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Turkey’s embassy in Stockholm tried to impede Sweden’s TV4 television network to pull a documentary on the Assyrian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire in 1915, Russia Today reports. 

Turkey’s attempt to intervene in the planned broadcasting of the documentary on the Assyrians Genocide has incited the Swedish TV4. The representative of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm, Arif Gulen’s e-mail is published on the channel’s website. It calls to “reconsider” the decision on broadcasting of the “potentially biased material.”

“We will protest against any attempt to exert pressure that threatens freedom of expression,” said TV4’s news and public program director, Viveka Hansson, in a statement on the company’s website.

It is highlighted that on Sunday evening, the broadcast of a documentary titled “Seyfo 1915 – The Assyrian Genocide,” was due to schedule. TV4 also notes that the freedom of speech and press faces more oppressions from ideological streams, governmental and private interests, including in Sweden.

It is noted that a few days ago, Sweden’s Green Party tried to hush up Swedish station, SVT, which broadcast a story critical of Sweden’ former housing minister, Mehmet Kaplan. It is reminded that Kaplan resigned last Monday amid the leaked information about his dinner with the Turkish ultra-nationalist Gray Wolves movement.

Viveka Hansson also reminds on TV4 that not long ago, the deputy chairman of the Turkish National Association of Sweden, Barbaros Leylani, also retired, as he had previously called to kill the Armenians during a demonstration in Stockholm.

In his turn, Swedish MP and Left Party chairman Jonas Sjöstedt also urged the Swedish government to fend off Turkey’s attack on the national media.

“It is unacceptable that the country (Turkey) is seeking to silence media in Sweden and it (the government) must take a hard stance against such actions,” Sjöstedt said.

The MP also emphasized that Stockholm should recall its ambassador from Turkey “to make clear that what you are doing in Turkey, which is very bad for the media, you cannot do in Sweden.”

Meanwhile, Sputnik News reports that shortening Sweden's Turkish National Association, which became a target of criticism due to the threats towards Armenians, risks having to pay back millions of krona the union earlier received from Sweden in government grants for many years.

The agency reminds that in the beginning of April, the local Turkish and Azerbaijani communities organized an anti-Armenian demonstration in the center of Stockholm, during which the deputy chairman of the Turkish National Association of Sweden Barbaros Leylani came out with anti-Armenian and nationalistic statements in the Turkish language. “It is time for uniting the Turkish nation. The Turks will wake up putting an end to the Armenian dogs. Death to the Armenian dogs! Death! Death!” Leylani shouted.

According to the communications director at the National Agency for Youth and Civil Society in Sweden, Anders Hagquist, “This statement was not consistent with respect for human equality and human rights, and therefore we (initially) started this investigation on our own initiative.” He added that they had also received many complaints in the past.

Despite the frequent complaints, the Turkish National Association has continued to receive state support of over half a million krona per year. According to the Swedish media, the state support was carried out in the framework of the struggle against racism and integration in Sweden.

Turkish National Association Secretary Yasin Ipek told Swedish Radio that the funding cut would be a disaster for the organization. “We would probably go out of business and cease to exist as an association,” he said.
In addition, Canadian portal The Rebel Media writes that  Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan tries to escalate his influence in Europe via migrant-blackmail and intimidation, stifling criticism of himself to the extent he feels possible.

In Switzerland, Erdogan has demanded that a photograph of a child killed during the protests in Istanbul in June 2013, which were dispersed by the order of current Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, be removed from an exhibition.

The Genevan authorities have confirmed that they have received a complaint from the Turkish consulate to Switzerland, which demands to remove the scandalous photo from the exhibition, however, they have refused to do it believing that it is necessary to insist on the freedom of speech.

It is also highlighted that in the meantime, in Los Angeles, Armenians commemorated the 1915 genocide of Armenians in Turkey while agents for the Erdogan government overflew the event attempting to deny the crime committed towards the Armenian nation.

It is reminded that on April 9, Barbaros Leylani "raised hell with a speech" at an anti-Armenian demonstration in Stockholm, where he announced his support for Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict calling to kill the Armenians. Besides, it is noted that a number of flag-waving members of the Grey Wolves, a Turkish supremacist, far-right and neo-fascist organization, were spotted at the demonstration. “Not content with having actually carrying out the Armenian genocide, and then denying it, some Turks seem anxious to recreate the conditions to create another one,” the website emphasizes.