From this morning’s email:
Sirs: As a reader with high regard for NR, please let me assure you that Mehmet Celebi is most definitively neither an anti-Semite nor an ulta-nationalist. Nor was he a producer of the vile “Valley of the Wolves.” A company of which he is co-owner supplied actors without knowing in advance of the movie’s ugly slant. Mr. Celebi–a respected young entrepreneur–is in the vanguard of fruitful co-operation between Chicago’s Jewish and Turkish communities. The future of harmony with moderate Muslims lies with people like Mr. Celebi.
Believe me, I know. I am chair emeritus of our city’s Jewish Community Relations Council as well as ex-National Vice-Chair of ADL and am deeply involved with Turkey and its Jewish community. If you want further proof, check with Chicago’s Jewish Federation and ADL. The fact that this story originated with Kurdish sources should have put you on guard. As a lawyer and writer, I am appalled that you didn’t check with Mr. Celebi and people who know him. I don’t mind your opposition to the Clinton campaign, I am supporting a Republican, and I recently published a denunciation of the Clinton-Sandy Berger machinations to hide the truth that Bill once passed an opportunity to nab Osama and then lied about it. But please make some effort to check your facts. Elementary decency should impel you to remove these lies from your website and apologize to Mr.Celebi and the Clinton campaign.
Thanks for listening.
Joel J. Sprayregen, Esq., Chicago IL.
My response: The website for Mr. Celebi’s firm was offline as of this writing, but a cached version of it produced a press release talking up the firm’s involvement with “Kutlar Vidisi,” known in English as “Valley of the Wolves.” IMDB identifies Mr. Celebi as producer or executive producer of multiple episodes of “Kutlar Vidisi,” and also names a Mehmet Celebi as having a role in the spinoff ”Kutlar Vidisi: Irak,” which contains, among other obscenities, a plotline about a Jewish physician helping to murder Iraqis and market their organs in New York and Tel Aviv. Mr. Celebi’s involvement in the project has been the subject of media reports in such (non-Kurdish) organs as the Turkish Daily News and the New York Post (as of this morning.) The Turkish Daily News story, which described Celebi’s involvement with “Kutlar Vidisi: Irak” included an interview with Mr. Celebi, who never mentioned any objections to the film’s content. His involvement in this project has been substantial.
If Mr. Celebi does in fact reject the anti-Semitic, anti-American, conspiratorial agitprop of “Kutlar Vidisi,” I would be happy to post a statement from him to that effect. But I cannot imagine that somebody who has worked closely with the “Kutlar Vidisi” team, as Celebi by all reports has, would be entirely unfamiliar with their worldview.
But since Mr. Celebi likes to give away money–particularly to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign–perhaps he’d like to do something noble with the money he earned from his participation in that odious, hateful film?