His name is Mehmet Celebi. Most Americans have never heard of him. He is a former leader in the Turkish American community in Chicago. He is the producer of what most English-speaking reviewers who have seen it call anti-American. And he is a major supporter and fundraiser for Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, having bundled more than $100,000 in contributions for the Senator. He has also been tapped by Clinton to be a delegate from Naperville, Illinois at the Democratic Convention in 2008. Celebi, who led Chicago-based the Turkish American Cultural Alliance (TACA) during a time Vanity Fair magazine claimed the local Turkish community was under FBI counterintelligence surveillance, is an up and coming movie producer. He co-owns BMH Worldwide, which produced Valley of the Wolves-Irak. The movie is based on a popular T.V. series in Turkey and has been subject of much controversy in Europe. It has not been widely distributed in the United States, but the DVD can be rented from Blockbuster Online. Celebi also appears to be moving up in political circles in the U.S., though it is not known how close he is to Clinton.
According to one of the few reviews of Valley of the Wolves-Irak to make it into English, this film is an "unapologetically anti-American production" . It depicts one character, played by American actor Gary Busey, as "an anti-Semitic caricature" who "harvests kidneys from Abu Ghraib prisoners and ships them in freezer boxes to Tel Aviv." The movie has been widely seen in Turkey and has helped spread the flames of anti-Americanism in that country, where America's popularity currently resides in the low single digits. An article in the International Herald Tribune describes a scene in one movie theater in Turkey where an audience claps and cheers as a Turkish agent plunges a knife into the chest of an American commander.
So far, no one in the Republican Party has made an issue that Hillary Clinton is receiving such firm support from a distributor of a film that, if it saw mainstream distribution in the U.S., would almost certainly be the subject of protests and boycotts from military personnel and their families. The GOP, like the Democrats, appears unwilling to criticize or offend the nation of Turkey. Turkey is a major recipient of U.S. arms, and is seen by many in the U.S. government as crucial to obtaining the natural resources of Central Asia. U.S. officials, including the U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, have expressed displeasure at Valley of the Wolves-Irak at the same time they have tried to downplay its significance.
A note sent out to the Turkish American community on a public forum may give clues as to why Celebi and many in the Turkish community are backing Clinton: [Hillary Clinton] is concerned about
about the image, reputation and credibility of the United States-all of which is non-existent due to the hectoring and belligerent actions of the US under the current administration. The Turkish-American community in the U.S. is not large, but since the late 90s they may have been a factor in blunting moves by some in Congress to reduce aid to Turkey over its human rights record in Kurdistan.
The Administration of Clintons husband, Bill, was seen as one of the most pro-Turkish Administrations in recent history. The Clinton Administration ensured transfers of arms to Turkey during its dirty war against the Kurds, despite pressure from the U.S. Congress to cutoff or put conditions on such sales. Although her husband lobbied former House Speaker Dennis Hastert against make an Armenian Genocide Resolution in 2000, Hillary Clinton officially expressed support for such a resolution earlier this year.