ISTANBUL (AFP)- Armenian and other rights groups called for action Saturday over Turkish school screenings of a controversial documentary on the Ottoman mass killings of Armenians, charging that the film incited racism and enmity. The call follows an outcry in the small Armenian community following reports earlier this week that the education ministry had asked school teachers to show the documentary to students and file reports on the result of the screenings.

The documentary, called "Blonde Bride - The True Face of the Armenian Question," has come under fire for taking Turkey's official line that Armenians were not the victims of genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks in 1915-1917.

The film has also been criticized for violent images of Armenian gangs attacking Turks and piles of corpses it says were of Turks killed by Armenians.

"This documentary is a propaganda film ... It is not only biased and hostile but also provocative and openly racist," said a declaration signed by seven rights organizations, among them Armenian foundations and the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly. The film "has been made to poison people's souls and to turn Turks and Armenians into enemies," it said.

It called on the education ministry to launch an internal investigation and "expose and punish" those behind the order for school screenings.

Earlier this week, the ministry said it had sent copies of the film to schools to be viewed by teachers as additional material and not by students. It added that it had halted the distribution in July 2008 after discovering "uses outside its original purpose."

Armenians say during World War I Turkey's predecessor, the Ottoman Empire, massacred up to 1.5 million of their people, terming the killings as genocide. Turkey rejects the label of genocide and argues that 300,000-500,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians took up arms for independence. - AFP