Provocative video makes headlines

Monday, September 17, 2007

ISTANBUL - Turkish Daily News

A video prepared for a song, the lyrics of which praised O.S., the teenager who murdered Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, and Y.H., one of the inciters behind the assassination was posted on the hugely popular video-sharing Web site Youtube, creating controversy in Turkey, as many branded it as ultra-nationalist hate propaganda.

The video quickly received a high number of user hits. Thousands of people sent the link to each other, especially on Friday, as the issue marked the agenda in many e-mail groups. Finally, the amateur video made it to the headlines of mass circulation newspapers yesterday.

While the song mentioned the names in different contexts, in the video the photograph of murderer Oğun and inciter Yasin are seen. In the lyrics, meanwhile, there is a direct threat to those who “support Armenians,” saying “they will be taken care of.”

As these words are heard, the now infamous photograph of Dink, right after he was gunned down, lying on the ground and covered with newspaper pages, is seen.

Many targeted

The video not only praises those involved in Dink's assassination but also shows photographs of author Orhan Pamuk, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, musician, author and columnist Zülfü Livaneli, folk music singer Selda Bağcan, and former president Ahmet Necdet Sezer, labeling all as “betrayers.”

The lyrics of the song named “Do Not Make Plans” was written by an ultra nationalist poet, Ozan Arif and is sung by Ismail Türüt, a well-known singer. But ultra nationalists unrelated to the two supposedly prepared the video. There are nearly 10 different versions of the video being broadcast on Youtube, but the version that created reactions around Turkey was removed yesterday.

Claiming that the lyrics written by Arif were manipulated in the video, Türüt, talking to the daily Milliyet, said: “A journalist called me and asked about the video. I do not even know what Youtube is. Later we looked at the site with my wife. I was shocked when I watched it. I did not like what I saw.”

He stated that he does not know the producers of the video, so he is unable to file a complaint about them. “The government would know the technical details of the issue. Let it search for those who are responsible for this and punish them.”

Call to prosecutors

Meanwhile, Arif told daily Sabah that he wrote the lyrics because Türüt asked him to. He also claimed he did not know about the video. “I stick to each word and each line of this song,” he said.

On Friday, the video came to the attention of human rights advocates as well. The real problem was “how prosecutors, who launch many cases under the infamous article 301 of Turkish penal code, did not do anything about the song or the video,” said Levent Şensever, a member of the “Say No to Racism and Nationalism Platform.”

Dink's lawyers are preparing to file a complaint about the song and the video. One of Dink's lawyers asked the prosecutors “what they were waiting for” and said the video incites people to commit hate crimes by abusing race and religion and by praising a murderer.

This Thursday, the Human Rights Association and many other organizations will meet in front of the Sultanahmet Court at 1:00 p.m. and file a joint complaint against Türüt and Arif.

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=83642