THE JEWS OF TURKEY AND THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
By Ayse Gunaysu
July 20, 2009
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A groundbreaking book by independent scholar and historian Rifat Bali
was published recently in Turkey, unearthing facts and first-hand
accounts that unmistakably illustrate how the Turkish establishment
blackmailed the leaders of the Jewish community–and through them
Jewish organizations in the United States–to secure their support
of the Turkish position against the Armenians’ campaign for genocide
recognition. The title of the book, Devlet’in Ornek Yurttaslari
-Cumhuriyet Yıllarında Turkiye Yahudileri 1950-2003, can be roughly
translated into English as "The Model Citizens of the State-Jews of
Turkey in the Republican Period 1950-2003." (I will refer to the book
as "The Model Citizens" in this article.)
The book is a product of the meticulous work Bali carried out for many
years at around 15 archives worldwide, including the American Jewish
Archives (Cincinatti, Ohio), B’nai B’rith International Archives
(Washington, D.C.), National Archives and Records Administration
(Maryland), Israeli National Archives (Jerusalem), Central Zionist
Archives (Jerusalem), Turkish State Archives (Ankara), public archives
in Tel Aviv, private archives (like that of Manajans Thomspson A.S., an
advertising agency based in Istanbul), and his personal arc hives. He
also researched hundreds of books, dissertations, and articles in
Turkish and other languages, and interviewed numerous individuals.
"The Model Citizens" is in fact the complementary volume of Bir
Turklestirme Seruveni-Cumhuriyet Yıllarında Turkiye Yahudileri,
1923-1945 (A Story of Turkification-Jews of Turkey in the Republican
Period 1923-1945), a reference book Bali published in 1999 that
reveals the true picture of the relations of domination between the
ruling elite and non-Muslims in general (and Jews, in particular)
after the founding of the Turkish Republic.
Rifat Bali’s books are the richest sources of information for anyone
looking to study the history of the non-Muslims in Turkey during
the republican period. These books differ from others by their sheer
wealth of archival references, details from daily life, and insights
into the political, social, and cultural background. They are the
result of arduous and untiring work carried out in both the public
and private archives, in addition to a very detailed scanning of the
daily press–which, apparent in both volumes of the history of the
Jews of Turkey, significantly sheds light on how the "establishment"
in Turkey, an organic system covering not only the state apparatus
but also the representatives of the "civil society" from business
organizations to the press, operated as a whole to treat the non-Musli
ms in Turkey as hostages and not as equal citizens. Although the
history of the minorities in Turkey has become a topic of interest
among the dissenting academia and a limited circle of intellectuals
(especially after the turn of the millennium simultaneously with
Turkey’s prospective membership to the European Union), as far as
I can see, none of the works in this field is supported by such a
comprehensive press scan, which includes cartoons in addition to news
items and articles.
Turkish Jews lobbying against the Armenian Genocide
In his 670-page book, Rifat Bali gives a detailed account of the
Turkish government’s efforts to mobilize its Jewish subjects to win
the support of the Jewish lobby in the United States against the
Armenian campaigners.
At the same time, Bali shows, how the Turkish authorities played the
Israeli government against U.S. policymakers for the same purpose,
by making use of its strategic position in the Middle East, at times
promising rewards (i.e., raising the level of diplomatic relations
with Israel), at times overtly or covertly making threats (i.e.,
cutting off Israel’s vital military logistical resources by hindering
the use of U.S. bases in Turkey).
The book also offers rich material about how Turkish diplomats and
semi-official spokesmen of Turkish policies, while carrying out their
lobbying activities, threatened both Israel and the U.S. by indicating
that if the Jewi sh lobby failed to prevent Armenian initiatives
abroad–Turkey might not be able to guarantee the security of Turkish
Jews. Such Armenian initiatives included the screening of an Armenian
Genocide documentary by an Israeli TV channel in 1978 and 1990;
Armenian participation in an international conference in Israel in
1982; Armenian genocide bills up for discussion in the U.S. House
of Representatives, and so on. It has been a routine practice for
Turkish authorities to invariably deny such threats. However, Bali’s
industrious work in the archives reveals first-hand accounts that
confirm these allegations.
But this is not all. Rifat Bali throughout his book unfolds the entire
socio-political setting of the process of making the Jewish community
leaders active supporters of Turkish governments’ struggle against the
"Armenian claims" in the international arena.
Now let us look at this background. From what Bali brings to our
attention, we can see that there has always been a frantic, extremely
vulgar anti-Semitism freely expressed by Islamic fundamentalists and
racists, and openly tolerated by the government and judiciary. Such
anti-Semitism–escalating at times with the rising tension between
Israel and the Muslim countries of the Middle East–often went as far
as warmly praising Hitler for doing the right thing and exterminating
the Jews; declaring Jews the enemies of the entire human race;
listing characteristics attributed to Jews as the worst that can be
found in human beings; in one instance, putting up advertisements on
walls in Jewish-populated neighborhoods in Istanbul; and in another
case, sending letters to prominent members of the Jewish community
threatening that if they didn’t "get the hell out of Turkey" within
one month, no one would be responsible for what happened to them.
Whenever Jewish community leaders have approached the authorities for a
determined stance against such open anti-Semitism, the answer has been
the same: These are marginal voices that have no significant effect
on the general public; and there is freedom of expression in Turkey.
The eternal indebtedness of Jews to Turks
An important fact about such violent anti-Semitism is that it goes
hand in hand with the widespread official and public conception of
the Jews as guests who are indebted to their hosts; it is a debt
that cannot be paid no matter how hard the debtors tried. This view
isn’t only shared by extremist elements in Turkey, but by the entire
society–from the elites to the average person. It is a conviction
purposefully designed and maintained by the establishment. And it
enables the perpetual, unending, and unrestricted generation and
regeneration of the relations of domination in Turkey between the
establishment and non-Muslims in general, and Jews in particular,
manifested in the treatment of the =0 D latter as hostages.
There are regular manifestations of this relationship. The most
unbearable is the shameless, extremely offensive repetition by both
top-ranking government officials and the mainstream media of how
Turkey generously offered shelter to the Jews in 1492, when they were
expelled from Spain, and how the Turkish people have always been so
"kind" to treat the Jews with "tolerance" throughout history. This
theme is repeated on every occasion but is voiced more loudly and more
authoritatively whenever pressure on Turkey regarding the Armenian
Genocide increases abroad. Another theme has been the obligation of
the Jews to show material evidence of their gratitude to Turkey on
account of the latter’s welcoming of German Jewish scientists right
after the Nazis’ ascension to power. (Readers of Bali’s first volume
instantly will remember how Turkey declined thousands of asylum
requests by German Jews; how 600 Czeckoslavakian Jews on board the
vessel "Parita" were turned down; and how 768 passengers on the
Romanian vessel "Struma," after being kept waiting off Istanbul for
weeks in poverty and hunger, were sent to death in the Black Sea by
Turkish authorities, with only one survivor in the winter of 1942.)
An illustrative example is the story of the fury that broke out in
Turkey in 1987 when the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Council in
Washington, D.C.=2 0decided to include the Armenian Genocide–as the
first genocide of the 20th century– in the Memorial Museum that was
going to be built.
The mainstream media, and not only the ultra-nationalist extremists,
started a campaign that would last for years. Melih Asik from Milliyet
(which has always positioned itself as a liberal and democratic
newspaper), in his article on Dec. 20, 1987, accused "Jews" for being
"ungrateful." After observing the regular ritual of reminding the Jews
of the Turks’ generosity in 1492 and during World War II, he wrote:
"We treated them with utmost kindness for many years and now these same
Jews are preparing to present us to the world in the Holocaust museum
as genociders. Before everything else this behavior should be exhibited
in the museum of ‘historical displays of ingratitude and disgrace.’"
Melih Asik, as can be seen, is so confident that his readers would
not question the use of the words "these same Jews," nor ridicule the
identification of those Jews who sought shelter in the Ottoman Empire
in 1492 with those sitting in the Holocaust Memorial Museum Council in
1987. He is that confident because he knows that such identification
and essentialization is a regular, daily pattern internalized by the
readers of the Turkish press.
Another very liberal and democrat anchorman of Turkey, Mehmet Ali
Birand, known as a tab oo breaker in recent years, joined–and
even surpassed–Asik in his Dec. 29, 1987 article that appeared in
Milliyet. In it, he publicly called on the Jews of Turkey to fulfill
their "duty of gratitude" and do their best to prevent the Armenians
from including the Armenian Genocide in the museum. He added: "Isn’t it
our right to expect [such a display of gratitude] from every Turkish
citizen?" There’s hardly any need to mention that just before this
call to duty, Birand paid tribute to the routine of mentioning the
Turks’ generosity towards the Jews back in 1492.
Not an apologist at all
Yet, it is important to note that Bali is by no means interested
in justifying the Jewish lobby’s vigorous efforts to please the
Turkish authorities. While he puts forth a wealth of evidence of
the huge pressure the Jewish community in Turkey is subjected to,
that evidence does not prevent him from giving a critical account
of how the Jewish leadership in Turkey has displayed an eagerness to
advocate Turkish views and to support official Turkish policies. There
are numerous accounts in the book of how the Turkish chief rabbinate
confirmed the Jewish community’s happiness and well-being in Turkey,
opposing the promotion of the Armenian Genocide thesis, and how the
Quincentennial Foundation, established by Turkish Jewish leaders in
1992 to celebrate the 500th year anniversary of the arrival of the
Jews to Ottoman lands, actively championed Turkish official theses.
It is clear from the book that Bali does not like to make comments on
the meaning of his findings; rather, he puts the facts together like
a scientist, avoiding to make personal comments, draw conclusions,
or speculate about the reasons or outcomes of certain facts and
events. What he exposes is clear enough to make the picture complete
in the eyes of the reader. It’s up to the reader to acknowledge,
for example, the fact that those who criticized Turkish Jews for
their submissiveness had no right to expect bravery–when none of them
raised their voice against the rabid anti-Semitism freely displayed by
fundamentalists, or against the innuendos from government officials,
or against the quite obvious threats from opinion leaders who kept
asking the Jews to prove their loyalty to the Turkish state or
relinquish their right to be treated as equal citizens.
A last word about Rifat Bali’s book "Model Citizens." It should
definitely be translated into English for those who are interested in
the Jewish factor in Turkey’s struggle against Armenian initiatives
to recognize the genocide. It would be impossible for anyone either
in Turkey or elsewhere to make a realistic, objective, and complete
evaluation of Turkey’s success in securing the support of Jewish
leaders both in Turkey and abroad without reading this book. Not only
that, but the "Model Citizens" is a guide to understanding how deeply
rooted anti-Semitism still is in Turkey that claims to be a European
country knocking on the door of the EU. It also shows how powerful
it can be when mobilizing a country’s human resources against its
Jewish citizens–to make the leaders of the Jewish community act as
they are told. Turning the pages of Bali’s book, the reader is made
to see that anti-Semitism has a historical context so horrifying and
so vivid in the collective memory that it can be very instrumental
in manipulating victims, and very successful in carving out "model
citizens" as the voluntary executioners of government policies.