders"
of others. "Vatan's" Yigit Bulut wrote, "the United States
treated our soldiers like common criminals in Iraq. This
film is part of the same strategy." Bulut urged his readers,
"Do not watch this documentary, dissuade others from watching
it, but above all do not allow it to plant seeds belittling
Ataturk in your children's minds." Fearing a loss of
customers, Turkcell, the country's main mobile phone
provider, pulled out of a sponsorship deal.


4. (SBU) Professor Ahmet Ercan, a member of the Ataturk
Thought Association and Orhan Kural, President of Turkey's
Anti-Smoking Association, filed a criminal complaint November
10 (the anniversary of Ataturk's death) against Dundar. The
complaint alleges that the film promotes smoking and drinking
by youths by repeatedly showing Ataturk imbibing raki and
chain smoking. Showing his motives go well beyond preventing
smoking, Ercan told reporters that the movie deserves to be
banned because it erodes the legacy of Ataturk, ridicules the
Turkish nation, and promotes the division of Turkey.


5. (U) Bombastic emails criticizing the film have been
furiously circulating the Web. In one message, Bilkent
University graduate student Ates Akaydin claims, "the film
denigrates Ataturk by portraying him as an atheist Communist

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and fascist dictator who promised autonomy to Kurds."
Akaydin asserts that the "true dictator" is an AKP government
that is accusing the Republic's defenders of trying to
perpetrate a coup." Another popular email states that the
movie is an attempt by "the imperial powers who have been
trying to run the Middle East to transform Turkey and
initiate an offensive against the Turkish military and
Ataturk."

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Praise for Director's Daring Approach
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6. (U) Praising Dundar, journalist Mehmet Ali Birand wrote
October 29, "Dundar has now torn down the stone statues of
official ideology and shown us the human side of Ataturk,
whom we had always seen as a stern, serious or even severe
leader. We now see him as a man who wrote wonderful letters
in French to his beloved, drank, sang, and danced with
friends; a pragmatic leader who cooperated with people of
opposing views. Dundar has opened the doors of an ivory cage
in which we shut ourselves for 70 years." Ipek Calislar, an
author acquitted for insulting Ataturk in the biography she
wrote about his wife, told reporters that the harsh criticism
is stifling reasoned debate and epitomizes a close-minded
attitude that continues to hinder Turkey's modernization.


7. (C) In his November 9 "Radikal" column, retired Ankara
University Professor Baskin Oran wrote that the film was the
first portrayal of Ataturk as a real person, after decades of
idolizing him in a religious manner, "as if he were the son
of God." The criticism of Dundar, Oran stated, was backward
thinking that itself harms the legacy of Ataturk. We met
with Oran November 10. He told us that the ultranationalist
backlash against the film is indicative of a wave of
nationalism that has swept Turkey over the past several years
and that has made the vote-seeking Justice and Development
Party (AKP) hesitant to press ahead with an agenda of
democratizing reforms.

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New Generation's More Rational Reaction
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8. (C) Konya's Selcuk University Professor Birol Akgun told
us that he has seen no sign among his undergraduate students
of the irrationalism prevalent in the wider societal debate
about the movie. Although they are mostly conservative
nationalists who deeply respect Ataturk, his students analyze
the movie rationally and discuss its merits and shortcomings
in a respectful manner. Akgun believes this new generation
is more pragmatic and less idealistic than their elders, and
also possessing of a greater self-confidence about Turkey's
position in the world. Akgun said he is optimistic that
these youths will overcome the insecurities of older
generations and display more openness to discussing
previously taboo topics.

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Comment: Debate Shows Maturing of Turkish Society
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9. (C) "Mustafa" is remarkable for being the first film that
dares to deal with the personal shortcomings of Ataturk in a
country where citizens are still convicted for making
statements deemed to be insulting to Turkey's revered
founding father, and where Ataturk's diaries and letters
remain in military archives out of public view. The strong
emotional reactions to the movie are an outgrowth of a larger
debate over where the country is headed, as democratic
reforms related to Turkey's European Union accession are
forcing Turks to grapple with the meaning of secularism and
nationalism. In a country where children continue to be
reared in a rigid educational environment that deifies
Ataturk, many Turks remain reluctant to consider the flaws
and mistakes of their forefathers. But Dundar's willingness
to tackle this previously taboo topic, and the debate
"Mustafa" has engendered, gives evidence of a maturing
Turkish society that is slowly, and at times painfully,
beginning to come to terms with its history.


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WILSON