New Era for Jews in Turkey?

Click here to read the article in Turkish / Haberin Türkçesi için buraya tıklayın

Date: January 2009

Place: Abide-I Hürriyet Street, Şişli

Time: A Saturday morning, Sabbath prayer exit, Moşe left synagogue with his mother heading home

Moşe: Mom, isn’t our prophet Moses?

Mother: Yes, as they told at the synagogue today. Your name is also originated in Moses; why did you ask?

Moşe: Look at the banner on that wall mom, it writes “You cannot be Mose’s Child!”. They added a chapter from our book of Exodos. What have we done to these people, mom? What have I done wrong?

Mother: We haven’t done anything my child, it’s just someone has attributed a political war to our religion. These days will pass too, you’ll see.

Banners on billboards, Davos crisis, minute of silences kept at schools, Mavi Marmara, statements saying Zionism is a crime against humanity, Kurtlar Vadisi Filistin**, red book, Gezi Park protests, implication that Israel was behind Egyptian coup, interest lobby, garbling Torah explanation, marching towards synagogues, so-called intellectuals praising Hitler, flaming anti-Semitism, and many others…

And Turkish Jewish Community that tries to sustain its existence despite all these negative developments, hate speech and prejudices. On the one hand, faces full of hope in Edirne, Ortaköy, on the other hand a constant worry of “facing an unpleasant situation”. On the hand, there is conversation and feeling of unity achieved by common fast-breaking meals, on the other hand pressure of getting involved in a troubling political subject and expressing an opinion. Leaders’ moderate statements’ not reaching grassroots, anti-Semitism encouraged by certain media bosses, and Israel state that tries to be demonized at every opportunity. Indeed, summary of the last five years means much more than those for Jews in Turkey.

“Israel state and Israeli people are friends of Turkey. Our criticisms so far have been against extreme practices and illegitimate actions of Israeli government”. We heard this statement from Justice and Development Party (AKP) Spokesperson, Ömer Çelik. After the Hanukkah miracle we lived in Ortaköy, the real miracle maybe was to be able to hear such a statement from the authorities about Israel where we have ties of affection.

In the week Mr. Çelik made this statement, a group of fans holding flags were protesting against Israel in a Euroleague game.

Both the ongoing agreement process between the two countries and some circles reacting against it despite positive messages show that there is still time needed for peace.

At a time in which perception management operates to identify Jews in Turkey with Israeli citizens in every political crisis, a permanent peace environment can be established only by normalizing the relations between Turkey and Israel. Thus, establishing permanent peace with Israel might necessarily be the beginning of a new ear for Jews in Turkey. However, this new era can be actualized by not merely fixing diplomatic factors but by preventing hate crimes that are committed almost on daily bases. (MG/HK/TK)

*This article was published on Şalom newspaper

* Kurtlar Vadisi (Valley of the wolves) is a popular pro-nationalist and anti-Semitist TV series in Turkey.