Antisemitic incitement by Turkish government officials, Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s oft-repeated statements that Israel is more
barbaric than Hitler, and antisemitic accusations and threats by the media that
support and promote Turkey’s AKP ruling party have fostered an upsurge in
antisemitism in the country. A recent survey by Gonzo Insight, the Turkish
polling institute, found that in just 24 hours, on July 17-18, 2014, 27,309
Turkish Twitter users sent 30,926 Turkish-language tweets in support of
Hitler’s genocide against the Jews.[1]
In
addition to statements by government officials, the pro-AKP media regularly
accuse Turkey’s Jews of “treason,”[2] and
other accusations are also levelled, including connecting Jews with the use of
Ebola as a biological weapon in “global occupation” that “knows
no borders”; in addition, a professor tweeted about sending Jews to
Treblinka.
Antisemitism
is an accepted part of the government discourse; for example, in protests
following the May 2014 mine collapse in Soma, in which over 300 miners died,
then-prime minister Erdogan yelled at and scuffled with a miner, calling him
“sperm of Israel.”
At
the same time that President Erdogan was denying, in his September 22, 2014
speech at the Council of Foreign Relations, that he or his government were in
any way antisemitic, members of his party back home were tweeting praise for
Hitler, and shops in Istanbul were displaying signs reading “No Admittance
To Jewish Dogs.”
On
November 9, 2014, a sign reading “This Location To Be Demolished” was
hung on the entrance to Istanbul’s Neveh Shalom Synagogue; the synagogue has
already been the target of two major terrorist attacks in which many
congregants at prayer were killed and wounded.
The following are examples of recent antisemitic statements in
Turkey:
Turkish Islamist Columnist: “It Is An Instinct Of The Jew To
Do Evil To Men And To Humanity”; “There Is No Life That The Poisonous
Hand Of The Jew Doesn’t Touch, No Society To Which The Jew Does Not Bring Decay”
Islamist
columnist Ibrahim Tenekeci of the pro-AKP daily Yeni Safak wrote in a July 23, 2014 column titled
“Of Men and Jews” (in which he refused to capitalize the term
“Jew” except where he quotes another author):[3] “This title, reminiscent of John
Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men,
belongs to [Islamist author] Nurettin
Topcu, not me. Topcu wrote three articles in 1967: ‘The Islamic Cause and
Judaism,’ ‘Money and the Jew,’ and ‘Of Men and Jews.’ These articles define
jews as the eternal curse of mankind. ‘Those that attack to destroy the
building of absolute truth,’ ‘those who reject all moral values,’ ‘the bloody
and sinful hands,’ ‘the evil that replaces the good’ – All these are the jews.
“Now
let’s read a few sentences from these three articles:
“‘Men
and Jews’: ‘This is the tribe that has no conscience or remorse, does every
cruelty to mankind in both the material world and the realm of spirituality and
thought.’ ‘The Jewish tribe has been sent to the world in order to destroy
every good thing, every strong foundation, and all liberating truths.’ ‘It is
an instinct of the Jew to do evil to men and to humanity.’ ‘The Jew cannot live
without evil and troublemaking.’
“‘Money
and the Jew’: ‘No doubt, Allah has created the Jewish tribe as the curse to
mankind.’ ‘There is no life that the poisonous hand of the Jew does not touch,
no society to which the Jew does not bring decay.’
“‘The
Islamic Cause and Judaism’: ‘We must search for the remedy to Jewish disasters
in the very soul of Islam.’ ‘As long as there is an Israel, the Islamic and
Turkish worlds are in danger. The future belongs either to one or to the
other.’
“Some
say that the Zionists and the jews are not one and the same. Let’s look: Who is
it that commits massacres and shameful deeds? The Zionists. Who are they? Are
they Muslims or Christians? No, [they are] Jews. Therefore, we know who the
murderers of humanity are.
“Who
says ‘take two lives with one bullet’ to incite the murder of pregnant
women?… Who is it who lacks all human values? Quick answer: The Jews…
“Let’s
take a few more quotes from Nurettin Topcu’s [book] Money and the Jews: ‘There are two
enemies of humanity, two Satans: Money and the Jew. The Jew idolizes money, and
money idolizes the Jew. If there were no Jew, money would not have an owner.’
‘Money and Jew live in symbiosis… The fight against the imperialism that is
ruled by the Jews is the fight for freedom.’
“Yes,
money is the Jew’s weak point. Imposing economic embargos, stopping the
purchase and sale of their goods, and cancelling all trade treaties [with Jews]
will prove a more useful method [than any other of fighting them]. This will
hurt them, and even if it does not, we will have done something [against
them]… We are obliged to protest against their cruelty. Our nation’s destiny
is to stand with the victim.”
Islamist Newspaper Yeni
Akit Columnist Proposes Special
Jew-Tax: Let Turkey’s Jewish Businessmen Pay To Rebuild Gaza
Islamist
Turkish columnist Faruk Kose wrote in the antisemitic and Islamist daily Yeni Akit:[4] “There is no way to remedy the
loss of lives [in the Gaza war], but
until we arrive at the ‘great revenge time’ we must keep the pain alive in our
hearts and rebuild Gaza with no delay, and remedy [the Gazans’] material
losses.
“The
material losses are great. As a result of the attacks by the ‘Jewish
murderers’… the superstructure is in ruins and the infrastructure has
collapsed. The damages total $8 billion. This is a big number for a little
territory such as Gaza… and its reconstruction will take 20 years.
“Naturally
the money needed to rebuild Gaza will come from the world’s Muslims… With
Muslim aid, Gaza will be rebuilt – until the ‘herd of murderers’ attack once
again and ruin it.
“So
should we not build Gaza out of fear that it will be destroyed again, and
should we allow tens of
thousands of our Gazan brothers to live in the Stone Age? Of course not!
However, it is time for ‘Palestine-loving Muslims’ and the ‘father of Gaza’
[i.e. Erdogan] to put an end to this vicious cycle. It is time to make the
‘culprits’ and the ‘culprits’ helpers’ pay for the damages.
“The
Muslims will build and the Jews will come and destroy[?] No more of that!
Damages must be collected from the Jews. My proposal is this: The money to
rebuild Gaza must be paid by [Turkey’s] Jewish businessmen. There should be a
mandatory ‘special tax’ for the ‘Gaza Fund,’ to be collected from local and
foreign Jews doing business in Turkey, [from any Jews] who have commercial ties
to Israel, and from any [Turkish] business partners [of Jews]. All Jews who
have any connection at all to the ‘Zionist/Jewish terror base Israel’ that
wrecked Gaza, and any [Turkish] company that conducts business dealings with
Jews must be forced to pay the ‘Gaza Fund’ tax.
“The
penalties for a Jew who fails to pay this tax must be revocation of his
business licenses, cancellation of his commercial ties, and confiscation of all
his assets. The same must be done to companies that deal with the Jews and fail
to pay this tax. All [non-Jewish] companies conducting business with Israel
must also be made to pay this tax. If they do not, it must be collected by
force, and their businesses must be shut down. Their partners must also be
included in this…
“Since
it is they who destroyed, let them pay for reconstruction. All those who
assisted the people who caused the destruction must pay this penalty too… If
they pay the bill, they might stop [destroying]. Most certainly they will
stop.”
Bilecik University Physics Department Head: “Treblinka Will
Be Ready Soon; [We Are] Constructing The Railway To Transport Jews At The
Moment”
In
a July 24, 2014 response to the publication by the Israeli daily Haaretz of an article on antisemitism in
Turkey, penned by U.S. academic Louis Fishman, Professor Ali Ihsan Goker, who
heads the physics department at Bilecik University, tweeted: “Treblinka
will be ready soon; [we are] constructing the railway to transport jews at the
moment.”
Fifteen
minutes later, he tweeted, “if I was PM I would round up the stranded
israelis [tourists] here [in Turkey] and send them to deportation camp at
once.”
No action was taken
against Goker; the following month, he was awarded a grant by TUBITAK, the
prestigious Turkish Science and Technology Institute.[5]
IHH Head Bulent
Yildirim: Israel’s Spoiled-Brat Attitude May Spell The End Of Turkey’s Jewish
Communities
The pro-AKP Islamist
daily Yeni Safak reported on statements by Bulent Yildirim,
the head of the terrorist organization IHH that presents itself as a charitable
organization, in which he said that the only ones who can stop Israel’s actions
are the Jews in Turkey, and that. Israel’s spoiled-brat attitude could spell
the end of the Jewish communities in Turkey. He noted that the IHH was
currently planning its next activities, which were to take place all over
Turkey, including at synagogues and at Israel’s diplomatic missions, and added
that it was becoming increasingly difficult to restrain its young members from
attacking Jews.
Endnotes:
[1] Umut
Ozkirimli at diken.com.tr, July 31, 2014.
[2] For
example, in Yeni Akit, (Turkey), July 16, 2014 headline:
“Treason From Istanbul Jewish Community” (headline)’; July 15, 2014
column titled “A Call To Chief Rabbi Of Turkey”; and July 27, 2014
column titled “A Call To Jews Who Are Turkish Citizens.”
[3] Yeni
Safak (Turkey), July 23, 2104. This pro-AKP Islamist daily is
considered to be the mouthpiece of the AKP government.
[4] Yeni
Akit (Turkey), September 7, 2014. The editors and columnists of this
virulently antisemitic pro-AKP daily newspaper, formerly known as Vakit, always
accompany President Erdogan in his private jet in all his travels.
[5] Additionally,
on July 18, 2014, AKP MP Samil Tayyar tweeted, addressing Israel: “May
your breed be extinct; may new Hitlers be upon you.” He was not questioned
on or disciplined for his statements.
