The Turkish Consul-General in Palestine today promised that he would immediately seek information from his government concerning the pogrom which is reported to have taken place on Wednesday in the city of Urfa, near the Syrian frontier. The Consul’s action came after he had been queried by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency conceming the reports of the massacre.
Advices reaching here from unofficial sources say that first reports of the pogrom were greatly exaggerated, although details are still lacking. Attempts to contact Jewish groups in Urfa have been unsuccessful. From what information is available, the following seems to have occurred:
A Jew who had planned to adopt the Meslem religion was prevented by his family from doing so. Enraged Moslem neighbors then proceeded to murder the entire family consisting of seven persons. Police jailed all male Jews and Jewish businesses were closed down.
(Urfa, which was known in ancient days as Edessa, was at one time the seat of the Eastern Roman church. In the time of the Roman Emperor Julian, the Christians in the city wiped out the entire Jewish population. Jews resettled there in the 16th century and its present Jewish population is small.)
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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.
