Sibel Kekilli Fatih Akin 2004 - P 2013
Getty ImagesCOLOGNE, Germany – In an open letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, some of the country’s most prominent filmmakers, including Game of Thrones actress Sibel Kekilli and acclaimed director Fatih Akin (Head-On) have called for Europe to intervene in the growing crisis in Turkey.
The letter, also signed by German film VIPs such as Oscar-nominated cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, director Dani Levy and actor Jan Josef Liefers, calls on the chancellor to “please don’t just watch” as the Turkish government violently cracks down on protestors in Istanbul. “We kindly ask you and your European colleagues to immediately make the Turkish Government stop using violence against its own people,” the letter concludes.
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The appeal comes amid clashes between Turkish police and demonstrators protesting against Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. This weekend, riot police stormed a park in Istanbul as the heart of the protest, firing tear gas and water cannons.
Akin, who, like Kekilli, was born in Germany to the country’s large ethnically Turkish population, has also written to Turkish President Abdullah Gul calling on him to “stop this madness!”
The protests in Turkey have been widely covered in the German media and have inspired similar demonstrations across the country from within the Turkish community here.
