TURK - U.S. OFFICIALS SILENT RE SUCCESS OF ANTI-AMERICAN FILM

U.S. officials are keeping a low profile regarding the Turkish movie The Valley of the Wolves: Iraq, even as the film continues to attract huge audiences in Turkey and Germany. Today's (Thursday) European edition of the U.S. Army newspaper Stars and Stripes quoted Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as saying, "It is a fictitious movie. ... It clearly does not have any basis in fact, and there is no reason for us to comment on fiction." In fact, however, the movie is based on an incident that occurred on July 4, 2003 when U.S. soldiers arrested 11 Turkish officers, pulled bags over their heads, and detained them for questioning. (The action was never explained; the officers were later released.) Other characters in the film, however, are clearly fictional, including a murderous U.S. officer played by Billy Zane, and a  Jewish doctor, played by Gary Busey, who harvests the organs of Iraqi prisoners, which he sells to wealthy clients in Israel and the West. In the conservative National Review, writer Jim Geraghty commented, "Pardon my French, but Billy, Gary... you're whores. You will contribute to the vilest propaganda for a pile of cash." The BBC's Middle East expert, Cengiz Candar, remarked, "This film poisons the climate in a way that it enhances jingoistic nationalism among Turks." But the English-language Turkish publication Dogan Daily News said on its website today, "However hostile the film may be, it is more likely to be the product of anti-American feelings in Turkey than the cause of it. A study shows that favorable views of America declined from 52 percent of Turks in 2000 to 15 percent in 2003." And Bulent Arinc, president of the Turkish National Assembly, praised it in an interview with the Anatolia news agency. "It is an extraordinary film that will go down in history," he said.

23/02/2006