'The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion' – In Turkish

This report is the first in a series about the 19th-century antisemitic libel The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and its dissemination, circulation, and use in Urdu, Turkish, Farsi, and Arabic.

The Protocols Of The Learned Elders Of Zion is widely available in Turkey. Many brick-and-mortar and online bookstores across the country sell the text, while figures in the press, in academia, and on social media discuss it as authentic.[1]

In Brick-And-Mortar And Online Bookstores

D&R, which is the largest bookstore chain in Turkey, lists the Protocols for sale on its website.[2] D&R had 214 stores in 51 provinces in Turkey as of December 2021.[3]

The Protocols Of The Learned Elders Of Zion is available for purchase from the top book-selling website in Turkey, Kitapyurdu.com, in at least six different translations published between 2002 to 2021 by seven publishing houses.[4]

Publisher Kum Saati Yayınları published on Janaury 18, 2002, an edition translated by Sami Sabit Karaman.[5]

Publisher Sayfa Yayınları published on April 1, 2004, an edition translated by Abdullah Mustafa.[6]

Publisher Nokta Yayınları published on July 16, 2004, an edition translated by İsmail Tulçalı.[7]

Publisher Okumuş Adam Yayıncılık Ve Eğitim Hizmetleri published on October 30, 2004, an edition translated by A. Basad Kocaoğlu.[8]

Publisher Okumuş Gözlem Gazetecilik Basın ve Yayın A.Ş. published on June 8, 2005, an edition translated by A. Basad Kocaoğlu.[9]

Publisher Kayıhan Yayınları published on September 5, 2005, an edition translated by H. Akdaş.[10]

Publisher Etkin Kitaplar published on June 14, 2021, an edition of the Protocols translated by H. Akdaş.[11]

In The Press, Academia, And On Social Media

In a September 3, 2022 column in Yeni Akit titled "Protocols Of Zion," Ali Sandıkçıoğlu wrote: "Today the opposition in our country and the writings of certain writers line up perfectly with the articles of the Protocols." He then translated 22 points listed in the Protocols. In the week of September 20-26, 2022, Yeni Akit reportedly had a circulation of 56,050 copies.[12] Sandıkçıoğlu has served as a state-employed imam, and for many years he gave sermons in various mosques in Istanbul.[13]

An article titled "The Zion Protocols of Zionism and the World Domination Ideology" in the August 2014 issue of Yeni Fikir,[14] which describes itself as an "International Journal of Academic Research and Studies," asserts: "Zionism which has the ability of using all instruments in favour of itself in order to achieve world domination, finds its route to achieve this aim. Zionist Ideology ignores the international rules and this has caused a lot of disasters. When we look at the history, it is possible to see those disasters. The Zionist Philosophy is an aberration. And these disasters still continue. Then what is Zionism? What is the mysterious power that feeds Zionism with that power? What are the famous Zion Protocols? We will try to answer those questions in our next essay."

Hüseyin Hakkı Kahveci, whose website describes him as a "journalist, writer, strategist, and politics and terrorism expert"[15] and who has 104,000 Twitter followers, tweeted in 2017 that "The Protocols of Zion applied their 14th-article ruling in multi-party life" in 1947, which was the year that Turkey became a multi-party democracy.[16]

*A. Smith is Director of the MEMRI Turkish Media Studies Project.