Turkey s foreign minister on Friday criticized an undercover documentary about disabled children in Turkey featuring a former member of the British royal family, saying it offended the Turkish people.
In the program the Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson witnessed disturbing scenes including a handicapped boy lying in the corridor where he had crawled to reach sunlight shining through a window.
Other scenes, secretly filmed while the duchess was visiting state institutions for orphans and disabled children in Turkey, showed a boy being kept in a wooden box.
The program was broadcast on Britain s ITV television channel on Thursday evening.
After talks with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband in London, Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said Turkish authorities had launched a wide scale inquiry about the allegations of mistreatment made in the program.
But he added: Our children have the right to be protected… and it is not good to disclose the sickness… in a TV program and it offends Turkish people.
They are our children. They are Turkish children. They are our sons and daughters and we care about them, added Babacan, whose visit here was arranged before the program triggered headlines in the Turkish press this week.
The minister also questioned the undercover filming methods used in the program, saying: We actually regret the approach and the attitude displayed for the preparation of this documentary.
The duchess, the former wife of Queen Elizabeth II s second son Prince Andrew, has defended her role in the documentary and denied that it had dragged the royal family into a diplomatic row.
I am apolitical and multi-faith. And I certainly support 100 percent Her Majesty, more than anyone else in my world, she said.
I went as a mum… and quite frankly I m very happy with courage to stand by that film. -AFP
