Confrontation with a Jew

Sounds like a title coming from a Nazi officer's wartime diary but no the title is today mine. As discriminative as it sounds, the type of conversation I had with a Jewish fellow couple of weeks ago justifies this title as we had the opportunity to discuss some of the tragedies the Turkish-Jewish diaspora had to face coming from the Turkish governments in the last 80 years particularly during 1940's and 1950's.


Bit of a background first;
 
Of course - if you look at the surface Turks love the Jews. First of all, an average Turk couldn't care less that Jesus was betrayed by a Jew and for that matter, quite frankly for Jesus himself.

Secondly when the catholic crown in Spain looked for places to dump them in 1492, only two places in Europe were willing to accept them; Amsterdam and Ottoman Empire's trade cities including Istanbul and Thessaloniki. It is said when Sultan Beyazit 2nd. heard about the news, he said something in effect; "Ye call Ferdinand a wise king he who makes his land poor and ours rich!"  He was very right especially when you considered that the Jewish population was known to be very good in trade.


This pragmatic approach - actually found in every successful empire in history and today's world - ensured a peaceful habitat for Jews in Ottoman Empire to show their magic.Indeed until the beginning of 20th. century, they became an essential nation in the Empire. Of course, we are not talking about type of daily life we would encounter in today's world where regular Ottoman Jews and Muslim Turks meetup in the corner shop for a drink to wash down the daily stress. In fact, until the beginning for 20th. century very few Jews spoke Turkish. They had their own districts in the city (not Ghettos - Mahalles in Turkish meaning simply district) which they rarely needed to leave. In 18th. century Istanbul which was crazily cosmopolitan, this was the way cospolitanism was experienced.





Then when in early 20th. century, as the nation state transformation took pace in the region, unpleasant incidents started to occur against the Jews as well. Although we could safely say that when compared to tragedies what Ottoman Greeks and Armenians had to face, what Jews had to deal with was softer.

Coming back to present; I was at my good mate's wedding coctail where the majority was Jewish. I didn't have any other friends and so I started to gulp down margaritas after margaritas until the point I realized that a little, at his well above 60s, white haired, partially bald, chubby man in his funnily looking white suite was on his own as well. He was checking people around with a shy attitude and was occasionally answering greetings sent over to him from far away corners of the room by shaking his head or slightly raising his glass.

We came eye to eye, smiling at him I walked over and said "you are too handsome to be so bored." No - this isn't how it happened and I haven't turned gay yet; neither do I use such terrible pick-up lines.

We got started talking about daily stuff. He immediately understood that I wasn't Jewish whereas I immediately understood that he was Jewish. Our initially polite and distant conversation developed quickly thanks to my sometimes a bit too direct or even impudent style. I asked him about his first hand experiences at incidents such as the Wealth Tax and September 6-7 1955 incidents; two major sins in the Turkish Republic's short history.

Now, you should know that these are still delicate issues in Turkey. An average Turk thinks he is not racist. He sees racism as a western notion and ignoring the very western transformation his own country has been experiencing from an empire to a nation state, he argues that the Ottoman Empire didn't have any racist history and therefore Turks are exempt from racism. To support this, he gives examples of Ottoman Empire's Milletler or Nations System - an indeed brilliant system for its time. This in the past living, self protection mechanism however prevents him from dealing with phenomena that are actually very evident in today's life including racism. Therefore he prefers to ignore related shameful acts from his own history as if they never happened and shows strong reaction when they are brought up. The reaction is mostly fueled by a sense of deep insecurity.

What I found particularly encouraging were his direct and honest responses that he gave looking directly into my eyes, recognizing the state's and for that matter at that time young nation's direct responsibility. His confidence made me realize with the help of all the movies made and public discussions hold things were changing.

I had been trying to face and come into peace with these actions by reading and by trying to remotely empathize with victims. But this was the first time I could find a real opportunity to actually discuss these face to face with a victim. I chatted with him to learn as many details as I could learn from him where I realized with every detail I could catch, I was becoming freer in a sense my ties with a nation in a nationalist sense was weakening but with the humanity strengthening.

We talked for an hour and in the end we toasted to the human; the sometimes most horrible animal.