Home » Disney

Disney+ Cancels Controversial Series, Triggers National Investigation

in Disney

Posted on by Nathan Kamal 2 Comments
disney ataturk

Credit: Disney

Disney will not air Atatürk, an incredibly controversial new historical series on the Disney+ streaming platform, which has directly led to the iconic media company being under official investigation by the Republic of Turkey and attacked on all sides.

ataturk
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Credit: Wikimedia

Until this last Wednesday, Disney+ was to stream a new show titled Atatürk, a six-part historical drama on the life of Turkish national leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. It was already announced to premiere on October 29 and that it would star Aras Bulut Iynemli in the title role; there were also persistent rumors that Harry Potter actress Emma Watson would appear, though never confirmed.

Now, Disney has announced that it has canceled plans to stream Atatürk and instead has pushed it off to the FOX Network, calling the decision “in line with our revised content distribution strategy.”

However, the government of Turkey is furious about the decision, and it is not the first.

Related: Disney Criticized After “Baffling” Censorship In Popular Children’s Show Goes Viral

‘Atatürk’ Has Been Criticized From the Beginning

While the historical Mustafa Kemal Atatürk is regarded by many in Turkey as a national hero and the country’s founding father, he is also a tremendously controversial figure for allegations of his role in the late Ottoman genocides of Armenians, which are still denied by the Turkish government to this day.

Because of that, the announcement of the Disney Atatürk series was immediately controversial, with multiple Armenian rights groups calling on the company to cancel the series. Most prominently, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) condemned the series for “glorifying Mustafa Kemal Ataturk – a Turkish dictator and genocide killer with the blood of millions of #Greek #Armenian #Assyrian #Chaldean #Syriac #Aramean #Maronite and other #Christian martyrs on his hands.”

Turkey Is Attacking Disney Over ‘Atatürk’

Currently, ANCA is celebrating Disney’s decision not to stream Atatürk, saying it was “preventing the normalization of mass murder for audiences of millions worldwide.”

However, (per Politico) this has now caused an equally fervent backlash from Turkey, with Ebubekir Şahin, the head of Turkey’s Radio and Television Supreme Council, stating that he would be opening an investigation into Disney over the series.

Similarly, Ömer Çelik, a spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s AK Party, called it “shameful” and “disrespectful to the values ​​of the Republic of Turkey and our nation.”

Clearly, this is a situation in which Disney cannot win, no matter what it does.

Disney and Censorship

It is not at all uncommon for the Walt Disney Company to censor its content based on the areas it is provided to, often minimizing LGBTQIA+ content or removing references to the supernatural (in China, for example).

Related: ‘Moon Knight’ Causes “Controversy and Huge Buzz” Amid Censorship Issues

However, this seems to be a case in which there is likely no solution that Disney can provide to both sides of the issue that will not result in yet more criticism over this very debated historical figure.

Should Disney have canceled streaming Atatürk on Disney+? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

 

View Comments (2)