University Press Copublishing Division / Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
Pages: 540
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9½
978-1-61147-536-4 • Hardback • April 2012 • $162.00 • (£125.00)
978-1-61147-683-5 • Paperback • April 2014 • $76.99 • (£59.00)
978-1-61147-537-1 • eBook • April 2012 • $73.00 • (£56.00)
Rifat N. Bali is an independent scholar specializing in the history of Turkish Jews and an associate member of the Alberto-Benveniste Center for Sephardic Studies and the Sociocultural History of the Jews (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes/CNRS/Université Paris-Sorbonne). He is the winner of the Alberto Benveniste Research Award for 2009 for his publications on Turkish Jewry.
List of Abbreviations & Acronyms
Preface
PROLOGUE
1. Minorities during the Single Party Period
2. The Democrat Party in Power
Chapter I: The Democrat Party Years, 1950-1960
- Chapter I: The Democrat Party Years, 1950-1960
- The Democrat Party: Hopes and Expectations
- The Rebirth of the Islamic Movement
- Relations Between the DP, Turkish Jewry and American Jewish Organizations
- The National Election of 1954 and the Minorities
- Questions Surrounding the Use of the Turkish Language
- The Events of September 6-7, 1955
- The National Elections of 1957 and the Minorities
- The Situation of the Jewish Community During the 1950s
- Toward the Revolution of May 27, 1960
Chapter II: From the 1960 Revolution to the 1971 “Memorandum”
- The Revolution of May 27, 1960
- The Dissolution of the Lay Council and the Election of the Chief Rabbi
- The General Elections of 1961
- The Cyprus Question and its Effects on the Jewish Community
- Minorities and the Citizenship Question
- The Six Day War and Its Effects
- The Attempted Arson of the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Ensuing Reactions
- The National Elections of 1969: The National Salvation Party
and the Birth of Political Islam
- The Situation of the Jewish Community during the 1960s
Chapter III: From the “Memorandum” of March 12, 1971 to the Military Coup of September 12, 1980
- The Effect of Socio-Economic Conditions
- The 1974 “Peace Operation” on Cyprus and its Effects
- The Situation of the Jewish Community in the 1970s
- Events Leading up to Military Coup of September 12, 1980
Chapter IV: The Years of Military Administration, 1980-1983
- The Aftermath of September 12
- Organizing a Turkish Lobby in the United States
- The Armenian Genocide Question
Chapter V: The Özal Years, 1984-1993
- Relations among Turkey, Israel and American Jewish Organizations
- The Warming of Relations between Turkey and Israel and the Armenian Genocide
- The Attack on the Neve Shalom Synagogue
- The Islamic Movement and Anti-Semitism in the 1980s
- Reconceptualizing Turkey’s Public Relations Activities: The Quincentennial Foundation
- The Situation of Turkey’s Jewish Community in the 1980s (1980-1992)
Chapter VI: The Rise, Fall and Ideological Transformation of Political Islam, 1994-2003
- The Period of Ascendance (1994-1997)
- The Collapse of Political Islam (1997-2001)
- Relations with Fethullah Gülen’s Community
- The Period of AKP Rule (2001- )
- Anti-Semitism and the Intellectual Elites During the 1990s
- Relations between American Jewish Organizations and the Republic of Turkey
- Societal Transformation in Turkey and the Situation of the Minorities
- The Suicide Bombings of Istanbul Synagogues, November 15, 2003
- The Jewish Community During the 1990s
Conclusion
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
“With the publication of the highly original Turkish Jews in the Republican Years, Rifat Bali established himself as the leading authority on Turkish Jewry. The publication of Model Citizensofthe State completes Bali’s trilogy on the history of Turkish Jews and solidifies his international reputation.” —Marc David Baer, author of The Dönme: Jewish Converts, Muslim Revolutionaries, and Secular Turks
— Marc David Baer, author of The Dönme: Jewish Converts, Muslim Revolutionaries, and Secular Turks
“Model Citizens of the State is carefully researched, clearly written, and persuasively argued. It narrates masterfully the complex history of Turkish Jews’ relationship to the modern Turkish Republic, exposing the tightrope act they have often undertaken as they moved between the position of suspect and model minority. Bali’s monumental book promises to become the ultimate reference work on Jews in twentieth-century Turkey for a long time to come.”—Julia Phillips Cohen, assistant professor of Modern Jewish History, Vanderbilt University
— Julia Phillips Cohen, Assistant Professor of Modern Jewish History, Vanderbilt University
“The book provides an expose of the treatment of the Jewish community in Turkey from 1950 to the present, their fight against anti-Semitism, the struggle for their constitutional rights, and the attitude of the Turkish state and society towards these problems.”
“groundbreaking…unearthing facts and first-hand accounts that unmistakably illustrate how the Turkish establishment blackmailed the leaders of the Jewish community—and through them Jewish organizations in the United States—to secure their support of the Turkish position against the Armenians’ campaign for genocide recognition… The book also offers rich material about how Turkish diplomats and semi-official spokesmen of Turkish policies, threatened both Israel and the U.S. However, Bali’s industrious work in the archives reveals first-hand accounts that confirm these allegations.””- Turkish journalist Ayse Gunaysu (member of the Committee Against Racism and Discrimination of the Human Rights Association of Turkey, Istanbul branch, since 1995)
“I do not believe that the book will have any sort of negative impact on Israeli-Turkish and/or Turkish-Jewish relations. Real politics and strategic concerns always dominate and even embellish past history. However, I hope that at last the English-speaking public will have the opportunity to read the ‘real’ story of Turkish-Jewish relations instead of an embellished one.” Bali
“This book serves as a valuable case study of how realpolitik in domestic politics and foreign relations distorts the truth, and how coercion by the powerful contributes to the violation of collective human rights. It will be of interest to academics and students of non-Muslim minorities in Turkey, political lobbyists in America, Israeli policy-makers, as well as to the Jewish, Greek, and Armenian communities around the world”
Author Background: Rifat N. Bali, born in 1948 in Istanbul, is an independent scholar specializing in the history of Turkish Jews and an associate member of the Alberto-Benveniste Center for Sephardic Studies and the Sociocultural History of the Jews (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes/CNRS/Université de Paris-Sorbonne). He is the winner of the 2009 Alberto Benveniste Research Award for his publications on Turkish Jewry.
— Armenian International Magazine
This is a careful and informative work, prepared by an expert in Turkish affairs, which could profitably be read by everyone interested in the Republic of Turkey, in its Jewish community, and in minorities in the Middle East.
— Middle Eastern Studies
Not many books have been written on the Turkish Jews, and even fewer on the contemporary period. Bali has taken up the challenge of covering this period, and his comprehensive history is richly documented, easily readable, and in some instances reveals hitherto unknown facts. ... Bali makes good use of sources including governmental statements, protocols of community discussions, opinions published in the press, interviews, and even reports by Israeli and foreign diplomats. He usefully sums up each decade at the end of each chapter, thus clarifying the different trends of Turkish political life and the fluctuating attitudes toward Jews. All in all, Bali has produces a well-documented work that will become a classic in modern Turkish Jewish History.— Jewish Political Studies Review
Model Citizens of the State covers the Jewish community's relations with both state and society at large during the multiparty period, from 1950 to 2003. As usual, Bali's research is impressive. He cites documents from the Turkish, U.S., and Israeli archives; surveys Turkish press outlets representing a wide range of political views; and uses personal archives and numerous secondary sources. The book is a very important contribution to the English literature on state-minority relations in Turkey.— International Journal of Middle East Studies