When state-owned Turkish Airlines saw that Films from the South festival would screen an Armenian film, they withdrew their sponsorship of the festival, says festival director. Airline refutes this argument.
Oslo’s biggest film festival, the international Films from the South, is held these days for the 25th time in the row. Now without the state-owned Turkish company Turkish Airlines as a sponsor, contrary to what was originally planned.
“Ahead of this year’s festival, we were in contact with Turkish Airlines about a sponsorship deal. We had agreed and written the draft agreement, when Turkish Airlines’ representatives suddenly withdrew. In the time between the preparation of the contract and its planned signing, they saw the event program and discovered that we screen the Armenian film “One, Two, Three.” We think that’s why they withdrew,” says festival director Lasse Skagen to Dagsavisen daily.
Full editorial freedom
This year marks the anniversary of the genocide committed by Turkey against 1-1.5 million Armenians. This is still a highly controversial historical event, which Turkey refuses to call genocide. Relationship between neighboring Turkey and Armenia is fraught with conflict.
We have been clarifying with Turkish Airlines repeatedly that we obviously should have full editorial freedom over the program of Films from the South. Early in the process they asked to see the Turkish films we would show, which they did, with a clear message that they did not have the option to object to, or make any changes in the selection, says Skagen.
Had to remove the logo
Negotiations continued, Turkish Airlines suggested a deal.
We answered that we would accept the deal. Then Turkish Airlines asked to see the whole event program. They received the program with the same reminder about our editorial freedom as before. After checking the event program, it was only the signing of the agreement left, however, they chose to withdraw from the entire agreement. It happened so late right before the festival would begin, that their logo was already laid ready for printing in our festival program, and counted in the expenses, says Skagen.
Armenian dance film
He is convinced that the Armenian film at this year’s festival program is the reason.
“One, Two, Three is a documentary about some pensioners in Armenian, who begin dance lessons. It is not political, raises no critical questions towards Turkey whatsoever. Furthermore, had that been the case, the principles from our side would have been similarly clearly put forward. I am quite shocked at how a Turkish state-owned company behaves just because something is about Armenia. In all my years I have never experienced anything like this. This is a kind of censorship we in the Films from South takes great distance from. The minister of Culture is very keen on the culture segment securing private sponsorship, but for us it is absolutely impossible to give our editorial freedom for obtaining sponsors,” says Skagen.
Economic reasoning
The manager of Turkish Airlines office in Norway, Selim Soyer, rejects Skagen’s claims.
“The reason why we withdrew from the sponsorship agreement was that it was too expensive for us. It’s not about Armenia. Just look at Oslo World Music Festival. We sponsor them, and they have both Armenian and Kurdish artists on the program. The problem was that we wanted to sponsor Films from the South with tickets, while they wanted money. It did not suit us. But we do not carry out any censorship whatsoever,” Soyer told to Dagsavisen daily.
Own figures
Films from the South’s description of this process is differing drastically.
– Turkish Airlines even suggested how the allocation should be between tickets and money. The contract they abandoned at the very last minute over the phone, was based on the numbers from the their last e-mail to us. It is difficult to find reasons other than political ones here, says Lasse Skagen.
The newspaper got access to emails confirming that Turkish Airlines first came up with an offer, then chose to withdraw soon after they had seen this year’s full program of the festival.
Oslo World Music Festival confirms that Turkish Airlines is one of their many sponsors, and that several Armenian artists attended the event Music Freedom Day in March, which is part of their year-round arrangements. Festival director Alexandra Archetti Stølen strongly emphasizes that they also operate with full editorial freedom, and would never allow to be dictated by sponsors or others to choose or not to choose any given artist, regardless of country of origin.
