Turkey: Mein Kampf now available in major supermarkets

Via Daily Sabah (h/t Honestly Concerned):

German dictator Adolf Hitler's infamous autobiography "Mein Kampf" (My Struggle) is back on bookshelves in Turkey while the country's Jewish community resents that supermarket chains also decided to sell the book.

Rights to the book, an anti-Semitic manifesto, was held by the German state of Bavaria until Jan. 1, 2016, and the state had since refused any publication of the book. Germany successfully stopped sales of the book in Turkey in 2007 after a two-year lawsuit culminated in the book's banning, which was published by 10 publishers in Turkey. 

As the book became public domain last month, Turkish publishers returned with new Turkish editions of the book to the dismay of the country's some 23,000-strong Jewish community. Karel Valansi, a columnist for Turkish Jewish newspaper Şalom, urged publishers to print "an annotated edition like in Germany" instead of a mere translation of the book. She was referring to the new edition, which runs to 2,000 pages, prepared by German researchers delving into the warped ideas of Hitler, which later became a reality, such as "Lebensraum" - annexation of Germany's neighboring countries - and his hatred of Jews, which led to the Holocaust.

In a tweet, Valansi questioned "what kind of mindset" certain supermarket chains were in to sell "Mein Kampf," and called out Migros and Real, two prominent chain stores. İshak İbrahimzadeh, the leader of the Turkish Jewish community, said in a tweet that selling "My Struggle" was "apparently fine" for supermarkets "as their struggle is to sell goods."

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Turkey: Today's Zaman journalists threatened, called 'servants of Israel'

Abdullah Bozkurt is the Ankara Bureau Chief for Today's Zaman.  In an interview with Nana10, he said that the paper's journalists were constantly threatened on social media for writing against the government and called various slurs, including 'servants of Israel'.

Turkey: Antisemitic columnist accused of being a ‘Jewish stooge’ for disparaging AKP

Via Jerusalem Post:

Turkish social media users have resorted to anti-Semitic conspiracy theories this week, calling a prominent pro-government media personality a “Jewish stooge” for publicly criticized the ruling AK Party during a television appearance last Thursday.
According to a report in Today’s Zaman, Yeni Safak columnist Yusuf Kaplan came under fire after panning Turkey’s “zero problems with neighbors” policy as incompatible with regional realities, leading users on social media to call for his death, accuse him of killing another pro-government journalist and of collusion with the Jews.

In a social media posting of his own, Kaplan accused his critics of “talking nonsense,” stating that while he was “accused of being a Jewish stooge and a British spy,” such statements are merely “a baseless smear campaign.”

According to the Middle East Media Research Institute, Kaplan has a history of making anti-Semitic remarks, having previously written that Jews “rule the Western universities and world media” and that their “paranoia can reach barbaric, cruel and inhuman dimensions.

“Jewish desire to dominate everything in the Western countries, and the way they easily and arrogantly exploit organizations and individuals to serve Jewish interests, may end up causing a short circuit within the democratic institutions of the West,” he wrote.

“Their nosy interference with everything, and their actions beyond the reach of their size, have already started to draw serious reactions in the Western countries. Because the Jewish paranoia is blown up to extreme, forced and artificial dimensions, it can explode any day and take care of them and cost them dearly.”

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Turkey: Article In Radical Islamist Pro-AKP Daily: Gorillas, Chimps Are Cursed, Mutated Jews

Last year, a pro-AKP broadcaster aired the antisemitic conspiracy show "The Mastermind", which among things claimed that Darwin proposed his theory only to depict non-Jews as “animals” — an idea that is supposedly rooted in Judaism.

Via Memri:

In his January 31, 2016 column in the pro-AKP government, radical Islamist daily Vahdet, journalist Seyfi Sahin wrote that the evolutionary theory of "the Jew" Darwin contradicts Allah's word in the Koran. Claiming to be a physician, Sahin argued that humans did not evolve from monkeys, but rather that monkeys evolved from perverted Jews whom Allah cursed and punished.[1] The column was widely criticized by Turkey's independent opposition media. 

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Turkey: Turkcell pulls funny anti-Valentines ad over anti-Semitism concerns

Via Daily Sabah:

Turkey's largest mobile phone operator Turkcell has discontinued an ad published for Valentine's Day, based on claims that the starring actress had made anti-Semitic remarks in the past. The ad had gained wide-range attention on social media for humorously mocking Valentine's Day and the single young people who dread it.

According to Turkcell CEO Kaan Terzioğlu's statements on his Twitter account, the company pulled the video based on its respect for sensitivities of all ethnicities, religions and other differences.

(...)

Tilbe, the leading player of the ad is a singer and had made anti-Semitic remarks in 2014 on her Twitter account.

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Turkey: Conspiracy theory on national TV claims Israel is converting ISIS slave-girls, Haiti earthquake victims

TRT is the national public broadcaster of Turkey.  Their Arab channel is aimed at Arabs in Turkey, as well as the wider Arab world and Middle East.


Via Everyday Antisemitism:

A Gaza-based journalist has accused Israel of buying slave-girls from ISIS and converting them to Judaism, as well as exploiting terrorist incidents and natural disasters, during an antisemitic rant on Turkish television.

Tawfiq Abu Shomar made the accusations on 15th January in an appearance on the TRT Arabic channel, claiming that Israel does so in order to strengthen its Jewish population.

He said: “For a long time Israel has been striving to bring over the Jews, especially from Europe. They especially want the Jews of France, because they consitute the largest comunity, numbering half a million. My warning should be viewed in context. Israel attracts the (Jewish) immigrants, that’s true, but it also takes advantage of the circumstances in order to bring them.

“This is the main point. It uses natural circumstances, even earthquakes. During the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Israel brought over a large number of Haitians, and had them converted to Judaism. Many such children live (in Israel).

“Israel has benefited not only from France, but also from Iraq. It has brought over Yazidis. A large number of Yazidis are now being converted to Judaism and absorbed there. In addition to the ruling Jewish authorities, there are organisations abroad that buy slavegirls on the ISIS market and take them to Israel.”

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Turkey: Anti-Zionist vandalism against synagogue

Via Today's Zaman (h/t CFCA):

Hate speech was recently spray painted on a wall outside the İstipol Synagogue in İstanbul's Balat neighborhood; the synagogue opened for a prayer service for the first time in 65 years earlier this month.

The writing on a brick wall just outside the place of worship read “Terrorist Israel, there is Allah [God]!” The writing has since been painted over.

The Jewish house of worship opened for a one-time Tefilah, a prayer performed three times a day, on Jan. 8.

(...)

Balat is historically a Jewish neighborhood in İstanbul. There are nine synagogues in the area but only two of them are currently active. Today, certain areas of the neighborhood are covered with spray-painted Turkish nationalist symbols, such as wolves and three crescents.

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Turkey: Erdogan cites Hitler's Germany as an examplary presidential system

Erdogan later walked back his comments.  We are expected to believe that in order to prove why his suggested system of government is the best idea, he gave the most disgraceful example in history that he could think of.

Via CBC/Reuters:   

Erdogan wants to change the Turkish constitution to turn the ceremonial role of president into that of a chief executive, a Turkish version of the system in the United States, France or Russia.

Asked on his return from a visit to Saudi Arabia late on Thursday whether an executive presidential system was possible while maintaining the unitary structure of the state, he said, "There are already examples in the world. You can see it when you look at Hitler's Germany. There are later examples in various other countries," he told reporters, according to a recording broadcast by the Dogan news agency.

A Turkish official told Reuters the comments had been taken out of context and that his comments were meant to demonstrate that an executive presidency can exist in a unitary state and does not depend on a federal system of government, and that neither a presidential nor parliamentary system is a guarantee against abuse of power.

"There are good and poor examples of presidential systems and the important thing is to put checks and balances in place," the official said. "Nazi Germany, lacking proper institutional arrangements, was obviously one of the most disgraceful examples in history."   

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Turkey: Ambassador to the PA justifies terror wave

Via Arutz 7 (h/t Watch: Antisemitism in Europe): 

 Mustafa Sarnic, the Turkish ambassador to the Palestinian Authority (PA), on Thursday justified the wave of terrorist attacks against Israelis, during which 22 Israelis have been murdered since October.

In an interview with the Hamas-affiliated Palestine newspaper, Sarnic said that Israel "must know that the blood of the Palestinian people is expensive" and that its policies, which harm the Palestinians and the holy places, prompted the Palestinians to rise up to “defend” the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Sarnic repeatedly stressed the need to fully remove the blockade of the Gaza Strip and called on Islamic countries to stand alongside the Palestinians.

Al-Aqsa Mosque "belongs to all Muslims and is holy land," he said, adding, "Palestine is the land from which the heavenly journey of Mohammed began and the first direction of prayer for Muslims, so everyone, not just Turkey but all Islamic countries, must stand alongside the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem and the Palestinian people as we always do."

The comments follow ones by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has twice in the last week expressed support for the Palestinian Arab terror wave against Israel.

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Germany: Turkish-funded group posts anti-Semitic quotes online

Via Jerusalem Post:

The Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs in Germany (DITIB), a satellite religious organization for Turkey’s religious affairs department, has removed anti-Semitic quotations from its website after bloggers and journalists exposed them last week.

A screenshot of the city of Melsungen’s DITIB webpage lists 30 anti-Jewish quotations, including from the Koran and the Prophet Muhammad.

A sampling of the webpage contained such quotes as: “The Jews are cruel and malicious,” “the Jews are stingy,” “[the Jews] lie and cheat,” “Jews violate contracts and promises,” and “they [the Jews] falsified the Torah.”

“Anti-Zionism, and thereby anti-Semitism, sentiment have clearly increased over the years among Muslims with a Turkish origin,” said Daniel Neumann, director of the Hesse State’s Jewish community, in an interview with the Die Welt newspaper.

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Turkey: Israeli basketball team attacked during singing of anthem

Via Times of Israel:

Turkish fans threw objects at members of the Israeli women’s national basketball team Saturday at the start of a game in the qualifying round for the 2017 EuroBasket tournament.

In a video, members of the Israeli team can be seen standing and singing along as Israel’s national anthem, “Hatikva,” is played in the background at the start of the game. All of a sudden, Turkish fans begin throwing objects at the Israelis, who quickly move out of the way to dodge them.

Security personnel quickly responded, and no one was hurt. Some fans also booed the Israelis, while others applauded the fans who threw the objects.

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Turkey: Gülenists target Jewish lawyer in anti-Semitic messages

Via Daily Sabah (h/t CFCA)

Robert Amsterdam, whose law firm Amsterdam & Partners, was recently hired by the Republic of Turkey to provide legal assistance in the global investigation into the activities of the U.S.-based Gülen Movement is facing anti-Semitic attacks by agents of the movement on social media, who underscore his Jewish identity in efforts to degrade him.

Prominent Gülenist figures, including İhsan Yılmaz who is a columnist at Today's Zaman newspaper and a political science professor at Fatih University slammed Amsterdam's Jewish background on his Twitter account, while also criticizing the Turkish state for hiring a 'Jewish' lawyer.
Lawyer Sıddık Filiz, who is also affiliated with the Gülen Movement, also criticized the government for hiring a Jewish lawyer, without making any distinction between Zionism as a political ideology and Judaism as a religion:

"The money comes from the nation, while the lawyer they hired is a Jew, and their target is to close down Gülen schools," Filiz said on his Twitter account on October 26.   more

Germany deports Turkish Islamic preacher who called for murder of Jews

The Jerusalem Post reports:

Germany has deported radical Islamic preacher, Nusret C. to Turkey after he called for the obliteration of Jews, Israel and the US, local news reports said.

“The Jews are the worst enemies of Islam,” said Nusret, according to a spokesman of the West German city of Offenbach, where he lived. Nusret rejects equality between men and women and advocates the implementation of Islamic Shari’a law.

The news outlet Hessenschaue.de reported on Tuesday about Nusret’s extradition, which took place on Friday.

Nusret is a leading member of the radical Islamic group Ismail Aga Cemaat. The group is recognized as a threat to Germany’s constitutional democracy and is monitored by the domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office to Protect the Constitution.  Read more.

Turkey: Newspaper Accuses ‘Jewish Businessman’ Murdoch of Spreading Kurdish Terrorist Propaganda

Via Algemeiner (h/t CFCA)

An Islamist newspaper in Turkey accused the Wall Street Journal and its “Jewish businessman” owner Rupert Murdoch over the weekend of spreading “propaganda” for Kurdish terrorism.

Newspaper Yeni Akit, which is closely aligned with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist AKP party, based its accusation on an article in the WSJ also over the weekend that discussed a rapidly growing youth organization belonging to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK: a designated terrorist outfit by Turkey but also the U.S.

(...)

Yeni Akit has become notorious for publishing hate speech against Jews, the LGBT community, Armenians, Greeks, Yazidis and secularists, among others. While Murdoch has often expressed support for Israel, the paper’s claim that he is Jewish is false.  more

Turkey: Street musicians attacked for playing "Jewish music"

Via Bir Gun, h/t Watch Antisemitism in Europe Project:

Street musicians in Istanbul were attacked for playing "Jewish music".  

Turkey: Ladino language is almost extinct in Turkey

Sunday's Zaman reports (via Watch Antisemitsm in Europe):

The recently screened documentary “Las Ultimas Palavras” (The Last Words) has revealed that the Judeo-Spanish language, also known as Ladino, is on the verge of extinction in Turkey, which director Rita Ender believes to be the result of violations of minority rights.

The documentary was shown in Turkey for the first time on Thursday evening at the Lale Movie Hall on Büyükada, one of Istanbul's Princes' Islands. The islands -- which are located just an hour by ferry from the metropolis -- are one of the few places with sizable populations of non-Muslim communities in İstanbul, especially in the summer months. Each island is known for housing a non-Muslim minority: Kınalıada is known for its Armenians, Heybeliada for its Greeks and Büyükada has long been something of a safe haven for local Jews.

The film featured young people from the local Sephardic (Jews originally from the Iberian Peninsula) community between the ages of 25-35. Through the interviews with young people, the film came to the conclusion that Ladino will die with this generation. A large population of Sephardim migrated to the Ottoman Empire, finding refuge from the Spanish Inquisition and bringing with them their culture and language, which is now on its last legs. Read more.

Turkey: AKP leader says Jews control world economic lobby, work against AKP

This is what Foreign Policy calls "playing off" anti-semitic tropes.  


I call it outright antisemitism.


Via Foreign Policy:

Whatever the case, it is clear that the ruling party’s campaign, which was at times marked by a paranoid style that raised the specter of international conspiracies to weaken Turkey, underwhelmed many voters. The party captured roughly 18 million votes, some 3 million fewer than it won in the last general election.

AKP leaders have argued an array of “lobbies” are aligned against them, and bolstering the campaigns of their rivals. The claims have at times played off anti-Semitic tropes.

“There’s an economic lobby in the world, which is under the hand of the Jewish lobby, and these are the ones who want the AKP to fall,” Muhammed Akar, the chairman of the AKP’s Diyarbakir branch, told Foreign Policy. “Not only the Jewish lobby, there is another movement — the Crusaders. Because the AKP government is the voice of the Muslims in Turkey, and all the world.”  more

Turkey: Erdogan claims 'Jewish capital is behind the New York Times'

Via EJP:

As Turkey is heading to the polls in general elections on Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stepped up his attacks on foreign media and said that "Jewish capital" was behind the New York Times.

Erdogan has repeatedly criticised foreign media outlets which expressed concern over the corrosion of freedom of expression in Turkey.

On Saturday, at a pre-election rally in the province of Ardzahan, he accused the New York Times of campaigning against the Turkish leaders since the final days of the Ottoman Empire, and accused “Jewish capital” of being its patrons .


"Now, they are spitting out the same hatred on me... It's clear who their patrons are. There is Jewish capital behind it, unfortunately."  more

Turkey: Paper Accuses ‘Jewish-Run New York Times’ of 100-Year Bias Against Turkey

Via Algemeiner:

A Turkish newspaper accused on Tuesday the “Jewish-family managed” New York Times of harboring a century-old bias against Turkey.

The Sabah newspaper tweeted a link to its article on the subject, with the teaser translating to, “Here’s the story of the Jewish family-managed New York Times’s 100-year hatred of Turkey.”

Sabah called the New York Times “scandalous” and accused the newspaper of incessantly bashing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shortly before the latest Turkish elections, including calling the Turkish president a “tyrant.”  more

Turkey: 43% think Israel poses biggest threat to Turkey

Via Times of Israel:

A survey conducted recently in Turkey found that nearly half that country’s citizens see Israel as the biggest security threat, followed by the United States, and only then Syria.

The daily Today’s Zaman newspaper last week reported the results of the poll, which was conducted by Istanbul’s Kadir Has University among 1,000 respondents.

Asked which country they think poses the biggest threat to Turkey, 42.6 percent of participants chose Israel, while 35.5% said the US. Just 22.1% named Syria, which shares a border with Turkey and has been ravaged by four-year civil war, as the biggest threat to their country. Turkey has in the past fired at Syrian positions across the border after wayward shells from the civil war landed in its territory.

A similar poll in 2013 found 41% saw the United States as Turkey’s biggest threat, while 37.1% named Israel.