Turkey’s cinema sector reels over probes
The Turkish authorities have launched a judicial probe into more than 400 people involved in the country’s cinema industry, fueling concern that the arts and culture realm is next in line for purges.
The judicial onslaught that hit Turkish academics and journalists after the failed coup attempt in July 2016 has now turned to actors, directors, screenwriters and other members of the country’s cinema industry.
Hundreds of academics had signed a Peace Declaration in January 2016, calling for an end to a military crackdown against Kurdish militants in residential areas in the Kurdish-majority southeast that claimed also civilian lives and devastated cities and towns. The signatories immediately faced judicial probes and many lost their jobs in the purges that followed the July 15 putsch. Now, the authorities have launched an investigation into 433 members of the cinema industry who had signed a joint statement in support of the academics.
