More than 100 people gathered in central London for a special screening of DISPLACED: A Turkish Cypriot Story, followed by a Q&A with the documentary’s creators.
The event, held at the Soho Hotel on Friday, 18 September, came just over a month after the testimony-led film was released and attracted a full house from Britain’s Turkish Cypriot community alongside diplomats, media, local politicians and other guests.
Among those attending were the TRNC’s London Representative Aysan Mullahasan Atılgan and Türkiye’s Consul General in London, Professor Hasan Ulusoy, as well as former British Ambassador to Iceland Alp Mehmet and Imperial College London cancer biology professor Mustafa Djamgoz.
The screening was followed by a discussion with presenter Mert Ahmet and producer Eren Ramadan about the motivation behind the documentary and the importance they place on Turkish Cypriots telling their own history.
Ahmet said the idea emerged after the success of the team’s earlier documentary, Offside: The Untold Story of Sports in the TRNC.
“We came to the conclusion that before we continue highlighting North Cyprus and Turkish Cypriots to the world, we have to talk about the past, the history, and the sacrifices made for us to be here today,” he told guests.
Ramadan said one of their central motivations was a belief that international accounts of the Cyprus conflict frequently start with the events of 1974, overlooking what Turkish Cypriots experienced during the previous decade.
“Displaced is unapologetically the Turkish Cypriot side of the story,” he said.
“Far too many documentaries on Cyprus tell only one narrative or include us as a footnote — a paragraph near the end, a line of balance and a box ticked. That is not what this is. This is plainly and simply the Turkish Cypriot story, told by Turkish Cypriots.”
The documentary has now passed 43,000 views on YouTube during its first month, according to its producers, with clips from the film attracting hundreds of thousands more views on social media.
Ramadan also highlighted the deeply personal nature of the project. His uncle Vedat Esendağ appears among the witnesses, alongside Ahmet’s grandfather Kemal Ahmet and Ambassador Atılgan’s uncle Taner Çuvalcıoğlu.
“These are our families, our stories, and I think that’s why it carries the weight it does,” he said.
DISPLACED uses the testimony of 12 Turkish Cypriots to trace experiences of conflict and displacement from the 1950s through the intercommunal violence of the 1960s and the events of 1974, ending with the 1975 Population Exchange Agreement.
The film covers events including Bloody Christmas, Erenköy and attacks on Turkish Cypriot villages, as well as the killings at Taşkent and Muratağa, Sandallar and Atlılar.
Guests at the screening were also encouraged to contact their local MPs about ending the ongoing international isolation of Turkish Cypriots.
DISPLACED: A Turkish Cypriot Story is available to watch free on the Freedom and Fairness for Northern Cyprus YouTube channel.
All images © Freedom and Fairness for Northern Cyprus.
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