050426 - Turkish Group Protests Schwarzenegger Film

Turkish Group Protests Schwarzenegger Film
>Tue Apr 26,12:38 PM ET Entertainment - AP Gossip/Celebrity
ANKARA, Turkey - A Turkish group uniting hundreds of businesses and organizations demanded Tuesday that Arnold Schwarzenegger's movies are banned from Turkish television to protest the California governor's use of the term genocide to describe the massacre of Armenians by Turks at the time of World War I.

Schwarzenegger, a former actor best known for his role in "The Terminator," declared April 24 a "Day of Remembrance of the Armenian Genocide." California has one of the largest populations of diaspora Armenians.

An umbrella organization grouping some 300 Ankara-based associations, unions and businesses and led by the Ankara Chamber of Commerce, said it launched a petition to try and get the governor's films banned in Turkey.
"We condemn and protest movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger who declared April 24 a day to commemorate the Armenian genocide and accused Turks of genocide by acting under the influence of the Armenian lobby, and without researching historical truths," read a statement from Sinan Aygun, head of Ankara Chamber of Commerce.

"We don't want his films shown in Turkey," added the statement, which was faxed to the Associated Press.

Armenia says up to 1.5 million Armenians died or were killed as part of a genocidal campaign to force them out of eastern Turkey. Turkey acknowledges that large numbers of Armenians died, but says the overall figure is inflated and that the deaths occurred in civil unrest during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

V.V