Henry Soriano, a Jew running on the Democratic Party ticket, has become the only Jewish member of Parliament following his party’s landslide victory in last week’s national elections.
The final results also revealed that Mosies Tekinalp of the Republican Party and Djemil Heraha of the Republican Nationalists were both defeated. In the last days of the election campaign, Republican spokesmen, attempting to overcome the handicap they had among minority groups because their party instituted the Varlik tax of 1942 which brought economic ruin and imprisonment to many members of minority groups, offered to make restitution for the discriminatory tax if the party were returned to power.
Under the Democratic Party rule, which began in 1950 when the Republicans were unseated for the first time since the formation of the Turkish Republic, the Jews have been treated on a basis of equality with their fellow citizens.
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.
