Tweet
HEADING FOR A JEW-FREE TURKEY
Middle East Forum
Dec 23 2014
by Burak Bekdil
The Gatestone Institute
At the beginning of the 20th century, there were about 200,000 Jews
in Turkish lands - when the entire population was barely 10 million.
Today, the Turkish population has reached 77 million - and there are
fewer than 17,000 Jews.
Mois Gabay, a Turkish Jewish writer for Salom, the Istanbul
Jewish newspaper, recently wrote in his column, "Are Turkish Jews
Leaving?": "We face threats, attacks and harassment every day. Hope
is fading. Is it necessary for a 'Hrant among us' to be shot in order
for the government, the opposition, civil society, our neighbors and
jurists to see this?" The 'Hrant' to whom he referred is Hrant Dink,
a Turkish Armenian journalist who was shot dead in 2007 by a gang of
nationalist Turks.
On Dec. 15, the Turkish liberal daily Radikal interviewed Gabay,
who started by showing Radikal's reporter dozens of threats and hate
messages he has received through Twitter, Facebook and mail messages.
"This is almost daily," he said.
According to Gabay, only this year 37% of high-school graduates in
Istanbul's Jewish community left Turkey to study abroad, twice as many
as in previous years. "We don't know how many of them will return,"
he says. "But the idea to leave Turkey (for good) is also in the
minds of my generation."
The reason is simple: "The circle is closing in," according to Gabay.
"In an atmosphere like this, especially if you are a trader, you tend
to change your name. Mois's tends to become "Musa's," "Cefi's," become
"Cem's" and "Meri's" become "Peri's" (all the latter are Turkish
names.) His Jewish friends tell Gabay that they are elaborating on
the idea of leaving Turkey and settling in far-away countries such
as Canada, Panama and Australia. Two Jewish friends of his who have
shops in Istanbul's busy Unkapani district recently complained to
him that "The imam in the neighbourhood has the habit of preaching
to his congregation 'not to make friends with Jews and Christians.'"
According to Gabay, the Turkish government's [anti-Israeli/anti-Jewish]
rhetoric paves the way for this, provokes Turks and spreads [hatred]
to even larger masses. But there is more.
"Thanks to the spread of social media, the previously 'invisible Jew'
is reachable now. There are laws against hate speech. But not a single
person has ever been prosecuted [let alone sentenced] for threatening
and insulting [Jews].
But according to a prominent Turkish Armenian, part of the blame is
on Turkey's tiny non-Muslim minorities.
Etyen Mahcupyan is a leading Turkish Armenian intellectual, writer
and columnist. He has published more than 15 books and has written
regular columns in Turkey's leading liberal newspapers. Last October,
Mahcupyan, one of a dwindling number of liberals keenly supporting
Turkey's Islamist government, was appointed as "chief advisor" to
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. In a recent interview with Turkey's
leading daily, Hurriyet, Mahcupyan said,
Whatever has been a [political] asset for Turkey's Armenian community
(they number around 60,000) is an asset for the Jewish community too.
But... there is Israel... As long as the psychology of the Israel
issue continues to influence politics in Turkey and relations between
the two countries do not normalize...
The line Mahcupyan shyly did not finish probably would have gone on
like this: "Turkey's Jews will keep on paying the price."
Turkish Armenian intellectual Etyen Mahcupyan thinks that daily
attacks on Turkey's Jews and other non-Muslims happen because they
are better-educated then Muslims and have a "superiority complex."
In a recent article, Mahcupyan, a former editor of Agos, where the
slain Turkish Armenian journalist Hrant Dink wrote, argued that
Turkey's [secularist] Jews harboured an allergy against Muslims.
Mahcupyan apparently deserves his new position as "his master's voice."
He admits that it is the government's responsibility to do something
if Turkey's Jews felt awfully alienated. But he thinks "there is the
other side of the story."
Mahcupyan said: "All of this [anti-Semitism in Turkey] is related
to the Jewish community's perception of Islam and the region. This
is a perception that powerfully produced politics and positions. If
the Armenians do not behave like them [the Jews] we can understand
the historical difference between the two [Jewish and Armenian]
communities."
Apparently, Mahcupyan, the prime minister's chief advisor, tends
to blame the victim, not the criminal. "I have lived through this
personally for the past 60 years," he explains. "Among Turkey's
non-Muslim minorities, including Jews and Armenians, there is an
[established] opinion about humiliating Muslims." So, did your poor
friend Dink deserve to be murdered because he humiliated Muslims?
Secondly, Mahcupyan continues, "Both Jews and Armenians are
better-educated [than Muslim Turks] and more open to the West. And
this brings in a feeling of superiority complex."
To sum up, the Turkish Armenian liberal intellectual, who also happens
to be advising the Turkish prime minister, thinks that daily attacks
on Turkey's Jews and other non-Muslims, including the murder of his
"friend" Dink, happen because: Jews and Armenians humiliate Muslims;
they are better-educated then Muslims and hence their superiority
complex. Lovely!
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Ottoman state machinery produced
several non-Muslim converts (the devshirme) who enjoyed higher
echelons of the palace bureaucracy and finer things of life because
their pragmatism earned them excellent relations with the ruling
Muslim elite. It looks like the devshirme system is still alive in
post-Ottoman Turkey.
Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a columnist for the Turkish daily
Hurriyet and a fellow at the Middle East Forum.
http://www.meforum.org/4938/heading-for-a-jew-free-turkey
Middle East Forum
Dec 23 2014
by Burak Bekdil
The Gatestone Institute
At the beginning of the 20th century, there were about 200,000 Jews
in Turkish lands - when the entire population was barely 10 million.
Today, the Turkish population has reached 77 million - and there are
fewer than 17,000 Jews.
Mois Gabay, a Turkish Jewish writer for Salom, the Istanbul
Jewish newspaper, recently wrote in his column, "Are Turkish Jews
Leaving?": "We face threats, attacks and harassment every day. Hope
is fading. Is it necessary for a 'Hrant among us' to be shot in order
for the government, the opposition, civil society, our neighbors and
jurists to see this?" The 'Hrant' to whom he referred is Hrant Dink,
a Turkish Armenian journalist who was shot dead in 2007 by a gang of
nationalist Turks.
On Dec. 15, the Turkish liberal daily Radikal interviewed Gabay,
who started by showing Radikal's reporter dozens of threats and hate
messages he has received through Twitter, Facebook and mail messages.
"This is almost daily," he said.
According to Gabay, only this year 37% of high-school graduates in
Istanbul's Jewish community left Turkey to study abroad, twice as many
as in previous years. "We don't know how many of them will return,"
he says. "But the idea to leave Turkey (for good) is also in the
minds of my generation."
The reason is simple: "The circle is closing in," according to Gabay.
"In an atmosphere like this, especially if you are a trader, you tend
to change your name. Mois's tends to become "Musa's," "Cefi's," become
"Cem's" and "Meri's" become "Peri's" (all the latter are Turkish
names.) His Jewish friends tell Gabay that they are elaborating on
the idea of leaving Turkey and settling in far-away countries such
as Canada, Panama and Australia. Two Jewish friends of his who have
shops in Istanbul's busy Unkapani district recently complained to
him that "The imam in the neighbourhood has the habit of preaching
to his congregation 'not to make friends with Jews and Christians.'"
According to Gabay, the Turkish government's [anti-Israeli/anti-Jewish]
rhetoric paves the way for this, provokes Turks and spreads [hatred]
to even larger masses. But there is more.
"Thanks to the spread of social media, the previously 'invisible Jew'
is reachable now. There are laws against hate speech. But not a single
person has ever been prosecuted [let alone sentenced] for threatening
and insulting [Jews].
But according to a prominent Turkish Armenian, part of the blame is
on Turkey's tiny non-Muslim minorities.
Etyen Mahcupyan is a leading Turkish Armenian intellectual, writer
and columnist. He has published more than 15 books and has written
regular columns in Turkey's leading liberal newspapers. Last October,
Mahcupyan, one of a dwindling number of liberals keenly supporting
Turkey's Islamist government, was appointed as "chief advisor" to
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. In a recent interview with Turkey's
leading daily, Hurriyet, Mahcupyan said,
Whatever has been a [political] asset for Turkey's Armenian community
(they number around 60,000) is an asset for the Jewish community too.
But... there is Israel... As long as the psychology of the Israel
issue continues to influence politics in Turkey and relations between
the two countries do not normalize...
The line Mahcupyan shyly did not finish probably would have gone on
like this: "Turkey's Jews will keep on paying the price."
Turkish Armenian intellectual Etyen Mahcupyan thinks that daily
attacks on Turkey's Jews and other non-Muslims happen because they
are better-educated then Muslims and have a "superiority complex."
In a recent article, Mahcupyan, a former editor of Agos, where the
slain Turkish Armenian journalist Hrant Dink wrote, argued that
Turkey's [secularist] Jews harboured an allergy against Muslims.
Mahcupyan apparently deserves his new position as "his master's voice."
He admits that it is the government's responsibility to do something
if Turkey's Jews felt awfully alienated. But he thinks "there is the
other side of the story."
Mahcupyan said: "All of this [anti-Semitism in Turkey] is related
to the Jewish community's perception of Islam and the region. This
is a perception that powerfully produced politics and positions. If
the Armenians do not behave like them [the Jews] we can understand
the historical difference between the two [Jewish and Armenian]
communities."
Apparently, Mahcupyan, the prime minister's chief advisor, tends
to blame the victim, not the criminal. "I have lived through this
personally for the past 60 years," he explains. "Among Turkey's
non-Muslim minorities, including Jews and Armenians, there is an
[established] opinion about humiliating Muslims." So, did your poor
friend Dink deserve to be murdered because he humiliated Muslims?
Secondly, Mahcupyan continues, "Both Jews and Armenians are
better-educated [than Muslim Turks] and more open to the West. And
this brings in a feeling of superiority complex."
To sum up, the Turkish Armenian liberal intellectual, who also happens
to be advising the Turkish prime minister, thinks that daily attacks
on Turkey's Jews and other non-Muslims, including the murder of his
"friend" Dink, happen because: Jews and Armenians humiliate Muslims;
they are better-educated then Muslims and hence their superiority
complex. Lovely!
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Ottoman state machinery produced
several non-Muslim converts (the devshirme) who enjoyed higher
echelons of the palace bureaucracy and finer things of life because
their pragmatism earned them excellent relations with the ruling
Muslim elite. It looks like the devshirme system is still alive in
post-Ottoman Turkey.
Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a columnist for the Turkish daily
Hurriyet and a fellow at the Middle East Forum.
http://www.meforum.org/4938/heading-for-a-jew-free-turkey