Nationalism And Non Muslim Minorities In Turkey 1915 1950

Ayhan Aktar has been working on anti-minority policies in modern Turkey since 1991. In the Ottoman Empire's final decade (in 1906), non-Muslims constituted 20% of the population; by 1927, they were reduced to 2.5% and, nowadays, they make up less than 0.02% of the population of Modern Turkey. Armenians were subjected to deportations (1915), Greeks were 'exchanged' (1922-1924) and Jews were forced to migrate abroad (after 1945). Like many other nation states in the Near East, Turkey has been able to homogenize its population on religious grounds. This books is a collection of Aktar's articles about this transformation.Aktar says that the reason behind his broad approach is also related to nationalist historiographies: "For instance, a scholar conducting research on the Jewish community during the republican period could easily come to the conclusion that only Jews were discriminated against by the Turkish state. However, this is only partially true! All non-Muslim minorities were discriminated against and their stories cannot be understood unless the Turkish state and its policies are placed at center stage. Utilizing diplomatic correspondence in the British and US National Archives has enabled me to understand anti-minority policies as a whole and to treat the subject within a totality."This book will interest scholars and students of nationalism, minority studies and Turkish history and politics. CONTENTSAcknowledgementsChapter 1. Debating the Armenian Massacres in the Last Ottoman Parliament, November - December 1918Chapter 2. Organizing The Deportations and Massacres: Ottoman Bureaucracy and the Cup, 1915 - 1918Chapter 3. Homogenizing the Nation, Turkifying the Economy: The Turkish Experience of Population Exchange ReconsideredChapter 4. Conversion of a 'Country' into a 'Fatherland': The Case of Turkification Examined, 1923-1934Chapter 5. "Turkification" Policies in the Early Republican EraChapter 6. "Tax Me to the End of My Life!" Anatomy of Anti-Minority Tax Legislation, (1942 - 3) Chapter 7. Turkish Attitudes vis à vis The Zionist Project by Ayhan Aktar and Soli ÖzelChapter 8. Economic Nationalism in Turkey: The Formative Years, 1912 - 1925

Ayhan Aktar has been working on anti-minority policies in modern Turkey since 1991. In the Ottoman Empire’s final decade (in 1906), non-Muslims constituted 20% of the population; by 1927, they were reduced to 2.5% and, nowadays, they make up less than 0.02% of the population of Modern Turkey. Armenians were subjected to deportations (1915), Greeks were ‘exchanged’ (1922–1924) and Jews were forced to migrate abroad (after 1945). Like many other nation-states in the Near East, Turkey has been able to homogenize its population on religious grounds. This book is a collection of Aktar's articles about this transformation. Aktar criticises nationalist historiographies and argues "For instance, a scholar conducting research on the Jewish community during the republican period could easily come to the conclusion that only Jews were discriminated against by the Turkish state. However, this is only partially true! All non-Muslim minorities were discriminated against and their stories cannot be understood unless the Turkish state and its policies are placed at centre stage. Utilizing diplomatic correspondence in the British and US National Archives has enabled me to understand anti-minority policies as a whole and to treat the subject within a totality." This book will interest scholars and students of nationalism, minority studies and Turkish history and politics. CONTENTS Foreword Chapter 1. Debating the Armenian Massacres in the Last Ottoman Parliament, November – December 1918 Chapter 2. Organizing The Deportations and Massacres: Ottoman Bureaucracy and the Cup, 1915 – 1918 Chapter 3. Homogenizing the Nation, Turkifying the Economy: The Turkish Experience of Population Exchange Reconsidered Chapter 4. Conversion of a ‘Country’ into a ‘Fatherland’: The Case of Turkification Examined, 1923–1934 Chapter 5. “Turkification” Policies in the Early Republican Era Chapter 6. “Tax Me to the End of My Life!” Anatomy of Anti-Minority Tax Legislation, (1942 - 3) Chapter 7. Turkish Attitudes vis à vis The Zionist Project by Ayhan Aktar and Soli Özel Chapter 8. Economic Nationalism in Turkey: The Formative Years, 1912 – 1925

This book provides a comparative study of government policies and ideologies of two states towards minority populations living within their borders.

In the early 1900s, the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) committed the Armenian Genocide as part of their pursuit of Pan-Turkist and Pan-Islamist aspirations known as "ittihadism." The CUP also sought to Turkify non-Muslim property, reminiscent of the Aryanization program in Nazi Germany that targeted Jewish assets. The ittihadist dream was shattered when the Ottoman Empire collapsed following their defeat in the Great War. Established in 1923 as an ittihadist project, the Republic of Turkey adopted "ittihadism" as its fundamental ideology as well. The desire to reach Central Asia and unite with other Turkic nations was initially reignited during World War II. Nonetheless, the dream was once again crushed when Nazi Germany was defeated on the Eastern Front. The collapse of the Soviet Union brought back the aspiration once more. This book provides an in-depth examination of the major events in the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey over a century, placing particular emphasis on the Armenian Genocide, the ongoing Cyprus dilemma, and the Kurdish minority issue. By unraveling the reasoning behind these events, the book provides insight into the worldview of the current Turkish government, led by President Erdoğan and his AK Party, and the transformation of "ittihadism" into "neo-ittihadism" under their leadership.

“A Century of Greek-Turkish Relations is an important handbook written by leading authorities from both shores of the Aegean Sea. Greek and Turkish scholars present in a balanced and objective way, as well as in a graspable and meaningful manner, the main periods in which key events brought the two sides into dispute or even conflict. These events, which are integrated in parallel and conflicting national narratives, fuel the historicity of the two national rivals. A century since the end of the Greek-Turkish war, the trauma of the Greek military defeat and the “disaster of the Asia Minor Greeks”, the establishment of the Republic of Turkey and the emblematic Treaty of Lausanne, render this kind of handbook undoubtedly essential. It opens the discussion to the wider audience in a rational and composed way and most importantly, the reader can follow through the pages, the dialogue between Turkish and Greek scholars. A book of this kind was missing from public history.” – Prof. Sia Anagnostopoulou, Panteion University “As an expert on the subject of “minorities” for the past fifty years with a number of publications in Turkish, English, and French, and based on the experts that are participating in the A Century of Greek-Turkish Relations: A Handbook, there is no doubt that this will become an indispensable tool, and above all, an objective account of the Greek-Turkish relations for both experts and the wider public.” – Prof. (emeritus) Baskin Oran, Ankara University “As editors of this important and timely book, Nikos Christofis and Anthony Deriziotis assert that uneducated narratives have perpetuated misunderstandings within Turkish-Greek relations. In their enlightening work, they dismantle these misconceptions, offering a nuanced exploration of the historical and contemporary complexities between the two nations. By featuring insights from leading experts, this book provides a crucial resource for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of Turkish-Greek relations, presenting new historical insights and analytical viewpoints on bilateral relations.” – Prof. Evren Balta, Özyeğin University “A comprehensive and insightful survey of Greek-Turkish relations. A number of distinguished academics have offered their expertise succeeding in the formidable task of touching upon several sensitive issues avoiding stereotypes and easy readings of problems that are burdened by history. A must read for students and experts alike.” – Prof. Sotiris Roussos, University of Peloponnese CONTENTS Preface – Nikos Christofis and Anthony Deriziotis The Uses and Abuses of History in Greece and Turkey – Nikos Christofis and Kerem Öktem The Greek-Turkish War of 1919–1922 – Charalampos Minasidis The 1923 Greco-Turkish Population Exchange: An Assessment of its History and Long Shadow at its Centennial – Aytek Soner Alpan Agreements and Friendship between Greece and Turkey in 1930: Multifaceted Official Nationalist Discourses and Opposing Voices – Anna Vakali Anti-Rum Politics in Turkey, 1923-1946 – Alexandros Lamprou “The State Will Always Pursue You”: A History of Greeks in the Republic of Turkey – Kutay Onayli Muslim Minority of Greece: From Lausanne to the Greek Civil War – Samim Akgönül Greek-Turkish Relations in the Shadow of World War II – Zuhal Mert Uzuner Realpolitik with a Twist: The United States and Greek-Turkish Relations – Ekavi Athanassopoulou Rum Polites in the Context of Turkish-Greek Relations – İlay Romain Örs The Muslim Minority of Western Thrace, 1945-1999: A Strained Saga – Georgios Niarchos The “Troubled Triangle”: Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus, 1940s-1990s – Nikos Christofis Greek-Turkish Relations During the Junta Regime in Greece (1967-1974) – Melek Fırat and Özge Özkoç The Aegean Dispute – Alexis Heraclides Greek-Turkish Relations and Civil Society: Healing the Wounds? – Leonidas Karakatsanis Greek-Turkish Relations: The ‘Helsinki Moment’ in Greece’s Strategy to Turn the EU into A Catalyst for Conflict Resolution – Panayotis J. Tsakonas Greek-Turkish Relations and the Refugee Question – Anthony Deriziotis Reciprocal Minorities in Greece and Turkey: Α Century of Adversity – Konstantinos Tsitselikis Energized Geopolitical Turmoil in the Endangered Eastern Mediterranean: Towards Anthropocene Geopolitics? – Emre İşeri “Hawks and Romantics”: The Role of Media in Turkish-Greek Diplomatic Seesaw – Emre Metin Bilginer “With or Without You”: Turkish-Greek Relations from the Perspective of Securitisation Theory – Başak Alpan The Prospects and Challenges for Cooperation in Cyprus – Ahmet Sözen and Devrim Şahin Greek – Turkish Encounters in the City: Who Meets Who in Kadıköy? – Kerem Öktem Post-script – Anthony Deriziotis and Nikos Christofis

On 24 July 1923 the last Treaty ending hostilities in the Great War was signed at Lausanne in Switzerland. That Treaty closed a decade of violence. Jay Winter tells the story of what happened on that day. On the shores of Lake Geneva, diplomats, statesmen, and soldiers came from Ankara and Athens, from London, Paris, and Rome, and from other capital cities to affirm that war was over. The Treaty they signed fixed the boundaries of present-day Greece and Turkey, and marked a beginning of a new phase in their history. That was its major achievement, but it came at a high price. The Treaty contained within it a Compulsory Population Exchange agreement. By that measure, Greek-Orthodox citizens of Turkey, with the exception of those living in Constantinople, lost the right of citizenship and residence in that state. So did Muslim citizens of Greece, except for residents of Western Thrace. This exchange of nearly two million people, introduced to the peace conference by Nobel Prize winner and humanitarian Fridtjof Nansen, provided a solution to the immense refugee problem arising out of the Greek-Turkish war. At the same time, it introduced into international law a definition of citizenship defined not by language or history or ethnicity, but solely by religion. This set a precedent for ethnic cleansing followed time and again later in the century and beyond. The second price of peace was the burial of commitments to the Armenian people that they would have a homeland in the lands from which they had been expelled, tortured and murdered in the genocide of 1915. This book tells the story of the peace conference, and its outcome. It shows how peace came before justice, and how it set in motion forces leading to the global war that followed in 1939.

Taner Akçam is one of the first Turkish academics to acknowledge and discuss openly the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman-Turkish government in 1915. This book discusses western political policies towards the region generally, and represents the first serious scholarly attempt to understand the Genocide from a perpetrator rather than victim perspective, and to contextualize those events within Turkey's political history. By refusing to acknowledge the fact of genocide, successive Turkish governments not only perpetuate massive historical injustice, but also pose a fundamental obstacle to Turkey's democratization today.

Though Turkey is a land of vast ethnic, linguistic and religious diversity - home not only to Turks, Kurds and Armenians, but also, among others, Alevis, Ezidis, Assyrians, Laz, Caferis, Roma, Rum, Caucasians and Jews, the history of the state is one of severe repression of minorities in the name of nationalism. This report sets current law and practice in Turkey against the backdrop of equivalent international standards on linguistic rights of minorities; freedom of religion, thought and conscience; freedom of expression; freedom of assembly and association; political participation; property rights and anti-discrimination.