Emir Kusturica: “Barbarism and primitiveness"
Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica left Antalya on Sunday, just one day after the opening of Golden Orange International Film Festival, where he was participating as a member of the international feature competition jury.
Kusturica made a decision on resignation after Turkish nationalists and Bosnians of Turkey accused him of denying Muslims' massacres which were carried out in Bosnia in the 90s.
On Saturday, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Antalya City Council member Reşat Oktay protested the festival's organizers for inviting Kusturica to the festival, shouting his objection during the festival's opening gala at the famous Glass Pyramid, Azatutyun Radio Station reports.
In an interview with Turkish broadcaster NTV, Kusturica said, "Fifteen years after the Bosnian war, the Prime Minister of your country arrives in Serbia and shakes hands with Milloshevic's party members and then someone in Turkey blames me for supporting the former president of Yugoslavia."
Kusturica labeled the campaign waged against his personality in two words "barbarism and primitiveness."
Dismissing accusations that he was supportive of war criminals, Kusturica added: "A person who has dedicated his life to opening new horizons to humanity cannot be supportive of any kind of crime. ... I am known to be anti-imperialist. I have built my life and profession on this basis. ... What I was fighting for [during the time of the Bosnian war] was a united Yugoslavia."
