Benefitting from the ambiguity: the issue of the ‘Turkishness’ of the Jewish minority in the first decade of the Turkish Republic

Abstract

This article attempts to contextualize the situation of the Jewish community recognized as a minority group in the Treaty of Lausanne within a wider framework of Turkish nationalism during the first decade of the Republic. It will claim that the ruling elite of the Republic concurrently defined ‘Turkishness’ on inclusive and exclusive terms. While in theory, Turkish nationalism was a ‘civic’ nationalism defining ‘Turkishness’ based on citizenship, when it came to practice, all citizens of the Republic were not privy to this identity; some of them, especially Jews, were expected to prove their loyalty in order to become equal members of the nation. This article claims that the contradictory attitude of the ruling elite – keeping the definition of ‘Turkishness’ ambiguous – had the purpose of constructing a cohesive and homogenous national community. In line with this ambiguous definition of ‘Turkishness’, the ruling elite developed an ambivalent attitude towards non-Muslim minorities and their place in the nation and the Jews of Turkey were affected the most by this precarious attitude.

Keywords:

• Turkish nationalism
• Anti-semitism
• Turkishness
• Minority
• Racism
• Politics

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Marc David Baer, Zeynep Arkan Tuncer, Göksu Uğurlu and Selin Kul for their valuable comments and suggestions on this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

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20 These rights were regulated between articles 38 and 44 of the Treaty of Lausanne. Accordingly, everyone residing in Turkey will have the right to free exercise of religion in private and public areas. Non-Muslim citizens of Turkey were defined as having full freedom of movement and emigration rights. There should not be any discrimination on civil and political rights. They will not be subject of any restrictions on using the language of their choice. Non-Muslim inhabitants of Turkey shall have the right to establish any charitable, religious and social institution and any schools and other establishments for instruction and education. Here they should have the right to use their own language and practice their own religion. They have the right to establish pious foundation and religious charitable institutions, and facilities and authorization should be granted to these institutions. See https://www.mfa.gov.tr/lausanne-peace-treaty-part-i_-political-clauses.en.mfa (accessed 4 April 2023).

21 L. Ekmekcioglu, ‘Republic of Paradox: The League of Nations Minority Protection Regime and the New Turkey’s Step-Citizens’, International Journal of Middle East Studies Vol.46, no. 4 (2014), p.658.

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23 Y. Bayar, ‘In pursuit of homogeneity: the Lausanne Conference, minorities and the Turkish nation’, Nationalities Papers Vol. 1, No.42 (2014), p.117.

24 https://www.anayasa.gov.tr/tr/mevzuat/onceki-anayasalar/1924-anayasasi/.

25 For the parliamentary debates on this definition, see Bayar, ‘In pursuit of homogeneity’, pp.128–30.

26 M. Yeğen, ‘“Jewish Kurds”’, p.8.

27 https://www5.tbmm.gov.tr/tutanaklar/KANUNLAR_KARARLAR/kanuntbmmc006/kanuntbmmc006/kanuntbmmc00601312.pdf (accessed 16 Feb. 2023).

28 https://acikerisim.tbmm.gov.tr/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11543/655/197505818.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y (accessed 1 Dec. 2022).

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30 Ziya Gökalp, Makaleler VII [Articles VII] (Ankara: Kültür Bakanlığı Yayınları 1982), p.30.

31 M. Baer, ‘The Double Bind of Race and Religion: The Conversion of the Dönme to Turkish Secular Nationalism’, Comparative Studies in Society and History Vol.4, No.46 (2004), p.694.

32 Y. Bayar, Formation of the Turkish Nation-State, 1920–1938 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), p.5.

33 R. Olson, The Emergence of Kurdish Nationalism and The Sheikh Said Rebellion, 1880–1925 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1989).

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35 A. Aktar, ‘Trakya Yahudi olaylarını “doğru” yorumlamak’ [Interpreting the Thrace Events ‘correctly’], Tarih ve Toplum, no. 155 (1996), pp.45–56.

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38 Ş. Aktürk, ‘Persistence of the Islamic Millet as an Ottoman Legacy: Mono-Religious and Anti-Ethnic Definition of Turkish Nationhood’, Middle Eastern Studies Vol.45, No.6 (2009), pp.893–909.

39 A compulsory population exchange program took place between Turkey and Greece as a result of the decision taken during the Lausanne Conference which involved at least 1.6 million people. This plan reflected the population engineering mentality of the era. See A. Filippidou, ‘The Impact of Forced Top-Down Nation Building on Conflict Resolution: Lessons from the 1923 Compulsory Population Exchange between Greece and Turkey’, Nationalities Papers Vol.48, No.1 (2020), pp.144–57.

40 Bayar, ‘In pursuit of homogeneity’, p.118.

41 Ş. Tokdaş, ‘Citizenship and Minorities: A Historical Overview of Turkey’s Jewish Minority’, Journal of Historical Sociology Vol.18, No.4 (2005), p.398.

42 https://www.salom.com.tr/arsiv/haber/92393/turkiye-cumhuriyetinde-antisemitizm1 (accessed 16 Feb. 2023). See also, R. Bali. Cumhuriyet Yıllarında Türkiye Yahudileri: Bir Türkleştirme Serüveni (1923–1945) [The Jews of Turkey in the Republican Years: An Adventure of Turkification (1923–1945)] (Istanbul: İletişim, 2017 (9th edition – first edition in 1999), p.77.

43 I. Bahar, Turkey and the Rescue of European Jews (New York: Routledge, 2015), p.32.

44 Tokdaş, ‘Citizenship and Minorities’, p.423.

45 Aktürk, ‘Persistence of the Islamic Millet, p.907.

46 Bali, Cumhuriyet Yıllarında Türkiye Yahudileri, pp.131–49.

47 Tokdaş, ‘Citizenship and Minorities’, p.400.

48 Tekin Alp, Türkleştirme [Turkification], edited by Ö. Ozankaya (Ankara: T.C. Kültür Bakanlığı, 2001). For more information on Munis Tekinalp see also J. Landau, Tekinalp: Bir Türk Yurtseveri [Tekinalp: A Turkish Patriot] (Istanbul: İletişim, 1996) R. Bali, Bir Günah Keçisi: Munis Tekinalp [A Scapegoat: Munis Tekinalp] (Istanbul: Libra Kitap, 2012).

49 A. Galanti, Vatandaş Türkçe Konuş! [Citizen Speak Turkish!], edited by Ö. Türkoğlu (Ankara: Kebikeç, 2000).

50 For details on this myth, see İ. Bahar, Turkey and the Rescue of European Jews (New York: Routledge, 2015).

51 S. Çağaptay, Islam, Secularism, and Nationalism in Modern Turkey: Who is a Turk? (New York: Routledge, 2006), p.155.

52 J. Daniels, ‘Prelude to a Turkish Anomaly: Eastern Thrace Before the 1934’, Antisemitism Studies Vol.1, No.2 (2017), p.383.

53 J. Daniels, ‘Prelude to a Turkish Anomaly’, p.368.

54 Devlet Arşivleri Genel Müdürlüğü, Cumhuriyet Arşivi, Fon No: 480 1 0 0, Kutu No:643, Dosya No: 130, Sıra No:1. On İbrahim Tali’s report see also H. Bayraktar, ‘The anti-Jewish pogrom in Eastern Thrace in 1934: new evidence for the responsibility of the Turkish government’, Patterns of Prejudice Vol.40, No.2 (2006), pp.95–112.

55 E. Ülker, ‘Assimilation, Security and Geographical Nationalization in Interwar Turkey: The Settlement Law of 1934’, European Journal of Turkish Studies, (2008) p.7.

56 İskan Kanunu, no 2510, 14/06/1934, Düstur, Tertip: 3, Vol. 15, p.4003.

57 Ibid., p.4004.

58 Vakit, 18 July 1934.

59 Bali, Cumhuriyet Yıllarında Türkiye Yahudileri, p.247.

60 B. Eligür, ‘The 1934 anti-Jewish Thrace riots: the Jewish exodus of Thrace through the lens of nationalism and collective violence’, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies Vol.44, No.1 (2017), p.88. For an evaluation of the autobiography of Erol Haker who had directly experienced the Thrace Incidents see also Marc David Baer, Sultanic Saviors and Tolerant Turks: Writing Ottoman Jewish History, Denying the Armenian Genocide (Bloomington: Indiana University Press 2020), pp.242–48.

61 Bayraktar, ‘The anti-Jewish pogrom in Eastern Thrace in 1934’, p.97. For the Thrace Incidents of 1934 see also B. Pekesen, Nationalismus, Türkisierung und das Ende der jüdischen Gemeinden in Thrakien 1918–1942 [Nationalism, Turkification and the End of the Jewish Community in Thrace 1918–1942], (Munich: R. Oldenbourg Verlag, 2012). For a personal account of the Thrace Incidents see also E. Haker, Once Upon a Time Jews Lived in Kırklareli: The Story of the Adato Family, 1800–1934 (Istanbul: Isıs Press, 2003).

62 R. Bali, ‘The 1934 Thrace Events: continuity and change within Turkish state policies regarding non-Muslim minorities: An interview with Rıfat Bali’, European Journal of Turkish Studies Vol.8 (2008), p.1.

63 J. Daniels, ‘Prelude to a Turkish Anomaly’, p.368.

64 Eligür, ‘The 1934 anti-Jewish Thrace riots’, p.100.

65 A. Levi, ‘1934 Trakya Yahudileri Olayı: Alınamayan Ders’ [The 1934 Thracian Jews Incident: The Lesson Not Learned] Tarih ve Toplum, no. 151 (1996), pp.10–17.

66 Eligür, ‘The 1934 anti-Jewish Thrace riots’, p.101.

67 On Nihal Atsız see U. Uzer, ‘Racism in Turkey: The Case of Nihal Atsız’, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs Vol.22, No.1 (2002), pp.119–30. J. M. Landau, ‘Ultra-Nationalist Literature in the Turkish Republic: A Note on the Novels of Hüseyin Nihal Atsız’, Middle Eastern Studies Vol.39, No.2 (2003), pp.204–10. İ. Aytürk, ‘The Racist Critics of Atatürk and Kemalism, from the 1930s to the 1960s’, Journal of Contemporary History Vol.46, No.2 (2011), pp.308–35. G. Bakırezer, ‘Nihal Atsız’, in M. Gültekingil and T. Bora (eds), Modern Türkiye’de Siyasi Düşünce [Political Thought in Modern Turkey] (Istanbul: İletişim 2002), p.352.

68 U. Uzer, ‘Racism in Turkey: The Case of Nihal Atsız’, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs Vol.22, No.1 (2002), pp.119–30.

69 Orhun, 21 March 1934.

70 The Ottoman Empire settled the Sephardic Jews after the expulsion from the Iberian Peninsula in 1492. In the mid-seventeenth century a religious movement was formed around Shabbetai Tzevi who claimed to be the Messiah. He was imprisoned by the Ottoman authorities and together with his followers they converted to Islam and obtained Turkish names. This Jewish population was labeled ‘Dönme’, which means ‘the converted’ a pejorative term in Turkish language. For more information see also M. Baer, The Dönme Jewish Converts, Muslim Revolutionaries, and Secular Turks (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2010) and C. Şişman, The Burden of Silence, Sabbatai Sevi and the Evolution of the Ottoman-Turkish Dönmes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015)

71 Orhun, 16 July 1934.

72 Orhun, 21 March 1934.

73 Orhun, 21 March 1934.

74 A. Lamprou, ‘The journal İnkılap and the appeal of antisemitism in interwar Turkey’, Middle Eastern Studies Vol.58, No.1 (2022), p.38.

75 G. Bakırezer, ‘Nihal Atsız’, in M. Gültekingil and T. Bora (eds), Modern Türkiye’de Siyasi Düşünce 4: Milliyetçilik (Istanbul: İletişim 2002), p.352.

76 Akşam, 8 July 1934.

77 Cumhuriyet, 8 July 1934.

78 Akşam, 6 July 1934.

79 Milliyet, 6 July 1934.

80 Cumhuriyet, 16 July 1934.

81 Vakit, 16 July 1934.

82 Akşam, 7 July 1934.