The Pacific the 10-episode HBO miniseries about World War II – which hit Australian screens this month – will air in Turkey minus a scene from last week’s episode which featured dialogue about “Turks torching Smyrna” after capturing the Greek Aegean city.
The Pacific, which focuses on the U.S. Japanese conflict during World War II, began in April 18 in Turkey without the deleted scene, the Turkish television channel CNBC-e announced.
The scene occured in the third episode of the series, which played on Australian screens last Wednesday.
It features a Melbourne Greek woman, Mamma Karamanlis, played by Zoe Carides, talking to American Marine Robert Leckie played by James Badge Dale, where she tells him the Turks “invaded and torched Smyrna” in 1922.
Smyrna, now Ismir, was a Greek city, in the then Ottoman Empire. The Turkish channel said it has notified HBO of its decision to delete the scene.
A great fire took place in Smyrna in September 1922, lit by Nationalist Turks but this is disputed by sections of the Turkish media and is a matter that has turned into a dispute.
Some Turkish columnists have agreed with CNBC-e and official Turkish line, denying the fire in Smyrna (now İzmir) was lit by the Turks and blame the retreating Greek army.
Others, however, say the fire started after the recapture of the city by the Turks.
Engin Ardıç, a columnist for daily Sabah highlighted that the fire bagan four days after the Greek Army had left the city.
“It grew and spread September 14 and reached the 1st Kordon on Sept. 15 and 16.”
There are official accounts by American, British and Australian consular officials and military officers at the time, which describe scenes of devastation and the slaughter of Smyrna’s Greeks by Turkish nationalists.
The episode censored by Turkish authorities was screened on Channel 7 on Wednesday.