A film poster that goes badly with the Turkish courts. Veysi Altay, a 46-year-old Kurdish filmmaker, was sentenced to one year and fifteen days in prison suspended and put to the test for his documentary
New Life
, produced in 2017. Three women, fighters in the Women's Protection Units (YPJ), an all-female Kurdish military organization, traces the battle of Kobane, in northern Syria, from the arrival of the jihadists on September 13, 2014, to the recapture of the city by Kurdish forces on June 14, 2015 .
“Women mean life. Life means resistance and resistance means Kobane
”, we can read on the poster. One of the three soldiers poses with a puppy in one arm, a weapon in the other, a smile on her lips. Behind its back, the trigger: a star-spangled flag in the colors of the YPG, the armed wing of the Syrian Democratic Party, to which the combatants have rallied.
Beyond the waved flag, the membership of female combatants in this Kurdish group is of concern.
The Women's Protection Units are said to be the Syrian and female version of the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers' Party.
He is considered a terrorist by Turkey and its allies within NATO.
In addition, in 2015, the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism banned the broadcast of
North
, a documentary on the PKK, on the day of its screening.
The sanction was more substantial for Veysi Altay.
Terrorist propaganda
In April 2018, the director was indicted alongside Dicle Ante, the director of the cinema where the documentary was screened. Both are accused of making
"propaganda in favor of a terrorist organization".
The district attorney for Batman, in south-eastern Turkey, considers the
New Life
poster
a criminal offense. According to the indictment, it contributes to
“portraying positively”
a terrorist organization.
“I made a film on an existing reality. My camera only captured what was happening in Kobane at the time, ”
chanted Veysi Altay in his defense, rejecting the allegation of terrorist propaganda. Only one scene from the film is visible on the poster.
“When the film was shown in Batman, there were police officers in the theater, but they could not identify any criminal offense,”
he continued. As for the director of the cinema, he considers unfounded the reason for his accusation.
New Life
was screened in several Turkish cities, but the investigation focused only on Batman.
It is difficult for filmmakers to tap into the subject matter on screen.
"Everything you do on the Kurdish question, everything that contains the word Kurdish receives a reaction from the government,"
said Kazim Öz, another Turkish director, also accused of terrorism. Some scenes from
Zer
, his last film, were cut: they showed the massacre perpetrated by the Turkish state during the Dersim revolt in 1938.
“This is the first time that I have seen such a decision” he
adds. he, with reference to the conviction of his colleague.
In 2019, the criminal court sentences Veysi Altay and Dicle Anter to two and a half years in prison.
On appeal, the judgment was reversed and the proceedings reopened.
At the beginning of October, the director of the cinema was finally forced to pay a fine of around 600 euros.
Director Veysi Altay, meanwhile, was sentenced to one year and fifteen days in prison, suspended and put to the test.
Their travel ban has been lifted.