Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' Becomes Best-Seller In Turkey

Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' Becomes Best-Seller In Turkey

POSTED: 12:13 pm PST March 18, 2005

ISTANBUL, Turkey -- Is it just curiosity -- or a sign of growing anti-Semitism and anti-American sentiment in Turkey?

Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" has suddenly become a best seller in Turkey, following the release of two cheap paperback versions.

The books were printed without permission from Bavaria, which holds the book's copyright. Bavaria's finance minister said it shouldn't have been reprinted.

more,,,
http://www.thekcrachannel.com/news/4299049/detail.html

and Mein Kampf is no exception.

Anti-semitism isn't exactly a "forbidden fruit", but most people who have a beef with Israel -- rightly or wrongly -- get that "politically incorrect" thrill from the rantings of people like Hitler.

People in this country (USA) are still buying into the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, so this doesn't surprise me a bit.

--p!

as the bigotry has been entrenched for an eternity. It's another case of "forbidden fruit" syndrome and media sensationalism.

The fruit gets the attention, but the tree is what produces the fruit. Maybe that's a tortured metaphor, but it seems to hold true in this case.

Unfortunately, there is more than enough misery in the Muslim world to support a whole industry of exploiters. And we in the Western world have hardly been slack, ourselves.

--p!

In regards to your metaphor, what tree is producing the poisoned fruit? I didn't quite follow.

The human proclivity to hate, and to justify hatred with ideologies like Naziism, anti-semitism(s), warrior creeds, and the like.

--p!

I was trying to wrap my brain around that analogy and I was getting a headache! So, I figured it was better to get an explanation. I appreciate it. I also agree with it.

I just wanted to see what he actually said, I held no kind regard for fascism or anti-semitism. Anyone with a sound mind would come out of the reading of that book even more convinced of Hitler's intellectual failings than they were when they went in. As far as I recall, it is an intellectually incoherent ramble, and poorly written to boot. After reading it, all I could think was that he must have been a lot better public speaker than writer to not get laughed out of the country.

Maybe they're looking for a refresher course.

The Turks have vigorously suppressed the Kurds for decades. Now we have the Kurds in Iraq sitting in what is, essentially, a catbird seat: no government can be formed without their swing vote. Also, Kurdish Iraq is contiguous with smaller, less influential Turkoman Iraq--which has cultural and historical ties to Turkey.

And the Turks probably would not be as excited about the rights of the Turkomeni were they not located very close to the Kirkuk oil fields, which, inconveniently, are claimed by the Kurds.

When you look up words like hate and freedom in the chimp and pals dictionary, there's always a reference to OIL in there somewhere!

Sight disclaimer: I have many Turkish as well as Armenian friends, but the Turks really do have a serious blind spot about that Armenian business--they're taught in school that the genocide was a total lie, and they buy it as an article of absolute faith. It's a bit more serious of an oversight than, say, our books failing to note that our first president grew hemp, or even that "Remember the Maine!" was trumped up bullshit.

Of course, we're doing a pretty good job in the world hypocrite parade of late....

Turkey was formed by a dozen or more invasions over the past 2500 years: Hittites, Greeks, Celts, Romans, (proto-)Kurds, Asians (at least two groups), Slavs, and probably a few more I forgot.

I would have expected much more recent bloodshed than simply the Armenians and Kurds (and occasional shoot-outs with the Greeks over Cyprus).

If I'm leaving out any important historical insights, or I am just plain wrong, do let me know.

--p!

Attaturk changed everything, to include the way Turks write (he went from Arabic to Roman script, to make ties with Europe closer and make it easier for Turks to learn foreign languages--makes it difficult to translate old documents as a consequence!). He changed the whole mindset of the country, aggressively modernized it, reached out in ways his predecessors never managed to do, established a strong, centralized, lockstep military that to this day has the "final say" in anything the country does, and his legacy has lasted to this day.

Interesting guy, that Attaturk!

Some were 100% Kurdish. (I don't have more recent statistics.) How many black or half-black presidents has the U.S. had, may I ask?

Nearly half of Turkey's MP's are of Kurdish origin. What percentage of congresspeople in the U.S. are black?

I'm not saying that things are hunky-dory in Turkey. Certainly there is room for improvement. But it's not a simple situation. And it's all too easy for Americans who have never even visited Turkey -- let alone lived there -- to roll their eyes about "the horrible way in which Turkey treats its Kurdish population", while neglecting the real oppression going on in their own country.

..."a brush of the tar." Harding and Lincoln come to mind. The odds are good it is fewer than four, but greater than one. I don't necessarily endorse this particular site, but here's the basic thinking on the subject: http://www.computerhealth.org/ebook/5blkpres.htm

As for the Kurds in Turkey, you need to have an understanding of what it is like to live as a Kurd there. They are not allowed to have Kurdish names, they are not permitted to speak the Kurdish language, and they are arrested for wearing Kurdish dress. How do I know? Been there, seen that. Seen more than I needed to see, to be blunt about it. You don't know unfairness here in the USA...!

Quite frankly, unless I had an 'international' (i.e. ABLE TO PASS) face, and a homogenized name, I would rather be black in awful America than demonstrably Kurdish in Turkey. At least you have a weak shot at the courts in the USA. In eastern Turkey, you would just.....disappear. Without recourse. And no one would give a shit.

I invite you to speak with the folks at Amnesty International if you doubt what I am saying. You'd be stunned.

Thank you for responding kindly to my somewhat testy post. I'm sorry for assuming that you'd never been to Turkey.

First of all, there is no comparison vis à vis the presidents. At least two of Turkey's presidents were fully -- demonstrably -- Kurdish (If I remember correctly, İsmet İnönü and Fahri Korutürk were 100% Kurdish, and Turgut Özal was half Kurdish. I can't remember who the fourth was. So far, there have only been ten presidents in Turkey.) The U.S. has not had any obviously black presidents. I was wrong about 50% of MPs being of Kurdish origin, but an internet search indicates that between 100 and 200 of the current 550 MPs are of Kurdish origin. Note that the percentage of Turks who are of Kurdish origin is about 20%. There is no way the U.S. can compete with this any time soon.

In 2003, the laws banning Kurdish names, Kurdish broadcasting and print, and Kurdish private education were abolished. Since then, Kurdish and other minority languages and dialects have been available on TV and radio. If you go to Turkey now, you can find Kurdish music CDs being sold in music stores and bookstores. (When I look up Turkey on amnesty international, I don't get any recent entries mentioning Kurds -- the latest article I can find dates back to 2002. However, it seems that in January of this year the government introduced a new law banning politicians from speaking Kurdish. I hope this will be widely criticized.)

You can be Kurdish in Turkey -- obviously and openly Kurdish, calling yourself "a Turk of Kurdish origin" (sort of like "African American") -- and get away with it. It's only if you claim to be "Kurdish but not Turkish" -- which indicates that you're a separatist -- that you get in trouble.

I'm not claiming that the situation is anywhere near ideal. The state is too paranoid about separatists: in addition to the Kurds, there are over forty distinct ethnicities in Turkey, and the state worries that if one group separates, the rest will follow.

I believe that police brutality in general is a much bigger problem right now in Turkey than the Kurdish issue. It's not just Kurds in Turkey who "disappear"; regular Turks do too. In fact, when I go to Amnesty International, almost all the entries are about this. The state needs to learn to value every human life.

(Preface: Amusing is probably not the right word!)

...is that they call themselves a democracy, but they are a sorta-kinda-only-if-we-say-so democracy-lite. Since Kemal Ataturk set the game up, the deal over there is that if the military thinks that the civilian government is going too far off the page, they just TAKE OVER. One day you have a civilian in charge, the next day there's some general on the tee-vee telling everyone to stay calm, the government is fucked up, and a course correction is in order. The general takes over, hangs out for awhile, then they have elections, and the military fades away, until they decide to do it again--so Turkey is basically a military dictatorship that "can't be bothered" to run the country full-time, no matter how democratic it looks on the surface. It's happened more than once--three or four times, in fact--in the modern history of that country. And what's funny is, they make no secret of it. Some general will come out and tell the government to get their act together "or else" and the next thing you know they are running the joint. No one complains, they're used to it.

Of course, they have universal conscription and one of the largest standing armies in the world. They used to toss people in jail if they said anything against the military--supposedly (officially, anyway) that is no longer the case, but I'd advise anyone over there to really watch what they say (to paraphrase ole Ari).

The Kurdish issue remains problematic because of the continued strengthening of the position of the Iraqi Kurds. The Turks are only loosening the ropes around their Kurds' necks because they are really afraid of serious insurgency, not because they especially like them, or believe that they are "equal"--in fact, there's tension between those who identify themselves as Turks and those who celebrate their Kurdish heritage, and there always will be, it seems. I've found that it is one of those topics that you just do not bring up unless you are very, very, very good friends. There's an unwillingness to be candid about the issues, in my experience.

Even with the lessening of overt oppression of the Kurds, incidents of terrorism/insurgency continue, and Ankara really does not know how to tackle it without setting off a total mess:

Land Forces Commander Gen. Yasar Buyukanit warned yesterday that the threat of terrorism in Turkey is growing, adding that anti-terrorist efforts were a serious matter. “Our nation has forgotten the terror days of the past,” he said, adding that recently the number of terrorists had risen. “The issue is very serious since the number of weapons held by the terrorist PKK/KONGRA-GEL has increased to its 1999 level,” added Buyukanit. /Milliyet/ Cite: http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=38792

I find Kurds interesting because they are some of the toughest, most resilient, pragmatic, self-reliant people I have ever encountered. They are also patient beyond belief, and they KNOW their history. They can play the "enemy of my enemy is my friend" game better than anyone.

And the truth of the matter is that the borders where Iran, Iraq and Turkey converge are not at all secure. However, if the Turks mass their army on the border, that's regionally problematic (as well as a helluva target for insurgents--those conscripts aren't too bright). The Turks actually had a good deal going with Saddam, what with their being a backdoor outlet for a lot of his oil (via pipeline) and there was a brisk black market trade going on (sanctions, schmanctions!) to the benefit of greedy pigs on both sides of the border. Officially, however, the amount of foreign military sales and grants that Turkey get from us forces them to go along with our game plan, even though their self-interest makes them wish for another strategy.

I think the whole Kurdish aspect is the wild card in the region...and the Kurds will remain our pals only so long as it suits them. They've been screwed by several US presidents going back to FDR--they aren't going to follow our lead blindly, and they'll smile and be charming, play us against the Russkies or whomever offers any kind of help to them, and keep their own interests front and center, always.

for new insight into americas furer.

Cheers
Drifter

or did the renowned Crawford Booksellers open a branch in Istanbul, complete with Turkish translations of "The Very Hugry Caterpillar" and "The Pet Goat"?

I get the "Pet Goat" reference, but what in the world is the "Very Hungry Caterpillar?" Or is that just something made up?

...would like as not be on the menu!!!

I read it as "The Kracka Channel."

ok, moving on...:crazy:

Every time I see the link I say "the cracker channel" in my head...

Weird...

:)

It's a seminal work of the "conservative revolution." It succinctly lays out an argument for nationalism and rule by the rich. It's good to know the enemy intimitely.

kept on his night table alongside the Bible. He said that in 1994, when he became the "ram it up yours" Republican Speaker of the House. No one noticed then, or if they did, no one made a big deal of it. My very own heart did. Hitler and the Bible are so opposite each other. You cannot love one and love the other. This is a case of it is EITHER one, or it is the other.

While Jesus allegedly preached nurturance and forgiveness, Der Fuhrer and the Old Testament Wrathful Smiting Lord are the same guy psychologically, deified by men out of need to cope with an arbitrary and terrifying world.

The reason for this is our universal human experience as being both helpless and 'abused' by adults when we are small children. The process of being 'socialized' is hard on our egos and sense of autonomy and we spend adulthood recovering from the traumatic experience which shapes our perceptions for life. Big Brother looks alot like the father who beat us before he fed us.

Their are 8 common tactics used to break the will of prisoners as codified by Amnesty International. Domestic abuse agencies recognized these tactics as being used against women by their abusers in domestic relationships. I see them as every human's most formative experiences which are replicated in society as politicians use them to control the masses.

Look closely and you'll see this, too.
http://www.actabuse.com/chartofcoercion.html
(Biderman's Chart of Coercion)

Hitler instinctively knew and exploited this when he wrote how people WANT to be abused and told what to do like helpless children. As helpless children, we equate fear and obedience with survival and fascism takes advantage of this. That's why the Military Industrial Complex gets away with murder and many liberals can't imagine why.

Newt Gingrich saw this sad trait of human nature just as Machiavelli and Leo Strauss did.

This is something liberals are having a hard time dealing with and don't want to believe. It contradicts almost every thing they believe.

Quotes from Hitler's 'Mein Kampf':

"The masses of the people prefer the ruler to the suppliant and are filled with a stronger sense of mental security by a teaching that brooks no rival than by a teaching which offers them a liberal choice. They have very little idea of how to make such a choice and thus are prone to feel abandoned. Whereas they feel very little shame at being terrorized intellectually and are scarcely conscious of the fact that their freedom as human beings is impudently abused...physical intimidation has its significance for the mass as well as the individual...For the successes which are thus obtained are taken by the adherents as a triumphant symbol of the righteousness of their own cause; while the beaten opponent very often loses faith in the effectiveness of any further resistance."

"Through clever and constant application of propaganda people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way around, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise."

"Today Americans would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los
Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful. This is
especially true if they were told there was an outside threat from
beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very
existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead with
world leaders to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every
man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario,
individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee
of their well being granted to them by their world government."
-Henry Kissinger, Speaking at Evian, France, May 21, 1992. Bilderberg
meeting.

and my basic Catholic education ... I don't see how they can be called "similar" when one teaches to love thy neighbor and the other one teaches lies, abuse and hell.

of everything and everyone, women-children-animals. Sad but true. Literature that originates in the oral tradition and then is translated over and over picks up the traits of the fearful humans who transmit it.


I prefer to focus on Jesus' teachings myself. They are about love and compassion, not revenge and violence against infidels and sinners.

'Mein Kampf' is not complex. It is only about manipulation through fear.
Although some people think that nationalism is a form of love. I don't. Nationalism is about us vs. them, not about universal love.

It would be interesting to know how many copies it still sells annually.

The Skin