Language:
English
Year of publication:
2005
Titel der Quelle:
Jewish Studies at the Central European University
Angaben zur Quelle:
5 (2005-2007) 23-40
Keywords:
Dönmeh
;
Jews History 1800-2000
;
Jews History 1945-
;
Islam Relations
;
Judaism
;
Antisemitism
;
Jewish-Arab relations History 1945-
Abstract:
After the establishment of the secular Turkish Republic in 1923, a quick assimilation of the Dönmes, a Turkish Converso group, into the Turkish national identity began. However, the Turkish state and the country's competing political groups have not forgotten their existence, and the "Dönme question" has risen from time to time. In 1942, when the government imposed the extraordinary Capital Tax, the Dönmes were forced to pay twice the rate of other Muslims, while non-Muslims, including Jews, paid four times that rate. In 1946-80 both Turkish Islamists and ultra-nationalists used the Dönmes as a scapegoat for all that was wrong in the Republic. In the 1990s the Dönme debate arose once more. Leftists (e.g. Soner Yalçin, Yalçin Küçük), Islamists (e.g. Mehmed Şevket Eygi), and ultra-nationalists declared the Dönmes part of world Jewry supported by the USA and Israel, initiators of both the 1908 and 1923 revolutions, and holders of political power who steer the country toward Westernization. Kurdish and Armenian nationalists also blamed the Dönmes as part of world Jewry for inciting ethnic conflicts. Argues that the Dönme debate is in fact a debate concerning the secular and moderate character of Turkey and its Kemalist legacy.
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