Thrace pogrom 1934

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The 1934 Thrace pogrom , often belittled in Turkey as the "Events of Thrace" ( Trakya Olayları in Turkish ), took place between June 21 and July 4, 1934 in Eastern Thrace , which has belonged to Turkey since 1923. The attack by Muslim sections of the population was directed against the local Jewish minority and was anti-Semitic . The number of displaced people is estimated at up to 10,000 people; official Turkish figures claim 3,000 displaced persons.

course

Almost simultaneously, at the end of June 1934, Turkish nationalists attacked the Jews of the port city of Çanakkale in the Dardanelles region and in the Thracian cities of Edirne , Uzunköprü , Kırklareli , Keşan , Lüleburgaz and Silivri ; there were also anti-Jewish demonstrations. Local authorities ordered the Jews to conduct business and vacate their homes within a few days, which they did. Many left their property behind or had to sell them to local Turks at bargain prices; some were able to take their movable possessions with them. In the cities of Edirne (with its community of 7,000 Jews) and Kırklareli, the anti-Jewish riots were pogrom-like . In early July 1934 there was systematic looting , robbery and rape in Kırklareli . The Jewish residents were mistreated and wounded. They were not killed, which in research is attributed to an instruction "from above". In Edirne, the Jewish quarter remained under the control of marauding Turkish nationalists for days . Jews fled these cities as well as Tekirdağ , Keşan, Çorlu and Babaeski from their ancestral home forever. Shops and houses belonging to Jewish owners were also damaged or destroyed.

Cevat Rıfat Atilhan, Executive Director of the Congress of Islamic States (predecessor organization of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation )

Controversy over the trigger

The pogroms are said to have been triggered by an anti-Semitic inflammatory pamphlet by Nihal Atsız in issue 7 of his magazine Orhun 1934 and by Cevat Rıfat Atilhan in the magazine Milli İnkılap , a thesis that was also advocated by the Israeli publicist Avner Levi in ​​the early 1990s.

Pekesen holds the but contrary: can Although Levi had to prove "that the Cevat Rıfat [..], published anti-Semitic magazine Millî Inkilap (National Revolution) by the Nazi publisher Julius Streicher subsidized and-leaf NS modeled after the striker designed had been ", the" conclusion that only the permanent agitation against Judaism in the paper Millî İnkılâp triggered the anti-Semitic attacks "is too simplistic. This is the result of more recent studies, which could have shown that the low reception of the magazine "precluded an initial spark of the pogroms by the Millî İnkılâp". Anticipating the results of their own study, Pekesen concludes:

“As could be shown in the present study, the role of Atilhan postulated by Avner Levi in ​​the riots should at least be relativized. For example, one of Atilhan's recorded conversations with the German Embassy shows that Atilhan actually sought financial support from the German authorities immediately after the 'Thracian events', but was unsuccessful. Atilhan's financial support did not seem opportune to the German ambassador Frederic von Rosenberg and he also advised the other German authorities against it. The necessary restraint must be maintained in internal Turkish processes. Far more interesting is the hint that von Rosenberg coaxed from Atilhan. The latter stated that 'certain state circles' had enabled him to deliver the current edition of his magazine in good time before the impending ban. It can be assumed that these 'circles had a certain interest in making it appear as if the pogrom in Thrace and the Aegean was provoked by pan-Turkic anti-Semitic persons [...]. "

In a similar way, Pekesen also relativizes the influence of Nihal Atsız and instead pleads for “looking for the framework for anti-Jewish excesses in the historical and political developments in Turkey itself”. Corry Guttstadt also does not see the trigger for the pogroms in Thrace in an “imported anti-Semitism”, but claims that “the almost simultaneous beginning of anti-Jewish actions in all of Thrace on a central organization” in connection with an “anti-Jewish widespread in Turkey Stereotype ”points, and was promoted by the“ ambivalent attitude of the Turkish government to verbally condemn riots against Jews, but at the same time to tolerate anti-Jewish measures or to suggest secretly themselves ”. The extent to which the Turkish government was involved in the Thrace pogrom can also be seen from the correspondence of British Ambassador Percy Loraine : “(...) Contrary to all statements by Ismet Inönü and the Ministry of the Interior, our commercial attaché found out from a trustworthy source that some time ago the Turkish government decided to purify Thrace from the Jewish element ”. Görgü brings the riots in connection with the Turkish “measures for the military fortification of Thrace in view of the armament of Italy. The Jews were considered to be 'unreliable'. According to Article 9 of the İskân Kanunu , 'those who could be presumed to be engaged in espionage should be removed from the border areas'. "Hatice Bayraktar refers in this context to an" almost 100 pages long, to mid-June 1934 and thus only A report dated a few days before the outbreak of the unrest, which was written by İbrahim Tali, the then General Inspector for Thrace and Çanakkale and thus the highest government representative there. Tali, who had known President Mustafa Kemal Ataturk personally since 1916/17 and had extensive powers over all civil and military forces in his area of ​​office, spoke explicitly of the need to expel the Jews from Thrace. The strongly anti-Semitic report came with two equally informative cards. One showed the route of Tali's first trip through his official territory in May / June 1934, the other contained a division of his general inspectorate according to the "Settlement Act" passed in mid-June 1934. There can therefore hardly be any doubt that the unrest took place not only with approval, but even at the suggestion of the Turkish leadership for reasons of military strategy. The anti-Semitic attitude of Tali will have contributed significantly to the fact that the aggressions were primarily directed against Jews and not generally against the non-Muslim minorities, which were then classified as politically unreliable. "

literature

Footnotes

  1. ^ The expulsion of the Turkish Jews from Thrace in 1934
  2. ↑ footnote 3
  3. ↑ Salom : 1934 Trakien Pogrom ( Memento of the original of July 7, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , (Turkish) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.salom.com.tr
  4. ↑ a b Berna Pekesen: Nationalism, Turkishization and the end of the Jewish communities in Thrace 1918-1942 , p. 16
  5. ↑ a b c Berna Pekesen: Nationalism, Turkishization and the end of the Jewish communities in Thrace 1918-1942 , p. 17
  6. ↑ Berna Pekesen: Nationalism, Turkishization and the end of the Jewish communities in Thrace 1918-1942 , pp. 273-274
  7. ^ Corry Guttstadt: Turkey, the Jews and the Holocaust , p. 184
  8. ^ Corry Guttstadt: Turkey, the Jews and the Holocaust , p. 190
  9. ^ Corry Guttstadt: Turkey, the Jews and the Holocaust , p. 193
  10. ↑ a b Quoted from Corry Görgü: July 4, 1934, Thrace / West Turkey: The anti-Jewish riots 70 years ago , on: haGalil.com: Jüdisches Leben online , July 4, 2004
  11. ^ Hatice Bayraktar: Abstract: The anti-Semitic excesses in Turkish Thrace and Çanakkale 1934