HOW TURKEY PLANS TO “COMBAT ANTI-SEMITISM”
Gatestone Institute
Sept 25 2014
by Burak Bekdil
September 25, 2014 at 5:00 am
In Turkey, hate speech is a crime only if it is committed against
Muslim Turks.
The penalty for failing to pay the tax [only for Jews] should be the
revocation of the Jew’s business and the seizure of his property. —
Faruk Kose, columnist for Yeni Akit, honored with a permanent seat
aboard Turkish President Erdogan’s private jet.
At the beginning of September, President Barack Obama met with Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in
Wales. After the meeting, the White House said in a statement: “They
exchanged views on how best to cooperate in the struggle against ISIL
[Islamic State of Iraq and Levant/Syria] and violent extremism in Iraq
and Syria, and on the need for strengthened measures against foreign
fighters transiting to and from the battlefield.” What could be more
normal if the U.S. president discussed measures against extremism
with the president of a country that now borders ISIS?
But it was bizarre that Obama and Erdogan also discussed one topic
that was neither NATO- nor ISIS-related. The White House said: “The
President and President Erdogan also discussed the importance of
building tolerant and inclusive societies and combatting the scourge
of anti-Semitism.”
Apparently, the White House wanted to tell American Jews that the
president had finally wanted to be tough with Erdogan on the new
heights of anti-Semitism in Turkey. In return, Erdogan may have
replied: “What anti-Semitism in Turkey? That’s unheard of!” To which
Obama may have replied: “Ah, thank you president, I feel relieved!”
President Barack Obama talks with then Turkish Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, in a previous meeting, in Washington, Dec. 7, 2009.
[Official White House Photo]
More or less on the same day as “the President and President Erdogan
discussed the importance of building tolerant and inclusive societies
and combatting the scourge of anti-Semitism,” a shop in central
Istanbul put up a sign, featuring a photo of an Israeli tank, and
saying: “Jew dogs are not permitted entry.” Not really creative. The
sign was an echo of a 2009 wall poster elsewhere in Turkey that read:
“Jews and Armenians are not allowed, but dogs are.” (Of course, none
of the explicit hate crimes has ever been indicted; in Turkey hate
speech is a crime only if committed against Muslim Turks).
A few days after “the President and President Erdogan discussed
combatting the scourge of anti-Semitism,” an Islamist columnist called
for Turkey’s dwindling Jewish community to pay for reconstructing
buildings in Gaza damaged during Operation Protective Edge, an idea
reminiscent of a wealth tax Turkey had imposed on its non-Muslim
minorities in 1942.
Faruk Kose, a columnist for the daily Yeni Akit, wrote that the
“Gaza Fund Contribution Tax” should apply to Turkish Jews as well as
foreign Jews doing business in Turkey and any Turkish nationals with
commercial ties to the Jewish state. He even suggested that the tax
should apply to any company or business that maintains a partnership
with a Turkish Jew. The penalty for failing to pay the tax should be
the revocation of the Jew’s business license and the seizure of his
property, Mr. Kose proposed.
It would have been easy to shrug off the man with a “he is just nuts”
wave of the hand. In reality, Yeni Akit has a permanent seat aboard
Erdogan’s private jet, an honor that shows how much Erdogan admires
the newspaper’s editorial policy — and most likely the columnist
Kose, too.
Most ironically, a journalist from Yeni Akit was among Erdogan’s
select group of journalists accompanying him to Wales aboard his jet
— the same jet taking Erdogan to a meeting with Obama to discuss
“combatting the scourge of anti-Semitism.” Did Obama know? Not easy
to know. But if he knew, he could tell Erdogan that a good start
to combatting the scourge of anti-Semitism could be not to honor
newspapers that propose taxing Turkish Jews to reconstruct Gaza by
inviting them on his private jet.
And around the same time as Obama and Erdogan discussed combatting
the scourge of anti-Semitism, Turkey’s broadcasting watchdog, a body
controlled by the government, fined a private channel for airing the
Academy Award-winning film, “The Pianist.” The 2002 drama directed by
Roman Polanski is based on an autobiographical Holocaust-era memoir
of the same name, by Polish-Jewish pianist and composer Wladyslaw
Szpilman.
The watchdog claimed that its ruling was based on “scenes of violence
depicted in the film which might adversely affect the psychological
and mental development of minors.”
“This is simply ridiculous,” said an opposition member of parliament,
Ali Oztunc, from the social democrat Republican People’s Party. He
was right. “The Pianist” had been aired several times by different
Turkish channels before, with no fine or warning from the broadcasting
watchdog. Since the scenes it contains have not been re-filmed since
it was made in 2002, what could have changed to make the film qualify
for a fine? The film has not changed, but Turkey has.
When combined, all of these otherwise independent events best exhibit
how Erdogan’s Turkey responded to Obama’s call for combatting the
scourge of anti-Semitism, with Erdogan most probably smiling in
the background.
Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a Turkish columnist for the Hurriyet
Daily News and a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4727/turkey-anti-semitism