Reports from Turkey indicate that the Jewish position there is becoming more and more serious. It seems that the authorities have embarked on a definite policy to start trouble for the Jews there.
Though no official censorship exists in Turkey, the press there is not in a position to report all the discrimination which has been introduced against the Jews during recent weeks. Briefly, however, these discriminations can be summed up as follows:
1. Persecution of the Jews by the local authorities in Turkish Thrace.
2. Persecution of Turkish Jews desiring to emigrate to Palestine.
3. Discrimination against German-Jewish professors who were invited by the Turkish authorities to settle in Turkey.
TERROR IN THRACE
The persecution in Thrace consists of continued terror which forces the Jewish population to leave this territory. Several months ago the Jews of Thrace still had an opportunity to sell their property. Now even this privilege is no longer enjoyed by them.
Under the pretext of protecting Jewish property from being sold for a trifle, the Turkish government has issued a law prohibiting the Jews in Thrace to sell their belongings to the non-Jewish population. The result is that the Jews, being forced to leave the territory because of the continued terror, are not in a position to realize any cash at all for their immovable property which they leave behind them.
Jewish Shechita is officially prohibited in Thrace and the Turkish press is not permitted to report the fact. Because of this prohibition the entire Jewish population of Thrace, which is extremely religious, has not been able for weeks to taste meat. The Jews dare not complain to the central authorities because such complaints would only result in greater trouble for them.
PALESTINE EMIGRATION PROHIBITED
Zionism being prohibited in Turkey, the Turkish authorities have begun a campaign in all parts of the country against those Jews who are registering themselves for emigration to Palestine. Two hundred Palestine emigration certificates were granted by the Zionist Executive to the Jews of Turkey to be distributed through the offices of the Jewish Colonization Association in Istanbul, but the Turkish government has indocated that no Jew who is a Turkish citizen will be permitted to make use of these certificates. The 200 Paltine visas will have to be utilized by Jewish residents in Turkey who are not citizens of the country, the government insists.
It is in connection with this policy towards Palestine that the recent raid on the Jewish Colonization Offices in Istanbul was made. In the same connection Saadia Cherniak, head of the J.C.A. in Turkey, was kept under arrest for several days.
GERMAN JEWS RESTRICTED
The German-Jewish professors and doctors who had been invited by the Turkish government to occupy chairs in the Turkish universities were recently given to understand that they had better not indulge in private practice. Many of them are now popular with the inhabitants who seek their medical advice, considering them superior to the Turkish doctors. The Turkish press, however, has started a campaign against the refugees, declaring that they are only “guests” in Turkey, and that it would be advisable for them to restrict their work to teaching in the universities only and not competing with Turks in medical practice.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
