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German political and Jewish leaders condemn Turkish Iraq movie

Updated: 23/Feb/2006 16:47

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German Jewish community representatives joined the country’s political leaders in demanding the boycott of a hit Turkish action movie that casts US soldiers in Iraq as villains.

Bavarian state premier Edmund Stoiber and the Central Council of Jews blasted "Valley of the Wolves - Iraq" (Kurtlar Vadisi - Irak) as anti-American and anti-Semitic and called on German cinemas to stop showing the picture.

Charlotte Knobloch, vice president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told the daily newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung the movie stoked anti-Semitic sentiment.

"Valley of the Wolves" is an adaptation of a popular Turkish television series and the most expensive Turkish feature film to date with a 10-million-dollar budget (around 840,00 euros).

It has become a blockbuster in Turkey since its release this month and sold 200,000 tickets in Germany, where it is now ranked fifth in the box office charts.

Irresponsible movie

"This irresponsible film does not encourage integration but sows hate and mistrust against the West," Stoiber told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper in a reference to the film’s popularity among Germany’s large Turkish immigrant community.

"I urge the cinema owners in Germany to pull this racist and anti-Western hate film immediately."

The movie is based on an actual event -- the arrest of 11 Turkish soldiers by a US military unit in northern Iraq in July 2003 on grounds of "suspicious activity".

The men were held for two days, their heads bagged, before being released without explanation. The incident dealt a severe and lasting blow to relations between Turkey and the United States, long-time NATO allies.

The film features a "Rambo"-like Turkish intelligence officer who exacts revenge for the episode, and depicts sadistic violence against innocent Iraqi civilians at the hands of the US troops.

The GIs are also seen running a trade in organs extracted from prisoners at Baghdad’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison under the guidance of a Jewish US military doctor for rich buyers in New York, London and Tel Aviv.

Day in history

1945: Germany

The Nuremberg Trials begin. Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals of World War II start at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice.