Can anyone with a sane mind watching the movie “World War Z” in a Turkish cinema ever think that he lives in a normal country? It is the Turkish movie subtitles that prompt a sane person to think that this is a country gone amok.
References to the country named “Israel” and the city named "Jerusalem" heard in the original version of the movie were discarded. Instead of being translated, they were tweaked to a single word that defines a wide geographical and political region. In the subtitles, Israel and Jerusalem had both become the "Middle East."
Whose insanity or hatred has led to this incredibly inane and unnecessary censorship of Israel and Jerusalem? Whatever the reason, it certainly reflects an abnormal psychosis that opts to escape reality. I am sharing this subtitle outrage because it represents the reactions to the image of Israel in Turkey. No doubt it is not a fundamental indicator but it is topical, and it at least offers a clue.
But for Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay, who until now was recognized for his moderate profile, to blame the Gezi Park protests on the "Jewish Diaspora” is a basic indicator of the government's attitude. In a talk Atalay gave in Kirikkale, a town in Central Anatolia, he made a connection between the "Jewish Diaspora” and the international media’s coverage of the Gezi Park protests:
AL-MONITOR All-Access gives you unlimited access to all our journalism, the full Daily Briefing, exclusive interviews, premium newsletters, and live events — for less than $2/week.
