turkish jewish history

Submitted by servet cevik (Turkey), Sep 11, 2014 at 23:00

historically speaking, turks have always been one of the closest allies of jews only until tayyip.

jews expelled in mass from iberian peninsula were only welcomed in the ottoman empire and they resided permanently in turkey for centuries not just temporary.

jews running away from hitler holocaust found safety and acceptance only in turkey in europe. and many jews fled to turkey during second world war. and turkey welcomed all these people.

jews in turkey migrated to israel by their own will mostly due to economic reasons but never due to any forcing or cohersion from turkish governments.

untill tayyip turkey had very good relations with israel and turkey was the only predominantly muslim country in the world that israel had any effective and positive relations.

antisemitism grow up in turkey after the israeli governments treatmen of the palestinians and anti semitism in turkey neither has any historical or cultural roots. it is a quite new phenomena.

there are many artists, politicians, businessmen, who very very much liked and very influential in the turkish culture, business and political life.

probably turkey was the best country ever in the world for jewish communities that had safety and comfort and religious freedom and opportunities to nourish before the eastablishment of israel.

ottoman empire never had any uprising only from the jewish community. kurds were the most rebellious but jews were some of the most loyal ones. and jews gave great contribution to the economic and military development of the empire.

check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jews_in_Turkey

also many turks were jews before they converted to islam by the persian and arabic influence. check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khazars so judaism was a previous religion for many turks.

greeks were pagans before christianity and has no historical or close ties with judaism.

do not let current status of turkish israeli relations fool you. the two societies are much closer than you think and know.

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".