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A previous Frankfurt Book Fair (AP file)
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| By Associated Press October 15, 2006 |
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Turkey's Culture Ministry and Publishers Association both denied responsibility Friday for choosing books displayed at a recent book fair that were alleged to be anti-Semitic by a prominent Jewish human rights group.
A senior official from the ministry expressed concern at the allegation, but said on customary condition of anonymity that the Publishers Association chose the books displayed at the ministry's stand at the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany.
Publisher's Association General Secretary Metin Celal, however, refuted that claim, saying his organization ran a separate stand at the fair and was not responsible for choosing books at the ministry's stand.
"They had a committee, they chose the books and they decided," Celal said of the Culture Ministry.
He said the Publishers Association's stand had between 3,000 and 4,000 books, and disputed allegations that any of those books -- or the books at the separate stand run by the ministry -- were anti-Semitic.
"I saw two books at the Turkish Culture Ministry stand, and I think they were not anti-Semitic," he said. "We don't understand these kinds of attacks."
Celal added that, regardless, he thought "publishing everywhere should be free."
The Simon Wiesenthal Center had complained to delegates at a Warsaw meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe that three anti-Semitic books were on display at Turkey's stand during the Frankfurt Fair, the world's largest and oldest, on Oct. 3-8.
Simon Samuels, a representative for the center, expressed "shock" at finding such books "at the magnificent display of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey."
The Wiesenthal Center said the books included a saga of alleged Jewish plots against Turkey called "The Greater Israel Strategy," and a book called "Password Israel" that argued that the Torah, through an alphabetic code, revealed that Jews were planning World War III and the destruction of Turkey.
Samuels said the presence of such books at a ministry stand could be construed as government endorsement, and urged Ankara to apologize.
Frankfurt police said they investigated the books after those claims, but said the material did not rise to the level needed for prosecution under German law forbidding racial incitement.
"The police went and checked on it," said police spokeswoman Doris Moeller-Scheu. "It did not constitute a violation of the law."
Turkey has some history of bad press for anti-Semitic and, more recently, also anti-American publications.
Last year, Turkish booksellers realized with some embarrassment that Hitler's 1925 autobiography, "Mein Kampf," had become a best-seller in the country. A series of other books have been released recently that portray the United States and Israel as possible enemies of Turkey.
Two books by contemporary author Hakan Yilmaz Cebi -- one on the code hidden in the Torah and another dealing with "Israel's A-Plan" to rule the Middle East, have sold more than 10,000 copies.
These are in addition to several popular books that claim prominent Turkish figures belong to families that converted to Islam under Ottoman Turkish rule. The books say these families still secretly practice Judaism and that disguised Jews have risen to prominent positions in Turkey, with the aim of promoting Israeli policies.
Turkey is a 99 percent Muslim country, but some 25,000 Jews live in its largest city, Istanbul. The country has historically good ties with Israel, though the recent conflict in Lebanon set off weeks of protests around the country and aroused a severe public backlash against the Jewish state.
Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara and David McHugh in Berlin contributed to this report.
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