For the past several months, the Jews of Turkey have been in the international spotlight. As Congress has debated the Armenian Genocide resolution, high-ranking Turkish officials have warned that Turkish Jews will be endangered if the resolution passes. And Jewish-American organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League have repeatedly cited the predicament of Turkish Jews as reason to support Turkey's campaign of genocide denial.

In an effort to better understand the plight of Turkish Jewry, I interviewed several prominent scholars who have studied the community.

Ottoman Jews: Safety Through Loyalty

For 500 years, Jews have lived as a loyal minority in the lands of the former Ottoman Empire and the present-day Turkish republic. According to Turkish-Jewish scholar Rifat Bali, who has published several books on the history of Turkey's Jews, their loyalty to the Ottoman Empire allowed Turkish Jews to escape the tragic fate of the Empire's Greeks, Assyrians and Armenians.

"Turkish Jews were not involved in any sort of ethnic nationalism," says Bali. "The Zionist movement did not take root in Istanbul because the community leadership had witnessed the tragic fate of the Ottoman Armenians. [They] understood that the Ottoman leadership would perceive Zionism as a separatist nationalist movement and that this would have dire consequences. They therefore took an ‘anti-Zionist' position."

Like today's Turkish Jewish community, the Jews of the Ottoman Empire were utilized as international advocates for Turkish political goals. "Haim Nahum, the last Ottoman Chief Rabbi, was an ‘anti-Zionist' and a supporter of the Turkish Nationalist movement," says Bali. "He was sent by Mustafa Kemal to the USA and Europe for lobbying on behalf of the Kemalists."

Turkish Jews in the 20^th century: Loyal Scapegoats

Turkish political groups that fight bitterly on other issues find common ground in blaming Turkish Jews for the country's ills. "Turkey's Jews have been scapegoated by the Islamist movement which started to grow in 1946," say Bali. "In 1969, the National Order Party began propagating its Islamist National View ideology, which accused Jews and Zionism of being behind all the troubles of Turkey." And in the ‘70s, Turkey's Jews were hostage to the clash between Turkey's ultra-leftists and ultra-rightists.

Turkish Jews Today

Adopting Muslim Names to Escape Attention

Today, Turkish Jews fear both Turkey's Islamists and its nationalists. Fatma Muge Gocek, a Turkish-born sociologist at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, describes today's Turkish Jews as "between a rock and a hard place." She told me that in the past few decades, Jews in Turkey have increasingly adopted Muslim names to escape attention.

Antisemitism: The Kosher Hatred

"Their main fear is the widespread anti-Semitism in the Islamist and ultra-nationalist press. Turkish-Jews are very much upset by the great freedom with which the Turkish authorities allow anti-Semitic views to be voiced." Bali says that while Turkish authorities apply the Turkish Penal Code to prohibit other forms of hate speech, they make an exception for anti-Semitism. "Turkish Jews fear that this rhetorical anti-Semitism, which has been freely manifesting itself for decades, may convert itself again into action, as was the case with the synagogue bombings of August and November 2003."

Insults, Anti-Semitism, and Conspiracy Theories: "We Can Put Up With It."

In an interview published in the Nov. 10 issue of Armenian Weekly, Turkish-Jewish activist and poet Ron Margulies said, "A very common expression in Turkey is ‘the cowardly Jew.' It's a bit like ‘the miserly Scot' in Britain. It's that common." He adds, "[T]he idea that Jews understand about money and finance, that Jews control America, these racist conspiracy theories are also very common in Turkey. They are widely used by self-aware racists, but, alas, believed by people beyond those circles, people who wouldn't consider themselves to be racists; ... They do make you feel different and at times foreign. I was born in Istanbul. It is a bit galling when people look at me and feel they're looking at a foreigner. But what the hell. We can put up with it."

2007: Turkish Jews Protected by the International Community, Blackmailed by Turkey

In an October interview with the Jerusalem Post, Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said, "All of a sudden the perception in Turkey right now is that the Jewish people, or the Jewish organizations, let's say, and the Armenian diaspora, the Armenian lobbies, are now hand-in-hand trying to defame Turkey, and trying to condemn Turkey and the Turkish people." In an interview with the Turkish newspaper Zaman, Babacan said, "We have told them [the American-Jewish leaders] that we cannot explain it to the public in Turkey if a road accident happens. We have told them that we cannot keep the Jewish people out of this."

"This is really just blackmail," says Professor Jack Nusan Porter, treasurer of the Internation Association of Genocide Scholars and author of The Genocidal Mind and Facing History and Holocaust. "Turkey would never touch the Jewish community. It would never be accepted in the European Union if it touched any Jew in Turkey."

State-Sanctioned Assassinations of "Uppity" Minorities

Turkish-born historian and sociologist Taner Akcam, author of A Shameful Act: The Armenian genocide and the Question of Turkish responsibility, also believes that anti-Semitism in Turkey is "more than one can imagine." However, he says, "It is a well-known fact in Turkey that violent attacks against minorities, including assassinations-like that of [Turkish-Armenian editor] Hrant Dink in January 2007-are sanctioned by the state."

Some American Jewish Leaders Reward Anti-Semitism, Exploit Turkish Jews

Throughout the recent political debate over the Armenian Genocide resolution, the Turkish state has encouraged anti-Semitism among Turks, and then essentially told Jewish leaders, "Look, the Turkish people are angry, you had better be careful." Some of those leaders have rewarded the Turkish government's promotion of anti-Semitism by agreeing to promote Turkey's campaign of genocide denial. They have given the Turkish government excellent reason to believe that anti-Semitism and the blackmail of Turkish Jewry remain a winning foreign policy strategy for Turkey.

UPDATE: Read Joey Kurtzman's exchange with JTA managing editor Ami Eden regarding this article.

* Check our always up-to-date list of Jewcy's posts on the ADL/Armenian Genocide issue