The public prosecutor of Canakkale has filed a libel suit against the Turkish daily newspaper “Anafartalar” for having published two violently anti-Semitic editorials.
The incident developed over the refusal of a Jew in Canakkale to permit the erection of a statue of Kemal Ataturk, founder and first president of the Turkish Republic, on his land. The newspaper then attacked all Jews, concluding with a threat that “the Turkish people could be more cruel than the Germans against the Jews.”
Leaders of the Jewish community of Canakkale, fearing that the editorials might provoke a public reaction, appealed to the city’s mayor. He assigned a police patrol to the Jewish quarter, and the public prosecutor was called into the picture. Upon application from the Jewish community, the prosecutor filed his suit against the newspaper. The trial is scheduled to open January 16, and it is expected that the newspaper will be suspended and its editor punished for the editorials.
Meanwhile, reflecting the anxiety of all Turkish Jews over these developments, the Turkish Grand Rabbinate has called the attention of the national government to the incident. The national authorities are reported to have taken a serious view of the situation.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
