Jews in the Ottoman Empire Report sent to London by her Majesty's Ambassador in Istanbul: No. 350 Sir A. H. Layard to the Marquis of Salisbury No. 148 Constantinople, April 13, 1880 (received April 23). My Lord, I have the honour to transmit herewith to your Lordship a Report on the Vilayet of Angora (Ankara) by Mr. Vice- Consul Gatheral which I have received from Mr. Consul- General Wilson, who is sending it to me suggests that it should be printed. I have, &c. (Signed) A. H. Layard F. O. 424/106, p. 306, No. 151 Turkey No. 23 (1880), p. 121, No. 72 Inclosure in No. 350 Report on the Population, Industries, Trade, Commerce, Agriculture, Public Works, Land Tenure, and Government of City and Province of Angora, Anatolia, by Vice- Consul Gatheral. Extract. The population o f this city and province is a small one, taking into consideration its wide extent and general fertility, and for five years past that population has been visibly diminishing, owing to the emigration o f considerable numbers during the famine of 1873-74, the drain on the male Moslem population owing to the war of 1877- 78, and the special products of the province having for three years in succession proved unremunerative to the Christians engaged in its commerce many of them have quitted the province for Constantinople or other parts of Anatolia. A Turkish census takes no note of females or male children under fifteen years of age, returning only the total of males liable to military service amongst Moslems, and amongst Christians those from whom the "military service exemption tax" is exigible. The last enumeration was in 1877, and the total then returned was 449.241; this multiplied by three, according to the Redhouse rule, gives a total o f 1,347.723 souls. These are divided into the following sects or communities: Moslems, Gregorian or Orthodox Armenians, Catholic Armenians, Protestant Armenians, Greeks, Jews and Gipsies. The numbers of each community are stated in the same Return as follows: Males liable to military service M oslem s................................................................... 393.074 Total population (Moslems) ............................. 1,179.222 Males paying military service exemption tax - Christians - Gregorian Armenians..............................................33.445 Roman Catholic Armenians.................................... 3.985 28 Protestant Armenians................................................ 660 Jews ............................................................................. 280 G ipsies.......................................................................... 262 Total population other than Moslems ............... 168.501 Total of males ............................................................ 449.241 Total population..................................................... 1,347.723 Those different races have origins as varied as their creeds. The Moslems are for the most part the descendants of the Turkish soldiery who conquered the province from the Byzantine Empire, A.D. 1344-л5, under Sultan Murad, then reigning at Broussa. The Armenians are the result of an emigration from the eastward during the fifteenth century; they have been subdivided into Roman Catholic and Protestant in recent times; the leading Roman Catholic families were exiles from Constantinople in 1830, during the reign of Sultan Mahmoud; their wealth, intelligence, and commercial relations with Europe added greatly to the prosperity of the city, later an energetic Jesuit propaganda, directed from Rome, had considerable success, but in later years they have lost their ascendency, having split up into old and new Catholics as in Europe; the schism officially and outwardly has been healed, but the rancorous feeling towards each other remains, and they seem to have no further success in making converts. The Protestants are the result of American missionary effort during the last twenty-eight years. Though meanwhile small in numbers, they are as a community better educated, more truthful and honest, than any o f the other Christian sects, and are gaining rapidly in numbers and influence. The Orthodox or Gregorian Armenians are, as a community, ignorant, superstitious, and poverty-stricken, but count more adherents than either of the later sects. The small Jewish community, being mostly blonde and speaking a bastard Spanish, are evidently o f Iberian origin; whilst the origin of the few nomad gipsy tribes who come and go is as great a mystery in Anatolia as in Europe. (The rest of the letter deals with details of the province of Ankara which, although interesting, are less relevant to the subject matter of this book.) "The small Jewish community, being mostly blonde and speaking a bastard Spanish, are evidently o f Iberian origin ..." reports the British Vice-Consul, Gatheral, to his ambassador in Istanbul. The ambassador rushed these precise notes concerning the Vilayet of Angora (Ankara) on to his Foreign Minister in London. The blond-haired Jewish community with its "bastard Spanish" was indeed of Iberian origin. The Catholic kings had not only cracked down radically on the Arabs and all other Moslems on the Iberian peninsula, they had also envisaged a final solution for the Jews of the Christian kingdom. Since 1412, the Jews had been forced to wear degrading markings on their clothes. In 1480, the Inquisition started persecuting them with deadly hostility, and finally the Grand Inquisitor carried out the expropriation and expulsion of 300,000 Jews. Some fled to Morocco, but many more
found refuge in the Ottoman Empire. The Sultan even sent his own ship to them, in order to speed up the rescue operation. The Turkish government showed similar generosity towards the Jewish refugees from Germany and the countries occupied by Hitler. Asylum was granted to tens of thousands. "The small Jewish community, being mostly blonde ..." 1 It was not only the Ottomans who offered protection to the Jews (when they were being threatened by the Catholic kings of Spain). Kemal Ataturk's Turkey also provided asylum for tens of thousands of Jewish refugees in the Hitler era. In spite of massive threats and attempts at intervention, Turkey never turned over a single Jewish refugee. Shown here is a painting by the Turkish-Jewish painter-poet J. Gabib Gerez (1982). 29
- Page 1 and 2: Erich Feigl ARMENIAN e v ( £ P v e
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Zealanders were wounded; and 7,594
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Artificial limb No. 2: Franz Werfel
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The fa c ts :"... thrilling novel"
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The "C hef's Armeniens dans Djebel
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GUICHEN DESAIX CHARNER They followe
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Armenians from Musa Dagh Reinforcem
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Searching for a story his wife Alma
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Henry Morgenthau (1856-1946), lawye
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Pastor Johannes Lepsius (1858- 1926
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It is quite remarkable - and undoub
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The Turmoil o f a War That Would No
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s i , / ' , /1 / /'е /м & //а п
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The next victim o f the aggression
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т That the Armenians, even back in
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second-hand weapons and no air forc
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Ottoman Empire (and thus in Syria a
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This treaty - still valid - closes
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Minister Henri Franklin-Bouillon ru
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horrifying reality when he started
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11 I ? U 14 IS Contemporary Armenia
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under which they operate, the terro
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The strongest Armenian terrorist gr
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к » Я Я Я Я • ' » • I «
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"We never know the worth o f w ater
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The strange inherent similarity bet
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11. TH E FA C TS OF TH E C A SE 1.
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German Federal Parliament. 15th ter
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The German Bundestag appeals to the
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GENOCIDE - HOLOCAUST-TERROR the mag
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Chodschali On February 26, 1992, th
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In these days the "National Sociali
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Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) was burn
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Ко» C h er M l a ia t r a , A la
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In the eyes o f Turkey's adversarie
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1860-1908. London, 1978. Lang, Davi
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Contents A Personal Forew ord .....
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Armenia's perhaps most typical act