After Germany, Denmark and Sweden, Erdogan Takes on Swiss Art Exhibition

In a further sign of his anger at being mocked by artists abroad, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has formally complained to the Swiss over a photograph in an exhibition which purports to blame him for the death of a Turkish teenager.

The photograph — on display at the Place des Nations in Geneva — is by Swiss-Turkish photographer Demir Sönmez, who is of Kurdish and Armenian origin. It shows a banner from March 2014, which proclaimed that Erdogan was responsible for the death of a teenager on the Taksim square in Istanbul in June 2013. The caption on the photo reads: "My name is Berkin Elvan. The police killed me on the orders of the Turkish prime minister."

Türkiye, Cenevreli fotoğrafçı Demir Sönmez'in #BerkinElvan'lı afişinin kaldırılmasını istedi:https://t.co/UNCb7Q6d6z pic.twitter.com/JM0qQlkQ1u

— DW TÜRKÇE (@dw_turkce) April 26, 2016​

The Turkish ambassador in Switzerland has lodged a formal complaint against the photo, calling for it to be removed from the exhibition. However, Geneva's local government said it stood by the exhibition — supported by campaign group Reporters Without Borders — which "participates towards freedom of expression and highlights Geneva's role as capital of human rights."

A protester stands in front of a barricade bearing a portrait of Berkin Elvan, the 15-year-old boy who died from injuries suffered during last year's anti-government protests, following clashes between police and demonstrators after the funeral of Elvan, in Istanbul on March 12, 2014.

© AFP 2023 / GURCAN OZTURK

The news come in the same week that Ebru Umar, a Dutch journalist of Turkish origin, was arrested while on holiday in Turkey on Saturday (April 23), after writing in her column that Erdogan's attacks on free speech was equivalent to Dutch World War 2 Nazi Party "NSB practices," calling yip Erdogan a "megalomaniac dictator."

The idiocy continues: can't access files on my laptop. Just another day in paradise.

— Ebru Umar (@umarebru) April 27, 2016​

German media reported that the European Commission was put under pressure by Turkey to withdraw funding for a performance by the Dresdner Sinfoniker orchestra to mark the 101st anniversary of the Ottoman Empire's slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians, is to contain sung and spoken texts that describe the killings as genocide, which Turkey denies.

No Questions Asked

© Sputnik / Vitaly Podvitski

Meanwhile, in Sweden, the TV4 broadcaster said the Turkish embassy to had asked it to "reconsider" showing a documentary film, Seyfo 1915, on the Ottoman genocide of up to 300,000 Assyrians during World War 1.

EU Hypocrisy

The latest events are certain to put pressure on EU leaders of the deal struck with Turkey to return "irregular migrants" from Greece to Turkey on a one-for-one basis for Syrian refugees being sent from Turkey to the EU.

 Critics of the deal say Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's record on human rights and media freedoms make the deal hypocritical on the part of EU leaders.

According to Amnesty International, the human rights situation in Turkey deteriorated markedly following parliamentary elections in June 2015 and the outbreak of violence between the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Turkish armed forces in July.

The media faced unprecedented pressure from the government; free expression online and offline suffered significantly.

The right to freedom of peaceful assembly continued to be violated. Cases of excessive use of force by police and ill-treatment in detention increased. Impunity for human rights abuses persisted.

Guy Verhofstadt, the former Belgian prime minister and now leader of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe in the European Parliament said:

"Drinking from Erdogan's poisoned chalice is not the solution."