"The River Flowing West" Documentary Continues to Draw Attention

Produced and filmed by Bahçeşehir University and presenting the untold story of civilizations through historical documents, the documentary "The River Flowing West" will begin airing on France's ARTE Televisionas of Saturday, 1 September 2012.

This important documentary, which has been broadcast on various TRT channels for a year and whose seven-episode international version is being aired on SBS and Foxtel in Australia, on the Discovery Asia-Pacific satellite channel in South Asia, India and China, on the pan-European satellite broadcaster Viasat, on SVT in Sweden and on Latvia TV in Latvia, will now be broadcast by ARTE in German and French. ARTE will air the documentary in prime time, the most important time slot.

In Germany, the first three episodes will be broadcast from 20:15 to 23:00 local time, and the remaining episodes will be broadcast on 8 September and 15 September at the same time. The French version will be broadcast in France on the same dates from 20:45 to 23:20 local time.

In a long feature published in the French newspaper Le Monde on 26 August 2012, Daniel Psenny wrote: "The River Flowing West documentary, which sheds light on the birthplace of civilizations at the root of today's conflicts in the Middle East, tells us what Europe owes to the eastern Islamic world. Until now, world history and civilizations have always been told from a European perspective. This documentary, however, shows through on-site footage and documents how the principles of justice and coexistence remained alive for many centuries in the Middle Eastern Islamic world," and introduced the episodes of the documentary.

Stating that "The River Flowing West" documentary, the result of five years of great effort, aims to contribute to world peace, Bahçeşehir University Chairman of the Board of Trustees Enver Yücel said: "It has previously been screened in many countries. It premiered at major universities in the USA. Now the documentary is fulfilling a much more important function. It is being aired on ARTE, the joint French-German channel. We attach great importance to this, because we believe that the problems between France and Türkiye stem from the French not knowing Türkiye and its civilization. For this reason, we are very happy that this documentary is being shown on a French channel, and at a very important time slot. Our entire effort is to ensure that our country is known correctly and that our contribution to world civilization is properly understood. We put great effort into getting the documentary screened. Apart from this, we also had the chance to provide information here about our newly established '1915 Gallipoli Research Center' and many published books."

Stating that, after the documentary was completed, talks were held with television channels in more than 25 countries around the world for its broadcast, Director of the Bahçeşehir University Center for Civilization Studies (MEDAM) and Chief Advisor to the Prime Ministry Prof. Dr. Bekir Karlığa said: "The most important of these were the countries that know us least and have the most prejudices. In this sense, we attach great importance to this documentary being shown in France, and on a major channel like ARTE. We made the documentary to reduce the polarization that emerged after the 11 September attacks. I believe we are achieving our goal. As Bahçeşehir University, we are very happy."

Karlığa added: "It is important for our country that this documentary, produced by the Bahçeşehir University Center for Civilization Studies (MEDAM) and seeking to tell the reality of civilization objectively from an international perspective, is being broadcast on a culture channel of international prestige such as ARTE, along with the world's leading television channels." Karlığa stated that the project is not one that only interests Turks and Muslims but an international project, and that nearly five years were spent working on this documentary, which reflects the views of the world's leading scientists, thinkers and philosophers, heads of international organizations such as UNESCO and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and statesmen, so that it could become a world classic.

The documentary, which received a high achievement award from the Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS) in the UK, has also begun to be incorporated into curricula by the Ministry of National Education of Türkiye.

Its English and Turkish DVD and book have been prepared by Sony DADC and will be available in markets around the world from 15 September. To mark the launch of the broadcast, exhibitions titled "The River Flowing West: A Documentary of Civilization" will open in Berlin, Paris and Bosnia and Herzegovina.