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Turkish Jews Flee from Terror

July 12, 1934
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thousands of refugees who were forced to leave for Istanbul.

An inquiry commission, which includes one English notable, left for Thrace today to investigate conditions.

The Turkish government today continued its arrests of pogrom band leaders, officially held to be responsible for the wholesale pogroms and the deportation of Jewish citizens. The governor of Adrianople, who refused to intervene on behalf of the Jews, declaring that “I cannot interfere with the national will,” was recalled today.

The pogroms against the Jews was a direct consequence of Nazi propaganda in the Turkish republic, Progress, Salonic newspaper, reported today. In a lengthy dispatch from a correspondent the paper related the story of the agitation which preceded the pogrom and the evacuation of the Jews. A boycott agitation similar to the Nazi boycott agitation of April 1, 1933, was carried out by the Turkish Nazi-controlled group. Groups of young Turks were stationed in front of Jewish shops and prevented customers from entering. When officials refused to intervene the populace was informed that the Turkish National Assembly at Angora had decided to rid the country of the Jews. The pogrom and evacuation then followed.

The correspondent of the Salonica paper declared it was impossible to suppose that the Turkish government was completely ignorant of the bitter anti-Jewish agitation and the organized pogrom which followed.

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