Two hundred Jewish families from Greece have applied to the Turkish government for permission to settle in Smyrna, the Turkish press reports today. It is believed here that these 200 Jewish families seeking admission to Turkey are from Saloniki where the Jews were recently the victims of serious agitation and attacks.
Should these Jews be allowed to enter Turkey it would be a reversal of the tide of emigration from Turkey. As the result of harsh economic laws, discriminatory school legislation and a variety of official intolerance the Jewish population of Turkey has decreased from 140,000 to 80,000 in the last decade. The migration of Jews from Turkey has become so great that Djimhurriet, one of the leading Turkish newspapers, has called on the Kemal Pasha government to take steps to prevent the exodus of Turkish Jewish citizens who are “distinguished by their creative intelligence and productive activity”.
Djimhurriet pointed out that the government must turn its attention to remedying the population deficiency because a populace of 13,500,000 is spread over a territory one and a half times the size of France. Few public works and the unproductivity of the railroads are laid to sparsely inhabited tracts and hence the migration of the Jews should be halted, the paper declared.
The Turkish press and public leaders are now beginning to realize the need for economic development and are also considering opening the gates to immigration. Under the new Turco-Greek agreement, however, any advantages granted to Jews must necessarily also be given to Greeks.
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.
