US embassy cable - 05ANKARA1275

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 001275 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SE 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/10/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PHUM, TU 
SUBJECT: MEIN KAMPF - WHAT TODAY'S YOUNG TURKS ARE READING 
 
REF: ANKARA 295 
 
Classified By: Classified by Polcouns John Kunstadter; reasons 1.4 b an 
d d. 
 
1. (C) Summary: Mein Kampf has climbed to the top 10 on 
Turkish bestseller lists, with sales jumping dramatically in 
the last couple of months.  A spokesman for the Jewish 
community said he has warned publishers that the book could 
provoke anti-Semitism, and questioned why it is selling at a 
discounted price.  A German Embassy contact said he has long 
been disturbed by the admiration many Turkish nationalists 
hold for Hitler.  He said Mein Kampf is presented in Turkey 
as a serious work of political theory, with no introduction 
to put Hitler's "ramblings" in context.  A number of Turkish 
columnists have theorized that anti-Americanism is a factor 
in book sales.  Turkish bookstore shelves are replete with 
xenophobic works promoting paranoid conspiracy theories.  End 
Summary. 
 
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Mein Kampf "Selling Like Hotcakes" 
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2. (U) Adolf Hitler has suddenly emerged as a leading author 
in Turkey -- his twisted jailhouse diatribe Mein Kampf ranks 
among the top 10 on this month's bestseller lists for some of 
the country's major bookstore chains.  Three Turkish 
publishing companies specializing in nationalistic literature 
are currently hawking cut-rate editions of the book, which 
sell for USD 4.35 when most books of similar size cost from 7 
to 11 USD.  Some editions feature a logo on the front cover 
announcing the "special printing."  The cover of the version 
published by Manifesto boasts a press run of 50,000 copies. 
Another publishing house reportedly printed 31,000 copies in 
15 days in February to meet rising demand.  The manager of a 
bookstore in the Kizilay section of Ankara, where many 
university students shop, told us the book is "selling like 
hotcakes," especially among males between 20 and 35 years old. 
 
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Jewish Community, German Embassy Concerned 
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3. (U) Silvio Ovadyo, spokesman for the office of the 
Istanbul chief rabbi, told reporters the Jewish community is 
concerned that sales of Mein Kampf could promote 
anti-Semitism, and has made its views known to publishers. 
Ovadyo also questioned how the book can be sold at such a low 
price. 
 
4. (C) Thomas Bagger, political and press counselor at the 
German Embassy, told us he has long struggled with his 
frustrations over the admiration many Turkish nationalists 
hold for Hitler.  "I'm always getting awkward compliments 
from otherwise reasonable Turks telling me what a great 
nationalist leader Hitler was,"  he said.  Now that Mein 
Kampf is climbing the bestseller charts, Bagger believes it's 
time for the German Government to respond with a blunt 
message: Hitler was a disaster for the world, and for 
Germany; he cannot serve as a basis for Turkish-German 
relations.  Bagger said he hopes German officials raise the 
issue during MFA U/S Tuygan's March 10 visit to Berlin. 
 
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Book Presented as Serious, Scholarly 
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5. (U) Bagger averred that the regional government of Bavaria 
owns the rights to Mein Kampf, and does not authorize its 
publication.  "We don't want it published anywhere," he said. 
 The German Government maintains that virtually all new 
publications of the book are illegal.  Nevertheless, he 
acknowledged that the book is published in a number of 
countries, and that it has historical significance.  But he 
said the versions now flying off the shelves in Turkey are 
different from ones he has seen in university bookstores in 
the U.S. and other countries.  The Turkish editions lack an 
appropriate introduction to put Mein Kampf in context.  The 
back cover of one edition promotes the book as a work that 
"changed the world" and "influenced the masses."  The book is 
presented in Turkey as a serious, scholarly work of 
nationalist philosophy and ideology, an approach Bagger 
considers dangerous and irresponsible.  "These are nothing 
more than the ramblings of a sick mind," he said. "The book 
is virtually unreadable, and downright boring most of the way 
through." 
 
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Columnists Say Anti-Americanism Boosts Sales 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
6. (U) Bagger said there are 13 companies in Turkey that 
publish Mein Kampf, and the book has been a staple on Turkish 
bookstore shelves for years.  But he is at a loss to explain 
why sales of the 80-year-old polemic have jumped dramatically 
over the last couple of months.  A number of Turkish 
columnists have theorized that young Turks are attracted by 
Mein Kampf's message in a time of anxiety over the power of 
the U.S. -- seen as Israel's ally, protector, and, sometimes, 
pawn -- and uncertainty about Turkey's place in a globalized 
economy.  Bagger finds these explanations  at least partly 
convincing, noting that sales of Mein Kampf have climbed 
alongside those of Metal Storm, a novel about a U.S. invasion 
of Turkey. 
 
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Turkey Provides Fertile Soil for Xenophobia 
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7. (C) Bagger said he believes Turks are drawn more by Mein 
Kampf's nationalistic message than by its anti-Semitic 
content.  At the same time, however, he acknowledges that 
Turkish bookstores are full of works promoting paranoid, 
xenophobic conspiracy theories, many of which are stridently 
anti-Semitic.  "The entire political section of the 
bookstores is rubbish," he said.  Unfortunately, these kinds 
of ideas enjoy fertile soil in Turkey, where even the 
educated generally have a poor understanding of the outside 
world, a fact that Germans have often been forced to 
confront.  While the nationalists praise Hitler, the radical 
Islamists are vilifying German Interior Minister Schily for 
banning the European edition of the Turkish newspaper Vakit 
in February for denying the Holocaust.  In Turkey, the 
viciously Islamic fundamentalist Vakit responded by 
publishing crude cartoons depicting Schily covered with 
Swastikas and Stars of David.  Why Stars of David?  Bagger 
says the logic goes as follows: The Holocaust was a hoax 
perpetrated by the Nazis to justify the establishment of the 
State of Israel; therefore, Nazis and Jews are virtually 
synonymous.  "I know it's crazy, but it makes sense to them," 
he shrugged. 
 
8. (C) Bagger said the Germans were hoping, to no avail, that 
PM Erdogan or FM Gul would denounce the Vakit cartoons, 
noting that Erdogan recently took a political cartoonist to 
court for depicting him as a cat.  Now Bagger is hoping the 
international press will pick up the Mein Kampf story, 
because "international pressure is the only thing they 
respond to." 
 
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Comment 
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9. (C) The popularity of Mein Kampf is only the latest 
symptom of what the Wall Street Journal's Robert Pollock 
labeled Turkey's "intellectual decadence."  Hitler's book 
shares shelf space with many other paranoid works, including 
the above-mentioned Metal Storm and others whose titles are 
self explanatory, such as "America's Secret Government - the 
Skull and Bones Society," "The Vatican - Threat From the 
West," and "Missionaries and Political Christianity."  The 
problem is not confined to Turkey's youth -- an Israeli 
contact told us that MPs accompanying FM Gul on his January 
trip to Israel did not understand what the Holocaust Memorial 
was dedicated to (reftel). 
 
 
 
EDELMAN