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NEW BOOK ON FORCED TURKIFICATION OF JEWS AND LOBBYING AGAINST GENOCIDE
Armenian Weekly
June 6, 2012
TORONTO, Canada-The Zoryan Institute recently announced the translation
and publication of a new book by noted author Rifat Bali titled Model
Citizens of the State: The Jews of Turkey during the Multi-Party
Period(Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, Rowman & Littlefield
Publishing Group, 2012). The book provides an expose of the treatment
of the Jewish community in Turkey from 1950 to the present, their
fight against anti-Semitism, the struggle for their constitutional
rights, and the attitude of the Turkish state and society towards
these problems.
The cover of Bali's new book.
In a review of the Turkish edition that appeared in the Armenian
Weekly, Turkish journalist Ayse Gunaysu (a member of the Committee
Against Racism and Discrimination of the Human Rights Association
of Turkey, Istanbul branch, since 1995), described the book as
"groundbreaking...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 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 Jewish lobby failed to prevent Armenian initiatives abroad, Turkey
might not be able to guarantee the security of Turkish Jews... 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."
In explaining his motivation for writing this book, Bali said, "There
are a number of facts which triggered my starting to research the
history of the Jews in the Turkish Republic. They can all be summed
up in the fact that I was tired of listening to and reading the rosy
narrative that was repeated over and over by the leaders of the Turkish
Jewish community, as well as by Turkish intellectuals, politicians,
and historians. The same narrative was also predominant outside
Turkey. I wanted to discover what was really behind this rhetoric."
Bali details how, despite the attempt of Jewish community leaders
in Istanbul to fit into the mold of the "model" Turkish citizen as
defined by Kemal Ataturk, and regardless of the official government
policy toward the Jewish community, the anti-Semitic attitudes of
the majority Muslim population in Turkish society were ever present.
The book describes how, initially, the Jewish community received
similar treatment by the government of Turkey and had similar problems,
fears, and reactions as the Armenian and Greek minorities during the
Single-Party period, 1923-49, to such things as the Capital Tax Law
and policy of Labor Battalions. During the first two decades of the
Multi-Party period, it endured the Sept. 6, 1955 pogrom, the May 27,
1960 revolution, and the 1971 military coup. All three minorities
suffered equally from these critical events, with loss of life and
property and consequent emigrations to Greece, Israel, Europe, and
North America.
Bali explains how a shift in the Turkish state's treatment of its
Jewish citizens started in the late 1960's and early 1970's due to
three pivotal events outside of Turkey: the 1967 Israeli Six-Day
War, the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, and the movement for
international recognition of the Armenian Genocide. He shows that the
Turkish government in the 1970's reversed its policy of prohibiting
minorities' links to outside organizations by encouraging the Jews of
Turkey to connect with American Jewish organizations, once it realized
the importance of American Jewish political lobby groups. Since then,
Turkey has adopted a policy of using the American Jewish lobby against
the Greek lobby to lift the Cyprus related arms embargo, and against
the Armenian lobby to further its genocide denial policies.
Bali details efforts to distance the American Jewish community from
the Armenian community by propagandizing that the Armenian Genocide
is a non-truth; or that whatever may have happened in 1915 cannot
be compared to the Jewish Holocaust and therefore can not be called
genocide; and that Turks have been very tolerant and friendly to Jews
since their expulsion from Spain in 1492.
Bali illustrates that with this new policy, successive Turkish
governments obtained the cooperation of Turkish Jews to convince the
American Jewish lobbies to actively support pro-Turkish measures,
including fighting against Armenian Genocide resolutions in the U.S.
Congress; excluding the Armenian Genocide from the Holocaust Museums
in Washington and Los Angeles; prohibiting papers on the Armenian
Genocide from being presented at Israeli Holocaust conferences;
prohibiting the showing of Armenian Genocide-related movies in the
U.S. and Israel, etc. The tactics used by Turkish governments included
financial assistance, economic concessions, and other privileges,
but also veiled threats that lack of cooperation by the Jewish lobby,
the state of Israel, or Turkish-Jewish leaders would jeopardize the
safety and economic wellbeing of the Jews in Turkey.
When asked about the possible effect his research could have, Bali
said, "I do not believe that the book will have any sort of negative
impact on Israeli-Turkish and/or Turkish-Jewish relations. Real
politics and strategic concerns always dominate and even embellish
past history. However, I hope that at last the English-speaking public
will have the opportunity to read the 'real' story of Turkish-Jewish
relations instead of an embellished one."
In documenting the Turkish state's manipulation of its vulnerable
Jewish minority and their acquiescence, this book serves as a
valuable case study of how realpolitik in domestic politics and
foreign relations distorts the truth, and how coercion by the powerful
contributes to the violation of collective human rights. It will be of
interest to academics and students of non-Muslim minorities in Turkey,
political lobbyists in America, Israeli policy-makers, as well as to
the Jewish, Greek, and Armenian communities around the world.
Rifat N. Bali, born in 1948 in Istanbul, is an independent scholar
specializing in the history of Turkish Jews and an associate
member of the Alberto-Benveniste Center for Sephardic Studies and
the Sociocultural History of the Jews (Ecole Pratique des Hautes
Etudes/CNRS/Universite de Paris-Sorbonne). He is the winner of
the 2009 Alberto Benveniste Research Award for his publications on
Turkish Jewry.
The Zoryan Institute is the parent organization of the International
Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, which runs an annual,
accredited university program on the subject and is co-publisher
of "Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal," in
partnership with the International Association of Genocide Scholars
and the University of Toronto Press.
For more information, contact the Zoryan Institute by e-mailing
[email protected] or calling (416) 250-9807.
Armenian Weekly
June 6, 2012
TORONTO, Canada-The Zoryan Institute recently announced the translation
and publication of a new book by noted author Rifat Bali titled Model
Citizens of the State: The Jews of Turkey during the Multi-Party
Period(Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, Rowman & Littlefield
Publishing Group, 2012). The book provides an expose of the treatment
of the Jewish community in Turkey from 1950 to the present, their
fight against anti-Semitism, the struggle for their constitutional
rights, and the attitude of the Turkish state and society towards
these problems.
The cover of Bali's new book.
In a review of the Turkish edition that appeared in the Armenian
Weekly, Turkish journalist Ayse Gunaysu (a member of the Committee
Against Racism and Discrimination of the Human Rights Association
of Turkey, Istanbul branch, since 1995), described the book as
"groundbreaking...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 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 Jewish lobby failed to prevent Armenian initiatives abroad, Turkey
might not be able to guarantee the security of Turkish Jews... 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."
In explaining his motivation for writing this book, Bali said, "There
are a number of facts which triggered my starting to research the
history of the Jews in the Turkish Republic. They can all be summed
up in the fact that I was tired of listening to and reading the rosy
narrative that was repeated over and over by the leaders of the Turkish
Jewish community, as well as by Turkish intellectuals, politicians,
and historians. The same narrative was also predominant outside
Turkey. I wanted to discover what was really behind this rhetoric."
Bali details how, despite the attempt of Jewish community leaders
in Istanbul to fit into the mold of the "model" Turkish citizen as
defined by Kemal Ataturk, and regardless of the official government
policy toward the Jewish community, the anti-Semitic attitudes of
the majority Muslim population in Turkish society were ever present.
The book describes how, initially, the Jewish community received
similar treatment by the government of Turkey and had similar problems,
fears, and reactions as the Armenian and Greek minorities during the
Single-Party period, 1923-49, to such things as the Capital Tax Law
and policy of Labor Battalions. During the first two decades of the
Multi-Party period, it endured the Sept. 6, 1955 pogrom, the May 27,
1960 revolution, and the 1971 military coup. All three minorities
suffered equally from these critical events, with loss of life and
property and consequent emigrations to Greece, Israel, Europe, and
North America.
Bali explains how a shift in the Turkish state's treatment of its
Jewish citizens started in the late 1960's and early 1970's due to
three pivotal events outside of Turkey: the 1967 Israeli Six-Day
War, the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, and the movement for
international recognition of the Armenian Genocide. He shows that the
Turkish government in the 1970's reversed its policy of prohibiting
minorities' links to outside organizations by encouraging the Jews of
Turkey to connect with American Jewish organizations, once it realized
the importance of American Jewish political lobby groups. Since then,
Turkey has adopted a policy of using the American Jewish lobby against
the Greek lobby to lift the Cyprus related arms embargo, and against
the Armenian lobby to further its genocide denial policies.
Bali details efforts to distance the American Jewish community from
the Armenian community by propagandizing that the Armenian Genocide
is a non-truth; or that whatever may have happened in 1915 cannot
be compared to the Jewish Holocaust and therefore can not be called
genocide; and that Turks have been very tolerant and friendly to Jews
since their expulsion from Spain in 1492.
Bali illustrates that with this new policy, successive Turkish
governments obtained the cooperation of Turkish Jews to convince the
American Jewish lobbies to actively support pro-Turkish measures,
including fighting against Armenian Genocide resolutions in the U.S.
Congress; excluding the Armenian Genocide from the Holocaust Museums
in Washington and Los Angeles; prohibiting papers on the Armenian
Genocide from being presented at Israeli Holocaust conferences;
prohibiting the showing of Armenian Genocide-related movies in the
U.S. and Israel, etc. The tactics used by Turkish governments included
financial assistance, economic concessions, and other privileges,
but also veiled threats that lack of cooperation by the Jewish lobby,
the state of Israel, or Turkish-Jewish leaders would jeopardize the
safety and economic wellbeing of the Jews in Turkey.
When asked about the possible effect his research could have, Bali
said, "I do not believe that the book will have any sort of negative
impact on Israeli-Turkish and/or Turkish-Jewish relations. Real
politics and strategic concerns always dominate and even embellish
past history. However, I hope that at last the English-speaking public
will have the opportunity to read the 'real' story of Turkish-Jewish
relations instead of an embellished one."
In documenting the Turkish state's manipulation of its vulnerable
Jewish minority and their acquiescence, this book serves as a
valuable case study of how realpolitik in domestic politics and
foreign relations distorts the truth, and how coercion by the powerful
contributes to the violation of collective human rights. It will be of
interest to academics and students of non-Muslim minorities in Turkey,
political lobbyists in America, Israeli policy-makers, as well as to
the Jewish, Greek, and Armenian communities around the world.
Rifat N. Bali, born in 1948 in Istanbul, is an independent scholar
specializing in the history of Turkish Jews and an associate
member of the Alberto-Benveniste Center for Sephardic Studies and
the Sociocultural History of the Jews (Ecole Pratique des Hautes
Etudes/CNRS/Universite de Paris-Sorbonne). He is the winner of
the 2009 Alberto Benveniste Research Award for his publications on
Turkish Jewry.
The Zoryan Institute is the parent organization of the International
Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, which runs an annual,
accredited university program on the subject and is co-publisher
of "Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal," in
partnership with the International Association of Genocide Scholars
and the University of Toronto Press.
For more information, contact the Zoryan Institute by e-mailing
[email protected] or calling (416) 250-9807.