"Dönmes" - the Powerful Marranoes of Turkey (info from mainstream Jewish sources)

[Petr]

I am a person who likes to avoid fancy conspiracy schemes UNLESS I can find some concrete evidence to back them up. I think this stuff meets that requirement.


This is an extraordinary essay on Turkish Marranos (Dönmes) - full version of it can found in here:

http://www.avrumehrlich.net/sabbatean.htm


I have selected here some of the most interesting parts of that essay:


Sabbatean Messianism as Proto Secularism

published in Turkish □ Jewish Encounters, (Haarlem, 2001)

M. Avrum Ehrlich


"It is also likely that those who had converted to Islam for pragmatic reasons prior to Sevi’s mystical apostasy later joined Donme communities feeling more comfortable there than in a purely Islamic environment. In many respects this resembled (or inspired) a later declaration by Moses Mendelsohn to be a “Jew in the home and a German in the street”, or rather in this earlier context “to be a Muslim on the street and a Jew in private”. The Donme became a home for assimilated Jews, much like the modern phenomena of mixed Jewish-Gentile couples joining Reform Temples because they are accepted there and are not in Orthodox communities. The influences of Sabbateanism can be detected in Mendelsohn’s sentiments and within the highly assimilatory program of the Enlightenment.

...

"The greatest change for the Donme community occurred during the Balkan wars when Salonica passed over to Greek hands. At this point many Donme resettled in Turkish Istanbul and set up schools and communities which have left a mark on Turkish society till today. However, the forced transfer of Turks from Salonica to Turkey in 1924 was the final blow to the Donme stronghold and changed the course of Donme history. While many attempted a rapprochement with the Jewish community that would allow them to remain in Salonica as Jews not as Turks, their efforts were rejected. Rabbinic refusal to accept them back remarkably saved them from extinction along with the rest of Salonican Jewry during the Nazi occupation of Greece. Other Donme are alleged to have converted to Christianity so as to remain in Salonica but the Greek public opinion viewed the Donme as more harmful than other Turks and sought their absolute expulsion. It is therefore unclear to what extent conversion to Christianity helped them and to what extent those that remained were saved from destruction under the Nazi occupation. From the 1940s there began a strong assimilatory trend among the Donme who resettled in Turkey. Efforts to preserve their secrecy were intensified, probably resulting from having witnessed the destruction of Greek Jewry and fear that the same could happen to them in the wake of Turkish co-operation with the Nazi regime. Fear of growing Islamic antagonism to the perceived Donme role in the overthrow of the Sultan and establishment of a secular State in Turkey further forced Donme affiliates to underplay their prominence and community network.

Though the Donme were never officially deemed to be a separate group there were signs that this might change when the 1960 Census registered them as a distinct group, primarily for taxation purposes. At the time it was believed that approximately 20,000 Donme members existed in Turkey. Some estimate their numbers to be around 50,000-60,000 today, others estimate it at 100,000. They are believed to be very prosperous but highly assimilated, with only a small minority being Sabbatean in the religious sense. They generally refer to themselves as “Salonicans” not as Sabbateans. They are extremely non-religious. The enmity of Islamic fundamentalism towards them is one of the strongest factors in the preservation of their distinct ethnic memory. Because of the high intermarriage rate the phenomenon of half-Donme is becoming increasingly well known. There have been recent efforts by partisan Donme activists to reclaim their national pride and standing in Turkish society but this has met with overall rejection, embarrassment and denial from the mainstream Donme population.

...

"There has been little evidence of anti-Semitism in Albanian history and few instances of collaboration with the Nazis to kill their Jews. (Stephen) Schwartz also asserts that Sevi became anti-nomian under Bektashi influence and was protected by the Bektashis after his conversion, who sent him to Albania where they were most powerful. Clearly this viewpoint is unduly influenced by Schwartz’s Bektashi sympathies.

...

"The religious press attacked the Republic, its founder Ataturk, and the secular nature of the regime. They never forgave the Donme for their role in the secular revolution and they became a convenient target for hatred. Over the last sixty years it is this hatred and racist rhetoric in the guise of Arab nationalism which constantly reminded Sabbateans of their racial heritage, otherwise complete assimilation into secular Islam might have been possible.

...

"The extent to which Jews were involved in the Young Turk revolution is debated, some arguing that Jews and Donme dominated the Committee of the Union and Progress Party (C.U.P) which gained control of the State. Others argue that this was anti-Semitic rhetoric and exaggerated and that while the Jews supported the revolution on a grass roots level, they were not highly represented in the upper echelons of the party. Indeed British diplomats did report to the home office that a Jewish-Masonic conspiracy was at work favouring the revolution. The Donme are believed to have been equally involved in the revolution but exact details are less known due to a number of reasons. Many Donme were cursorily described as Jews by observers lacking an appreciation for the subtleties of the two communities. The general secrecy of the community and its increased secrecy after WWII and the threats of Islamic fundamentalism, peppered with assimilation trends and extreme secularism, makes documentation difficult. The fear of reprisal by fundamentalist groups in Modern Turkey has left the remnants of Donme communities less willing to testify to their role in the revolution.

...

"Unable to work together in their respective religious environments, The Jews and Donme appeared to have met and fraternised within the Masonic lodge. Because of the rigid initiation rites the fear of espionage by the Sultan was less in such an environment and it was here that revolutionary sentiments and activity fermented. Whether the suspicions that Masonry is responsible for sedition and subversive activities are true or not, in this context they were a convenient home for the revolution, providing lodges and personnel, secrecy and structures for the revolution. The Donme thrived in the Masonic environment, allowing them to be both secretive and influential, maintaining their religious ideas in a non-dogmatic atmosphere. Bridging the gap between the Jews and the Muslims, they seemed to represent the happy medium of the secular Young Turk revolution. Even today Donme are involved in the Masonic Lodges of Turkey. Sahir Talat Akev of the Kapanci-Izmir group of Donme was the Grand Master of the Masons until his death in 1999.

...

"Donme members today represent the elite of society within Turkey and it is the fear of being discovered that created the intense secrecy around them. Their increased secrecy and influence continues to circularly feed the hatred and suspicion surrounding them.

"At present there are some well-known Donme families and other less known families occupying important positions in Modern Turkish life. The current Foreign Minister Mr. Ismail Cem is a Donme though some of his family members have officially come out and declared that although they are of Donme ethnicity they disassociate from the cultural group. These include relatives: Cepil Ipekci, a famous fashion designer in Turkey and Nukhet Izet Ipekci, daughter of the famous journalist Abdi Ipekci, who declared on an Islamic channel that her parents were of Donmeh origins . Others such as the industrialists; the Dilber and Bezmen families are Donme. Rahsan Ecevit, wife of Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit is a Donme. First ever, female Prime Minister Tansu Ciller is half Donme on her mother’s side. Altan Oymen, past leader of the Republican People’s Party was of Donme descent. Other prominent personalities ranging from well known writers, journalists, film makers, professors, lawyers, judges, bureaucrats (legal and foreign service), bankers, industrialists are of Donme origin. They can almost be said to be the standard bearers of secularism and modern Turkish nationalism that is based on cultural unity rather than racial characteristics.

...

"53. Ex-Greek Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos gave an interview to the Greek Eleftherotypia Newspaper (17 December 2000) declaring Ismail Cem not to be a pure Turk but a Salonici Donme. He said that the foreign ministry of Turkey was in the hands of those whose races were different. Most of the Foreign Ministers of the Turkish Republic have in fact been of Donme origin.


(Btw, the Foreign Ministry was an especially Jew-dominated office in the early Soviet Union as well. Jews do indeed tend to make good, scheming diplomats with their many international connections.)


PS:

I also found out that the writer of this essay, Avrum Ehrlich, has written a biography of the (false) messiah of Chabad Jews[/b]:

"The Messiah Of Brooklyn: Understanding Lubavitch Hasidism Past And Present"

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books


Petr

[Petr]

This article from a Philhellenic website The Greco Report is closely related to the topic at hand - I like the way it avoids wild theorizing, thus maintaining the basic sense of reliability:



http://www.grecoreport.com/the_young..._were_they.htm


The Young Turks: Who Were They?


During the last quarter of the 19th century, the Near East Question passed into its critical phase. As a result of the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78, the Ottoman Empire lost extensive territory mainly in the Balkans where the "autonomous" states of Bulgaria, Bosnia, and Herzegovina passed into the de facto administrative sphere of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Thessaly and the prefecture of Artas were ceded to Greece, and in Asia, Russia annexed the territories of Kars and Ardachan in Turkish Armenia. In Africa, the English claimed Egypt, and the French Tunisia, while the Italians did not bother to conceal their territorial ambitions toward Tripoli. Meanwhile, the dissident movements in Crete, Armenia, and Macedonia were beginning to reach worrisome levels for the Turkish Sultanate.

One of the first real threats to the Ottoman Throne was a hard-core, conspiratorial group that formed in 1889 among the students of the Military Medical School in Constantinople. The dissatisfaction, though, was widespread throughout the entire military, and had to do with what might be considered today to be union demands: low wages that were paid sporadically and after months of waiting, a promotion system that was torturously slow and not based on merit but on connections, and a cynical disappointment engendered by the promised but never actualized modernization of the military. The main motivating factor in the ever-widening discontent, however, was an agony and concern over the independence of the Turkish State and how best to ensure its continuance. Added to this, and of equal concern, was the problem having to do with the welfare and perpetuation of the Muslim populations living among the many other ethnicities within the Empire.

The conspiratorial leadership, who came to be known as the Young Turks, expressed their dissatisfaction with the status quo, throwing all of the blame on the Sultan, Abdul Hamit, who they proclaimed to be too dictatorial. They demanded his exile -- though not the abolishment of the Sultanate -- together with the restoration of the constitution of 1876.


Union and Progress

The Young Turk movement -- after many mishaps and near dissolution -- finally achieved it first goal. In early July of 1908, led by the officer-members of the Committee of Union and Progress (Itihàt vè Terakì), the Turkish troops stationed in Macedonia refused to obey orders coming from Constantinople. The Young Turks then sent a telegraphed ultimatum to the Sultan from Serres on the 21st of July. They demanded the immediate restoration and implementation of the constitution, and threatened him with dethronement should he fail to comply. On the 24th of July, Abdul Hamit announced that the constitution had been restored and was in full force and effect.

The subsequent mid-20th century overthrow of King Farouk in Egypt by the Nasserite revolutionaries bears some striking similarities to the Young Turk movement. There are, however, some very striking differences as well. Some of these are: 1) the diverse ethnic background of the conspirators; 2) the significant and crucial role played by the allied movement of fellow-conspirators known as the Donmè (Jews who had converted [?] to Islam); and, 3) the enthusiastic way in which the conspiracy was embraced by Masonic elements.

As far as the multiethnic composition of the conspirators is concerned, one need only read their names to verify their diverse background: Tserkès (Circassion ), Mehmet Ali, Xersekli (Herzogovinians), Ali Roushdi, Kosovali (Kosovars) and others. In many cases, the ethnic origin of the conspirator was not evident from the name: Ibrahim Temo was an Albanian, as was Ismail Kemal. Murat Bey Dagestanos and Achmet Riza had an Arkhazian father and an Austrian mother. One of the theoreticians of the movement was Ziyia Ngiokali, a Kurd, while one of the major planners of tactics and theory was a Jew from Serres who went by the name of Tekìn Alì (real name, Moshe Cohen).

The telegraph-office clerk who became one of the ruling troika of post-revolutionary Turkey, Talaàt Pasha, was Bosnian, Pomack, or Gypsy; the point being that he was not a Turk. We should also make note of the fact that the Committee of Union and Progress admitted many members from areas outside of the Ottoman Empire, and that some of these even served on its Central Committee.


Masonic elements

The strong connection between the Itihàts (conspirators) and Masonry is a well-documented fact. The leftist Turkish writer, Kamouran Mberik Xartboutlou, in his book, The Turkish Impasse ( from the Greek translation of the French publication of 1974. p.24), wrote: "Those who desired entry into the inner circle of that secret organization [the Itihàt], had to be a Mason, and had to have the backing of a large segment of the commercial class." The true nature of the relationship between the Young Turks and the Masonic lodges of Thessaloniki has been commented upon by many researchers and writers. In her well-known and extensively documented book, Secret Societies and Subversive Movements (London. 1928, p. 284), author and historian Nesta Webster writes that "The Young Turk movement began in the Masonic lodges of Thessaloniki under the direct supervision of the Grand Orient Lodge of Italy, which later shared in the success of Mustapha Kemal."

Of course, the precise nature of this relationship is clouded in mystery, but enough facts exist allowing for more than just informed conjecture based on circumstantial evidence. An example of the Itihàt-Masonic connection is the interview that Young Turk, Refik Bey, gave to the Paris newspaper Le Temps, on the 20th of August 1908: "It's true that we receive support from Freemasonry and especially from Italian Masonry. The two Italian lodges [of Thessaloniki] -- Macedonia Risorta and Labor et Lux -- have provided invaluable services and have been a refuge for us. We meet there as fellow Masons, because it is a fact that many of us are Masons, but more importantly we meet so that we can better organize ourselves."


The Jewish Component

The Donmè ("convert" in Turkish), was a Hebrew heresy whose followers converted [?] to Islam in the 18th century. They were most heavily concentrated in Thessaloniki. According to the Great Hellenic Encyclopedia [Megali Elliniki Enkiklopethia]: "It is generally accepted that the Donmè secretly continue to adhere to the Hebrew religion and don't allow their kind to intermarry with the Muslims."

The disproportionate power and influence (in light of their number) that the Donmè had on both the Ottoman Empire and on the Young Turk movement has been the subject of a great deal of commentary by many observers and researchers. The eminent British historian, R. Seton Watson, in his book, The Rise of Nationality in the Balkans. London, 1917 (H Gennisi tou Ethnikismou sta Valkania), wrote the following: "The real brains behind the [Itihàt] movement were Jews or Islamic-Jews. The wealthy Donmè and Jews of Thessaloniki supported [the Young Turks] economically, and their fellow Jewish capitalists in Vienna and Berlin -- as well as in Budapest and possibly Paris and London -- supported them financially as well.

In the January 23rd, 1914, issue of the Czarist Police [Okrana] Ledger (Number 16609), directed to the Ministry of the Exterior in Saint Petersburg, we read: "A pan-Islamic convention of Itihàts and Jews was held in the Nouri Osman lodge in Constantinople. It was attended by approximately 700 prominent Itihàts and Jews, including "Minister" Talaàt Bey, Bentri Bey, Mbekri Bey, and (Donmè) Javit Bey. Among the many Jews in attendance, two of the most prominent were the Head of the Security Service, Samouel Effendi, and the Vice-Administrator of the Police, Abraham Bey."


Donmè and Constantine

The numerous Donmè in positions of authority within the machinery of the Itihàt government, as well as on the powerful Central Committee, strengthens the conviction that their influence was widespread and vital to the cause. Ignoring the names mentioned in the Czarist Police Ledger, and even ignoring such Jews as the fanatical Pan-Turkic [Marxist revolutionary and poet, Hikmet] Nazim, or even the many casual allusions [as if it were common knowledge at the time] to the Jewish descent of that most dedicated believer in the Young Turk movement, Mustapha Kemal "Atatürk," one still finds oneself wondering by what authority and under whose auspices was such an obscure Jewish Donmè from Thessaloniki, by the name of Emmanouel Karasso, able to become a member of the three-man committee that announced his dethronement to Sultan Abdul Hamit after the counter-coup of April 1909?

Compelling, too, is the widely-referenced document which states that Constantine, the King of Greece at the time, characterized the entire Young Turk movement as composed of "Israelites." According to the facts presented in her book, Glory and Partisanship, the Greek professor of the University of Vienna, Polychroni Enepekithi, contends that Constantine made that characterization while complaining to the German Ambassador in Athens about the outrages committed by Young Turks against Hellenes living in the Ottoman Empire.

These references to the relationship between the Donmè, the Masons, and the Young Turks has not been prompted by anti-Semitism or Masonophobia. Rather, we are attempting to shed some light on what to us seems like a puzzling paradox in this revolutionary movement, which is: Why it is that this non-Turkish leadership struggled so hard under the banner of justice for the Turkish people? Also, why is it that others, having nothing to do with Sunnite Islam [the form of Islam practiced in Turkey] struggled equally hard under the banner of justice for Islam? The only answer to this paradox demands that we consider that there may have been another reason behind their fervid struggle, and that this unstated cause is what bound these "ideologues" together.


Source

Nemesis. by Ioasif Kassesian. September 2001. pp. 64-66.

Translated by staff. Emphasis added.

[Petr]

This source would look like almost too good to be true (I am always on my guard in such cases), but it would indeed seem to come from a mainstream Jewish newspaper.

In any case, Kemal Atatürk was born in Salonika (Thessaloniki), a place teeming with Jews and crypto-Jews before the WW II - these are both universally accepted facts. I have also read that he was actually born right in the Jewish part on the town as well, but I can't confirm it just now.

"In 1900, there were approximately 80,000 Jews in Salonika (out of a total population of 173,000)."

http://www.bh.org.il/Communities/Archive/Salonika.asp

(And those were only the "official" Jews, not including Donmé marranos)


Btw, this Hillel Halkin seems to be neocon who has written stuff for "The Commentary"


//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////


http://www.ahiworld.com/bbs/messages/51.html


The Jewish Post of New York. January 28, 1994

WHEN KEMAL ATATURK RECITED SHEMA YISRAEL

"It's My Secret Prayer, Too," He Confessed

By Hillel Halkin


ZICHRON YAAKOV - There were two questions I wanted to ask, I said over the phone to Batya Keinan, spokeswoman for Israeli president Ezer Weizman, who was about to leave the next day, Monday, Jan. 24, on the first visit ever made to Turkey by a Jewish chief of state. One was whether Mr. Weizman would be taking part in an official ceremony commemorating Kemal Ataturk.

Ms. Kenan checked the president's itinerary, according to which he and his wife would lay a wreath on Ataturk's grave the morning of their arrival, and asked what my second question was.

"Does President Weizman know that Ataturk had Jewish ancestors and was taught Hebrew prayers as a boy?"

"Of course, of course," she answered as unsurprisedly as if I had inquired whether the president was aware that Ataturk was Turkey's national hero.


Excited and Distressed

I thanked her and hung up. A few minutes later it occurred to me to call back and ask whether President Weizman intended to make any reference while in Turkey to Ataturk's Jewish antecedents. "I'm so glad you called again," said Ms. Kenan, who now sounded excited and a bit distressed. "Exactly where did you get your information from?"

Why was she asking, I countered, if the president's office had it too?

* Because it did not, she confessed. She had only assumed that it must because I had sounded so matter-of-fact myself. "After you hung up," she said, "I mentioned what you told me and nobody here knows anything about it. Could you please fax us what you know?"

I faxed her a short version of it. Here is a longer one.

Stories about the Jewishness of Ataturk, whose statue stands in the main square of every town and city in Turkey, already circulated in his lifetime but were denied by him and his family and never taken seriously by biographers. Of six biographies of him that I consulted this week, none even mentions such a speculation. The only scholarly reference to it in print that I could find was in the entry on Ataturk in the Israeli Entsiklopedya ha-Ivrit, which begins:

"Mustafa Kemal Ataturk - (1881-1938), Turkish general and statesman and
founder of the modern Turkish state.

"Mustafa Kemal was born to the family of a minor customs clerk in Salonika
and lost his father when he was young. There is no proof of the belief,
widespread among both Jews and Muslims in Turkey, that his family came from
the Doenme. As a boy he rebelled against his mother's desire to give him a
traditional religious education, and at the age of 12 he was sent at his
demand to study in a military academy."


Secular Father

The Doenme were an underground sect of Sabbetaians, Turkish Jews who took Muslim names and outwardly behaved like Muslims but secretly believed in Sabbetai Zevi, the 17th-century false messiah, and conducted carefully guarded prayers and rituals in his name. The encyclopedia's version of Ataturk's education, however, is somewhat at variance with his own. Here is his account of it as quoted by his biographers:

"My father was a man of liberal views, rather hostile to religion, and a
partisan of Western ideas. He would have preferred to see me go to a * lay
school, which did not found its teaching on the Koran but on modern science.

"In this battle of consciences, my father managed to gain the victory after
a small maneuver; he pretended to give in to my mother's wishes, and
arranged that I should enter the [Islamic] school of Fatma Molla Kadin with
the traditional ceremony. ...

"Six months later, more or less, my father quietly withdrew me from the
school and took me to that of old Shemsi Effendi who directed a free
preparatory school according to European methods. My mother made no
objection, since her desires had been complied with and her conventions
respected. It was the ceremony above all which had satisfied her."

Who was Mustafa Kemal's father, who behaved here in typical Doenme fashion, outwardly observing Muslim ceremonies while inwardly scoffing at them? Ataturk's mother Zubeyde came from the mountains west of Salonika, close to the current Albanian frontier; of the origins of his father, Ali Riza, little is known. Different writers have given them as Albanian, Anatolian and Salonikan, and Lord Kinross' compendious 1964 "Ataturk" calls Ali Riza a "shadowy personality" and adds cryptically regarding Ataturk's reluctance to disclose more about his family background: "To the child of so mixed an environment it would seldom occur, wherever his racial loyalties lay, to inquire too exactly into his personal origins beyond that of his parentage."


Learning Hebrew

Did Kinross suspect more than he was admitting? I would never have asked had I not recently come across a remarkable chapter while browsing in the out-of-print Hebrew autobiography of Itamar Ben-Avi, son of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the leading promoter of the revival of spoken Hebrew in late 19th-century Palestine. Ben-Avi, the first child to be raised in Hebrew since ancient times and later a Hebrew journalist and newspaper publisher, writes in this book of walking into the Kamenitz Hotel in Jerusalem one autumn night in 1911 and being asked by its proprietor: " 'Do you see that Turkish officer sitting there in the corner, the one* with the bottle of arrack?' "

" 'Yes.' "
" 'He's one of the most important officers in the Turkish army.' "
" 'What's his name?' "
" 'Mustafa Kemal.' "
" 'I'd like to meet him,' I said, because the minute I looked at him I was
startled by his piercing green eyes."

Ben-Avi describes two meetings with Mustafa Kemal, who had not yet taken the name of Ataturk, 'Father of the Turks.' Both were conducted in French, were largely devoted to Ottoman politics, and were doused with large amounts of arrack. In the first of these, Kemal confided:

"I'm a descendant of Sabbetai Zevi - not indeed a Jew any more, but an
ardent admirer of this prophet of yours. My opinion is that every Jew in
this country would do well to join his camp."

During their second meeting, held 10 days later in the same hotel, Mustafa Kemal said at one point:"

'I have at home a Hebrew Bible printed in Venice. It's rather old, and I
remember my father bringing me to a Karaite teacher who taught me to read
it. I can still remember a few words of it, such as --' "

And Ben-Avi continues:

"He paused for a moment, his eyes searching for something in space. Then he recalled:
" 'Shema Yisra'el, Adonai Elohenu, Adonai Ehad!'
" 'That's our most important prayer, Captain.'
" 'And my secret prayer too, cher monsieur,' he replied, refilling our
glasses."

Although Itamar Ben-Avi could not have known it, Ataturk no doubt meant "secret prayer" quite literally. Among the esoteric prayers of the Doenme, first made known to the scholarly world when a book of them reached the National Library in Jerusalem in 1935, is one containing the confession of faith:

"Sabbetai Zevi and none other is the true Messiah. Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one."

It was undoubtedly from this credo, rather than from the Bible, that Ataturk remembered the words of the Shema, which to the best of my knowledge he confessed knowing but once in his adult life: to a young Hebrew journalist whom he engaged in two tipsily animated conversations in Jerusalem nearly a decade before he took control of the Turkish army after its disastrous defeat in World War I, beat back the invading Greeks and founded a secular Turkish republic in which Islam was banished - once and for all, so he thought - to the mosques.

Ataturk would have had good reasons for concealing his Doenme origins. Not only were the Doenmes (who married only among themselves and numbered close to 15,000, largely concentrated in Salonika, on the eve of World War I) looked down on as heretics by both Muslims and Jews, they had a reputation for sexual profligacy that could hardly have been flattering to their offspring. This license, which was theologically justified by the claim that it eflected the faithful's freedom from the biblical commandments under the new dispensation of Sabbetai Zevi, is described by Ezer Weizman's predecessor, Israel's second president, Yitzchak Ben-Zvi, in his book on lost Jewish communities, "The Exiled and the Redeemed":

'Saintly Offspring'

"Once a year [during the Doenmes' annual 'Sheep holiday'] the candles are put out in the course of a dinner which is attended by orgies and the ceremony of the exchange of wives. ... The rite is practiced on the night of Sabbetai Zevi's traditional bithday. ... It is believed that children born of such unions are regarded as saintly."

Although Ben-Zvi, writing in the 1950s, thought that "There is reason to believe that this ceremony has not been entirely abandoned and continues to this day," little is known about whether any of the Doenmes' traditional practices or social structures still survive in modern Turkey. The community abandoned Salonika along with the city's other Turkish residents during the Greco-Turkish war of 1920-21, and its descendants, many of whom are said to be wealthy businessmen and merchants in Istanbul, are generally thought to have assimilated totally into Turkish life.

After sending my fax to Batya Keinan, I phoned to check that she had received it. She had indeed, she said, and would see to it that the president was given it to read on his flight to Ankara. It is doubtful, however, whether Mr. Weizman will allude to it during his visit: The Turkish government, which for years has been fending off Muslim fundamentalist assaults on its legitimacy and on the secular reforms of Ataturk, has little reason to welcome the news that the father of the 'Father of the Turks' was a crypto-Jew who passed on his anti-Muslim sentiments to his son. Mustafa Kemal's secret is no doubt one that it would prefer to continue to be kept.



Petr

[Petr]

Basically both Israel and Turkey are nations that have routinely and roughly abused their neighbors and are therefore now hated by nearly everybody. Even without Marrano influence, it is only natural for these bandits to stick together, as even this Jewish columnist puts it:


The intertwined fates of Turkey and Israel

By Albert Nekimken
September 22, 2002

Originally published in the Washington-based Turkish Times.

...

In the mid-1970s, Ilhan Selcuk, a Leftist and often anti-American columnist for Cumhuriyet, a leading Istanbul daily, wrote with empathy about the plight of "the lonely man," by which he meant the country in the Middle East that stood alienated and alone, surrounded by hostile neighbors-presumably Israel. As he developed his argument, the reader gradually understood that the "yalniz adam" (lonely man) was, in fact, Turkey.

...

But it is worth remembering again that the relationship between Turkey and Israel, or Jews, began long before the 20th Century. In 1492, Ottoman Sultan Bayazit II, ordered provincial governors "not to refuse the Jews entry or cause them difficulties [after their expulsion from Span and Portugal], but to receive them cordially." Historians such as Bernard Lewis, write that Jews were not just permitted to settle in Ottoman lands, but were encouraged, assisted and sometimes even compelled to do so. Bayazit II remarked allegedly that "the Catholic monarch Ferdinand was wrongly considered as wise, since he impoverished Spain by the expulsion of the Jews, and enriched Turkey."

But this was only the beginning. Jews expelled from territory in Italy under Papal control in 1537 and those expelled from Bohemia in 1542 by King Ferdinand also found safe haven in the Ottoman Empire. In March 1556, Sultan Suleiman "the Magnificent" wrote a letter to Pope Paul IV asking for the immediate release of the Ancona Marranos, whom he declared to be Ottoman citizens. The Pope had no other alternative but to release them in recognition of the superior status of the Ottoman Empire at the time. By 1477, Jewish households in Istanbul numbered 1,647, or 11% of the total and 50 years later, their numbers had risen four-fold.

...

During WWII, Turkish diplomats rescued many Jews from Nazi persecution by giving them passports and Istanbul became a haven for many Jewish academics, such as Erich Auerbach, who did some his best work in Turkey.

In 1948, the United States was the first nation to recognize the new state of Israel; Turkey was the second. When the General Assembly adopted a resolution in December of the year calling on the Arabs and Jews to negotiate peace and creating a Palestine Conciliation Commission (PCC), it consisted of the United States, France and Turkey. All Arab delegations voted against it.

..

In 1952 (the year when Turkey became a full member of NATO), General Omar Bradley, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, believed that the West required 19 divisions to defend the Middle East and that Israel could supply two. By 1955, he expected only three states to provide the West with air power in Middle Eastern defense: Great Britain, Turkey and Israel.

Today, although Turkey is a Muslim country, it has become Israel's strongest ally in the region and comprises one leg of an official, strategic and military alliance between the United States, Turkey and Israel. Strong relations between the countries on the levels of trade, tourism and diplomacy stand in sharp contrast to the cold relations between Israel and Egypt, or between Turkey and its neighbor Syria.

Both Turkey and Israel have highly developed intelligence networks, modern weapons and trained armies. Beyond that, Turkey and Israel cooperate on the level of lobbying to influence American and European public opinion on a variety of issues. (With some annoyance, a leading Greek think tank attributed much of the effectiveness of the Turkish lobby in the U.S. to its "ability to manipulate and exploit the U.S.-Israeli strategic relationship and the influence of the Jewish-American community in order to advance the Turkish agenda.")

...


Petr

[Petr]

And here's another fellow I'd like to learn more about - he was shortly referred to in the article by A. Ehrlich that started this thread:

"Moise Cohen (later called Munis Tekinalp) who was an active Jew and once rabbinical student who turned to business and actively asserted a proud Turkish identity along with Zionist sentiments."


Well, this inspired me to perform a little web search, and I found this tidbit:

http://www.jagnes.com/5_2.html

M. Asim Karadmerlioglu:
Some Notes on Tekinalp and Turkish Nationalism in the 1920s

This paper intends to shed light on some of the ideas of Munis Tekinalp, a prominent theoretician of Turkish nationalism who, despite his enormous contributions, has been quite neglected in modern Turkey, probably due to his Jewish origin. In that context, the paper intends to discuss some features of Turkish nationalism during the 1920s. A comparison of Tekinalps theoretical contributions with some recent findings on nationalism, and the role of his Jewish identity, are also discussed."


Then I found Turkish blogger Mavi Boncuk's review of Tekinalp's biography, kindly providing us with some details about this Turanian giant:

http://www.blogger.com/email-post.g?...52664476073025

Tekinalp, Turkish Patriot: 1883-1961.

Mavi Boncuk |

This is a perfect and well detailed book about Munis Tekinalp "Tekinalp" (aka. Moise Cohen), one of the first and most important and influent theorists of the Turkish patriotism and Turkish identity along Ziya Gokalp and others, including large quotes from his works. In the book, his life is very well descripted as a very productive intellectual and writer at all of his long life, his thoughts on the Turkish Resurrection, his promotions and works on the behalf of the Turkish Renaissance. After the Proclamation of the Republic, Tekinalp took part of the reforms who leads to Westernisation of the Turkiye. As a enthusiastic supporter of the Ataturk's principles, he wrote one of most complete and consistent desciptions of these principles and he interpreted firstly by the frame of an ideology "Kemalism". He agreed and demostrated as a believing Jew, how valid the definition of a Turk: "Who feels Turk, is a Turk" whatever his religion, race or nationality. Thinking how different this definition at other "Civilised" countries, who relies it to the blood, race, or to born at a country, he showed well the invalidity of the continuous injustices, unfairnesses, and libelous propagandas against the presence of the Turks on the Worlds. He is a great Turk and patriot.


What a perfect neo-conservative Mr. Cohen/Tekinalp was! Turkey too is a "Proposition Nation," don't you know. :p


Petr