Hitler's Mein Kampf No. 4 Bestseller in Turkey (link to anti-US sentiment)

The new World Media Watch is up now at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical with full excerpts and links to all articles

Tomorrow at Buzzflash.com



WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR MARCH 18, 2005

1//The Independent, UK--BUSH’S ‘SHOCKING’ CHOICE OF WOLFOWITZ FOR WORLD BANK PROVOKES OUTRAGE (President George Bush's nomination of PauWolfowitz as head of the World Bank has triggered reactions ranging from polite acceptance to outright hostility among foreign governments and aid groups. Some believe he is unqualified for the job while others fear he will be all too effective in using the post to expand America's global dominance. Although his nomination is almost certain to be accepted by the World Bank's board of directors and participating states, both the European Union and the French government made a point of saying that his assumption of the presidency is not a foregone conclusion. … Clare Short, the former international development secretary, described the nomination of the Bush administration's leading neoconservative hawk as the equivalent of sticking up "two fingers to the world". "This is really shocking," she told Channel 4 News. "It's as though they are trying to wreck our international systems.")



2//Arab News, Saudi Arabia--IRAQ: DEADLOCK BY DESIGN (The Shiite coalition cannot contest the Kurdish claims by force — but neither can it accept them without being seen by most Arab Iraqis (including its own Shiite supporters) as a traitor to Iraq. That is why it’s taking so long to create a new transitional government in Baghdad, and may take quite a while yet. This is not just petty bickering over government jobs: The basic structure of the future Iraqi state is being negotiated between the Kurds and the Shiite Arabs right now . Paul Bremer did not design this whole mess, but he did write the voting rules that give the Kurds an effective veto on any coalition government in the new assembly (and a veto on the new constitution, too, if and when it is finally written). One is tempted to see a Machiavellian calculation here: Maybe we lose the rest of Iraq, but at least we get to keep Kurdistan and half the oil. However, the temptation should be resisted. The Bush administration hasn’t even accepted yet that it has lost in Iraq.)



3//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--ISLAMABAD MAKES A TRADEOFF (Although Pakistani forces conducted their customary vigorous anti-terrorism operations near the Afghanistan border prior to visits by US officials, the real interest in Wednesday's meeting between President General Pervez Musharraf and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice centered on Iran. Before Rice's whirlwind visit to India, Pakistan and Afghanistan (she also goes to Japan, South Korea and China) Washington was abuzz with talk that the Bush administration had convinced Musharraf to lend support to American action against Iran for its alleged nuclear weapons program. … In return, the US seems to be more receptive to Pakistan's long-term request for F-16 fighter aircraft. On Wednesday, Rice thanked Musharraf for "superb support in the war on terror", according to State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. The possible sale of F-16 fighter planes came up, Boucher said, but he gave no details. There are further contours of the deal - Pakistan has provided material evidence to the US and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of the items and scientific information that Pakistani scientists provided to support the Iranian nuclear weapons program.)



4//The Telegraph, UK--WATCH OUT BLAIR, THEY WANT HIM (Gordon Brown has overtaken Tony Blair as Labour's main electoral asset only weeks before an expected general election, according to a post-Budget YouGov poll for The Telegraph. With a broadly favourable response to Mr Brown's ninth Budget, the poll suggests that Labour would stand a better chance of securing a record third term in power if the Chancellor, not Mr Blair, was Prime Minister. … The findings are understood to be reflected in private polling conducted by the Tories. As a result, they have abandoned an earlier campaign strategy of suggesting that it would be a "vote Blair get Brown" election - implying that the Chancellor would take over from Mr Blair soon after a third election victory. Because of Mr Brown's growing popularity with the voters, the Tories are now concentrating all their firepower on trust in Mr Blair, which they see as the weak point of Labour's campaign.)


5//The Daily Star, Lebanon-- HITLER’S ‘MEIN KAMPF’ SELLS 50,000 COPIES IN TURKEY IN THREE MONTHS (Cheap cover prices and a rise in nationalist sentiment have made an unlikely best-seller in Turkey of Adolf Hitler's infamous autobiography, "Mein Kampf." The book was first published in Turkey in 1939, when Axis and Allied countries were competing for Turkey's soul as they tried to woo it away from the neutrality it would maintain until the very end of World War II.
But since January, the book has sold more than 50,000 copies and is number four on the best-seller list drawn up by the D&R bookstore chain. … The readership? "Those who want to know about a man who wreaked death and destruction on the world," Tektas said. "Mostly young people," said Sami Kilic, owner of the Emre publishing house, another company on the "Mein Kampf" bandwagon, which sold 26,000 copies from a run of 31,000, released in late January.)

A difficult read, but Hitler was prophetic about the Balkans conflict.

Setting aside its loathsome message, the book is atrociously written. Even the Nazis didn't read it, though most owned it. It came in handy as a doorstop or paperweight, and newlyweds were given copies as wedding gifts. As for its contents, Hitler himself said that events superseded his argument. It's hard to think that events could make the book any more relevant today.

I wonder who gets the royalties these days. Now that's a scary thought.

Although I would like to believe this, I don't think they get any shares from the sellings in Turkey. It's not allowed to sell it in Germany.
It should be for sale and everybody should read it!

Dirk

…
Current availability

Today, the copyright of all editions of Mein Kampf except the English and the Dutch (Dutch government seized that in the same way) is owned by the state of Bavaria. The copyright will end on December 31, 2015. Historian Werner Maser, in an interview with Bild am Sonntag has stated that Peter Raubal, son of Hitler's nephew Leo Raubal, would have a strong legal case for winning the copyright from Bavaria if he pursued it. Raubal, an Austrian engineer, has stated he wants no part of the rights to the book, which could be worth millions of Euros.

The government of Bavaria, in agreement with the federal government of Germany, does not allow any copying or printing of the book in Germany, and opposes it also in other countries but with less success. Owning and buying the book is legal. Trading in old copies is legal as well, unless it is done in such a fashion as to promote hatred or war, which is generally illegal. Most German libraries carry heavily commented and excerpted versions of Mein Kampf.

In the Netherlands selling the book, even in the case of an old copy, is illegal as promoting hatred, but possession and lending is not. In 1997 the government explained to the parliament that selling a scientifically annotated version might escape prosecution.

In 1999, the Simon Wiesenthal Center documented that major internet booksellers like amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com sell Mein Kampf to Germany. After a public outcry, both companies agreed to stop those sales.

An Arabic edition of Mein Kampf has been published by Bisan publishers in Lebanon.

Public-domain copies of Mein Kampf are available at various Internet sites with links to banned books; also, several web sites provide copies of the book. However, some of those copies are edited in a dubious way, for example to replace the many references to Christianity in the book with neo-Pagan ones.
…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mein_Kampf

I did never understand the Bavarians nor Bush, before I did read "Mein Kampf". Must be one of the most prominent under-the-desk books in PR-agencies and parliaments these days...

Dirk

Peter Raubal, son of Hitler's nephew Leo and niece Geli--am I correct? Geli was the poor girl Hitler took a liking to whom he found shot under mysterious circumstances. It appeared to be a suicide but it could have been a political murder.

to retake Constantinople! Those Turks are up to no good. Expect W to announce the new crusade any day now.