“It is actually an understatement that there was no anti-Semitism in Turkey. In fact, there was a pro-Semitism. Ottoman governments treated their Jewish subjects with a special consideration and compassion as one of their own, as one of the most loyal and devoted subjects of the empire:”
- Haim Nahum, the last Grand Rabbi of the Ottoman Empire, (1924)
Het volgende is geschreven door Dr. Israel Hanukoglu (Research Institute
College of Judea and Samaria, Ariel, Israel).
The current dispersion of Jews dates back to 70 g.E. when the Roman army invaded Jerusalem and expelled the Jews from Judea and Samaria. Some of these Jews reached Spain and established thriving communities there. In the 15th century the Jews in Spain faced strong pressures to convert to Christianity and many yielded to this pressure and became Christians.
In 1492 the king of Spain issued an edict to expel all Jews from Spain who did not convertto Christianity. When the news of this reached the Ottoman Empire, the Sultan (Emperor) Beyazit II issued a decree to welcome the Jews expelled from Spain. A significant portion of those expelled thus came to the Ottoman Empire and settled mostly in European parts of the Empire. The Turkish Jews are also identified as Sephardic Jews. This derives from the word Sepharad which in Hebrew means Spain.
Since 1492, through five centuries, the Ottoman sultans and the modem day Turkish Republic, welcomed the Jews and offered them a safe haven from persecution in the European countries. The Ottoman Empire at its zenith became one the largest empires in World History covering most of Mediterranean basin region extending from North Africa to Eastern Europe. It has been suggested that one of the characteristics that extended the domination of the Ottoman Empire was its allowance of religious freedom for the different nationalities and minorities under its rule. While many European nations expelled, persecuted or tried to convert the Jews under their dominion, the Turkish people of the Ottoman Empire, remained as an outstanding example of tolerance of different nationalities with different religions.
The presentation above sometimes sounds unusual to strangers who may have heard Turkey only in the context of conquests of the Ottoman Empire. Indeed Turkish people have been throughout history a nation with a strong army and strong national feelings. Yet, the Turkish history is also studded with stories of humanity and tolerance. In war time they are a strong nation to avoid confrontation with, but they also know to become friends beyond the war times and zones. This, in my personal opinion, is a consistent pattern of Turkish behavior in all of their extensive history through centuries.
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