Cyprus Mail 2 September 2024 - by Katy Turner
Upset over streaming platform Netflix’s decision to air the series Famagusta spread to Turkey on Monday, with multiple government figures expressing their displeasure.
Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz took to X, saying, “digital broadcasting platforms must not be used as tools for Greek Cypriot propaganda.”
He turned his attention to Eoka, saying the group had “attempted a coup d’état with dreams of Enosis, and massacred Turkish Cypriots, children and the elderly, indiscriminately.
“That was not a movie, it was real. The traces of this cruelty are still visible today,” he said.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s foreign ministry issued a statement, describing the series as “dark propaganda” which “distorted historical facts”.
“The series constitutes a great disrespect to the precious memories of the Turkish Cypriots who were massacred by bloodthirsty Greek Cypriot gangs between 1963 and 1974,” it said, adding the series was a “futile attempt to present the facts differently than they are”.
Later, Turkish Deputy Culture Minister Batuhan Mumcu said he was “deeply disturbed” by the series and added that it “tells a distorted story” of 1974, “disregards historical facts”, and “unfairly slanders the Turkish soldiers who brought peace to the island”.
“It is unacceptable for a platform like Netflix, which appeals to a wide audience, to present historical events in such a distorted manner. Such misleading and untrue content poses a danger of creating false perceptions, especially in the minds of younger generations,” he said.
The show will land on Netflix on September 20 and is based on a woman trying to flee with a baby in her arms as the invasion was in full swing.
But she falls down and is knocked out. When she wakes up, her baby has been taken.
Fifty years later, she and her husband are still trying to find their lost child.
The comments from Turkey come after Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar had expressed his disquiet at the series, saying, “the Cyprus issue never started in 1974” and that Turkey’s actions on the island in that year “saved the Turkish Cypriots from genocide.
“Before 1974, Turkish Cypriots suffered from various massacres here, they were buried alive. Similar events to what is happening in Gaza today took place in Cyprus and the whole world just looked on,” he added.
He also called for Turkish Cypriots to “make a different series to tell our own story”, and added “in return, we have to show the truth of the matter with a counter series”.
Such a series had been created in 2021, when Turkish public broadcaster TRT aired a show first called Bir Zamanlar Kibris (Once Upon a Time in Cyprus) and then Kibris: Zafere Dogru (Cyprus: Towards Victory).
That series had depicted events on the island between 1963 and 1974 but was not universally well received.
Newspaper Halkin Sesi, which was founded by Cyprus’ first Vice President Fazil Kucuk, described the series as “disrespectful towards our leader and historical facts”, while Kucuk’s son Mehmet Kucuk said his father was “virtually ignored” in the series.
“[Kucuk] is presented as a secondary or tertiary character, as a vague character,” he added.
Meanwhile, late Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash’s daughter Ender Denktash Vangol also criticised the series.
She pointed out that Eoka leader George Grivas was not in Cyprus during much of the time in which the series was set, and also criticised other parts of the series she saw as incongruent with reality.
She criticised the series for portraying Turkish Cypriots as “a community just waiting to be saved” by Turkey.
