Turkish restaurant owner attacks Jews with knife

Two Turkish businessmen were victims of an anti-Semitic attack at a restaurant in northwest Turkey.

The details of the attack, which were first published by the Algemeiner and Israel National News 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 in July called Israel a “crime against humanity.” 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.