Model Citizens of the State: The Jews of Turkey During the Multi-Party Period

Model Citizens of the State: The Jews of Turkey during the Multi-Party Period is about the history of the Turkish Jews from 1950 to present. By using unpublished primary sources as well as secondary sources, the book describes the struggle of Turkish Jews for the application of their constitutional rights, their fight against anti-Semitism and the indifferent attitude of the Turkish establishment to these problems. Finally, it describes Turkish Jewish leadership’s involvement in the lobbying efforts on behalf of the Turkish Republic against the acceptance of resolutions in the U.S. Congress recognizing the Armenian Genocide.

Table of Contents:
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, 1950-1960The Democrat Party: Hopes and ExpectationsThe Rebirth of the Islamic MovementRelations Between the DP, Turkish Jewry and American Jewish OrganizationsThe National Election of 1954 and the Minorities Questions Surrounding the Use of the Turkish Language The Events of September 6-7, 1955The 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, 1960The Dissolution of the Lay Council and the Election of the Chief RabbiThe General Elections of 1961The Cyprus Question and its Effects on the Jewish CommunityMinorities and the Citizenship QuestionThe 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 ConditionsThe 1974 “Peace Operation” on Cyprus and its EffectsThe Situation of the Jewish Community in the 1970sEvents Leading up to Military Coup of September 12, 1980Chapter IV: The Years of Military Administration, 1980-1983 The Aftermath of September 12Organizing a Turkish Lobby in the United StatesThe Armenian Genocide QuestionChapter V: The Özal Years, 1984-1993 Relations among Turkey, Israel and American Jewish OrganizationsThe Warming of Relations between Turkey and Israel and the Armenian GenocideThe Attack on the Neve Shalom SynagogueThe Islamic Movement and Anti-Semitism in the 1980sReconceptualizing Turkey’s Public Relations Activities: The Quincentennial FoundationThe 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 CommunityThe Period of AKP Rule (2001- )Anti-Semitism and the Intellectual Elites During the 1990s Relations between American Jewish Organizations and the Republic of TurkeySocietal Transformation in Turkey and the Situation of the MinoritiesThe Suicide Bombings of Istanbul Synagogues, November 15, 2003The Jewish Community During the 1990sConclusion Epilogue Bibliography Index About the Author

About the Author :
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.

Review :
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. ... 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.