Turkish Businessmen Targeted in anti-Semitic Attack
Restaurant owner comes after two men with doner blade - large, sword-like knife for cutting meat.
Two Turkish businessmen were victims of an anti-Semitic attack at a restaurant in northwest Turkey.
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The details of the attack, which were first published by the Algemeiner and Arutz-7 websites on Monday, based on an email from the victims, were confirmed to JTA by staff at Salom, a Jewish community newspaper in Turkey.
The two men were visiting clients in Turkey’s Babaeski region and stopped at a fish restaurant for lunch. The owner of the restaurant reportedly realized that they were Jewish and began shouting anti-Semitic epithets and said that he would not serve the men, according to reports.
The owner then reportedly came after the men with a doner blade – a large, sword-like knife for cutting meat. The men fled the restaurant. “We started running for our lives,” the email reportedly said.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Zionism a “crime against humanity” last year. Erdogan later apologized for the remark to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call. Anti-Semitic incitement in Turkey reportedly has increased since the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident.
There are about 15,000 Jews currently living in Turkey.