Abstract
Turkey is a regular news feature in the world media. And within this interest, one of the subjects that most engages the Western press is the current gradual process wherein the control of a self-proclaimed secular republic, long-protected and preserved by a military that viewed itself as the guardian of its secular character along with the rest of Atatürk’s legacy has democratically passed to the Justice and Development Party (AKP in Turkish) led by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The party, which claims not to be Islamist, has nevertheless unwaveringly imposed its socially conservative vision on Turkish society, in the process severely weakening the Republic’s traditional principle of uncompromising secularism, as well as the influence of the Turkish military, its traditional guardian. It is therefore unsurprising that the developments of the past one-and-a-half decades have been a subject of fascination and frequent reporting for the western press.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
“Young Turkish Jews Emigrating Due to Anti-Semitism, Tensions with Israel”, October 23, 2013, Haaretz, https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/turkish-jewish-youth-emigrating-1.5278275.
Ilan Ben-Zion, “Young Turkish Jews trickling away from shrinking community”, June 6, 2015, https://www.timesofisrael.com/young-turkish-jews-trickling-away-from-shrinking-community/; Josefin Dolsten, “Turkish Jews proudly Defend Last Sephardic Homeland-Even as Some Flee”, May 28, 2016, https://forward.com/news/world/340921/turkish-jews-proudly-defend-last-sephardic-homeland-even-as-some-flee/; Cnaan Liphshiz, “In Post-Coup Turkey, Jews Plan their Future Abroad”, November 19, 2016, https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-post-coup-turkey-jews-plan-their-future-abroad/; “Number of Turkish Jews immigrating to Israel more than doubles”, November 11, 2017, https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/237938.
Mark Lowen, “Turkey Brain Drain: Crackdown Pushes Intellectuals Out”, December 28, 2017, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42433668; Soner Yalçın, “Burası vatanın nereye gidiyorsun”, Sözcü, January 3, 2018.
- 2.
For sources on this subject in English, see: Rıfat N. Bali, Antisemitism and Conspiracy Theories in Turkey, (Istanbul: Libra Kitap, 2013); Efrat Aviv, Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism in Turkey: From Ottoman Rule to AKP, (London; I.B.Tauris, 2017).
- 3.
Permission was given to foreign organizations to operate on Turkish soil by the Fifth Paragraph of the Law on Associations, No. 5253 and dated November 4, 2004 “by permission of the Interior Ministry and in consideration of the views of the Foreign Ministry.”
- 4.
Rıfat N. Bali, A Scapegoat For All Seasons: The Dönmes or Crypto-Jews of Turkey, (İstanbul: Isis Press, 2008), 48.
- 5.
The annual tuition for the private Jewish schools in Ulus is about TL 45,000, or around USD 10,000 (at May 28, 2018 exchange rates). For a couple with two children, the cost is close to $20,000 annually! Other private schools have also more or less the same fees.
- 6.
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, “Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters,” http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/treaty/submit/session183/pdfs/agree-10_01.pdf.
- 7.
Önemli Duyuru, “Türkiye Mali Hesaplara Iliskin Uluslararasi Otomatik Bilgi Degisimi Anlasmasini Imzaladi,” Centrum Danismanlik, http://vergiport.com/duyuru/Turkiye-Mali-Hesaplara-Iliskin-Uluslararasi-Otomatik-Bilgi-Degisimi-Anlasmasini-Imzaladi.pdf.
- 8.
Various studies put the percentage of the “shadow economy” in Turkey to around thirty percent. See, for example, Friedrich Schneider-Robert Klinglmair, “Shadow Economies around the World: What do We Know?” IZA DP, no. 1043 Institute for the Study of Labour, Bonn, March 2004, http://ftp.iza.org/dp1043.pdf; Ceyhun Elgin-Oğuz Öztunalı, “Shadow Economies Around the World: Model Based Estimates,” http://www.econ.boun.edu.tr/public_html/RePEc/pdf/201205.pdf; Friedrich Schneider, “Size and Progression of the Shadow Economies of Turkey and other OECD Countries from 2003 to 2013: Some New Facts,” in Ekonomi-tek 2, no. 2 (2013): 83–116, http://ekonomitek.org/pdffile/no5_10_friedrich_schneider.pdf.
Şebnem Turhan, “Turkey worst in OECD for unregistered economy: Study,” Hürriyet Daily News, January 18, 2016.
Özlem Yıldız, “Black Economy in Turkey,” PhD thesis, Cardiff Business School, 2013; There is also an official “action plan” of the Turkish Ministry of Finance to reduce the percentage of the shadow economy. See Gelir Idaresi Baskanligi, “Kayitli Ekonomi Güçlü Gelecek Kamu Spotu,” Youtube, November 12, 2017, http://www.kayitliekonomiyegecis.gov.tr/.
- 9.
Banks and bank employees are not allowed to share their customers’ private information with third parties.
- 10.
“Vergi Sirküleri, No: 2013/70,” Deloitte, May 29, 2013, http://www.verginet.net/Sirkuler/2013yili70.pdf.
- 11.
“Yurk Içi ve Yurk Disi Varliklarin: Milli Ekonomiye Kazandirilmasi,” Gelir Idaresi Baskanligi, http://www.gib.gov.tr/sites/default/files/fileadmin/yayinlar/6736varlikbarisi.pdf.
- 12.
- 13.
Doğan Akman, “Spain’s Correction of Her ‘Historical Mistake and Injustice’: Spanish Citizenship for the ‘Sefardies’: An Assessment,” Sephardic Horizons 6, no. 3–4 (2016), http://www.sephardichorizons.org/Volume6/Issue3-4/Akman.html.
- 14.
“Portuguese Nationality for Sephardic Descendants,” Comunidad Israelita do Porto, March 1, 2018, http://www.comunidade-israelita-porto.org/resources/pdfs/Portuguese_Nationality_for_Sephardic_Descendants_English.pdf.
- 15.
Aaron Baruch, “Soner Yalçın’a cevabımdır”, January 6, 2018, https://ankarali-2001.blogspot.com.tr/2018/01/soner-yalcina-cevabimdir_6.html.
- 16.
Avlaremoz, www.avlaremoz.com.
- 17.
Mois Gabay, “Keşke’lerle dolu Türk Yahudileri,” Şalom, December 27, 2017.
- 18.
A Ladino term meaning to “remain silent.” In practice, it refers to the concept of not complaining publicly.
- 19.
A Ladino phrase meaning “we don’t meddle in political affairs.”
- 20.
The writers for Avlaremoz.com use the pen names “Rika Kuriel,” “Hayri Çavuş,” “Ortaköylü Mişon.”
- 21.
Raffi Portakal and Enis Batur, Portakal’ın Yüzyılı, (Istanbul: Doğan Kitap, 2015), 53. Hrant Dink (1954–2007) was an Armenian activist and editor-in-chief of the Armenian newspaper Agos. He was murdered on January 19, 2007. Sevan Nişanyan (1956–) is a public intellectual and etimologist. During the time he was an entrepreneur in the field of tourism he was condemned to eleven years in prison for illegal constructions. He escaped from prison in July 2017 and currently lives in Greece.
- 22.
Rıfat N. Bali, Cumhuriyet Yıllarında Türkiye Yahudileri – Aliya: Bir Toplu Göçün Öyküsü, (Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2003), 432.
- 23.
Las Ultimas Palavras, directed by Rita Ender-Yorgos Demir (2015, Jewish Museum Berlin).
Kaybolan Bir Dil Kaybolan Bir Mutfak / A Fading Language A Fading Cuisine, directed by Deniz Alphan (2017).
- 24.
These neighborhoods are: Galata, Şişhane, Balat, and Hasköy. The previously mentioned Şalom writer and professional tour guide Mois Gabay organizes these tours.
- 25.
According to the museum director, it sees some 10,000 visitors per annum, among whom seventy percent are local. Larry Luxner, “As Israel-Turkey Tension Rises, so Does Foot Traffic to Istanbul’s Jewish Museum,” Times of Israel, January 18, 2018, https://www.timesofisrael.com/as-israel-turkey-tensions-rise-so-does-foot-traffic-to-istanbuls-jewish-museum/.
- 26.
For this reason, the editor-in-chief of Şalom would publish an editorial that attempted to trivialize the emigration of Turkish Jews.
İvo Molinas, “O güzel insanlar o güzel atlara binip gitmesinler,” Şalom , January 4, 2018.
- 27.
Hanukkah was publicly celebrated in Ortaköy Square for the first time during the Republican period on December 14, 2015. The following year it was celebrated for the second time at Ortaköy’s Esma Sultan Yalı. Both of these observances were organized by the mayor’s office of the Beşiktaş municipality.
- 28.
The 2017 celebration, which the Beşiktaş municipality had also planned to be held in Ortaköy, was cancelled in the wake of anti-American and anti-Israeli demonstrations that broke out in the wake of President Donald Trump’s declaration of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital on December 6 of that year.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bali, R.N. (2022). Epilogue: “Aprontaremos Las Validjas” Shall We Start Packing the Suitcases?. In: Öktem, K., Yosmaoğlu, I.K. (eds) Turkish Jews and their Diasporas. Modernity, Memory and Identity in South-East Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87798-9_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87798-9_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-87797-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-87798-9
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)