Die Turkei, die Juden und der Holocaust, Corry Guttstadt (Berlin

Minority rights in the contemporary Republic of Turkey remain a volatile issue. News dispatches frequently feature the latest violent encounter between Turkish security personnel and Kurdish rebels. Digging a bit deeper, one easily finds newly published works on the region's tortured history of Turkish-Greek conflicts or violence against the Armenians. In a sense, twentieth-century Turkey's violent relationship with its minorities seems a modern betrayal of the tolerance associated with the Ottoman Empire. Yet, one thread of historical continuity appears to affirm Turkey's imperial heritage of tolerance—the situation of Turkey's Jews. In recent years, a wide variety of politicians, activists, and commentators have lauded the decidedly positive relations Jews have enjoyed with the Republic of Turkey as well as the Ottoman Empire. This narrative emphasizes the Empire's ready acceptance of Jews escaping the Spanish Inquisition in the sixteenth century. Upon arrival, Jews established lives relatively free from the persecution suffered in Western Europe, or soon to be suffered in the Russian Empire. Turkey continues to boast a thriving Jewish community, a dramatic contrast to the disappearance of Jewish life in places such as Iraq and Syria. Moreover, Ankara remains an ally of Israel in diplomatic and military affairs. In the wake of 9/11 and the two intifadas, Turkey often is vaunted as a model of how the Islamic world might live peacefully with Jews at home and abroad

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