1934 Thrace pogroms
| 1934 Thrace pogroms | |
|---|---|
| Location | Trakya, Turkey |
| Date | June-July 1934 |
| Target | Property of the Jewish population of the city. |
| Deaths | 1 killed [citation needed] |
| Perpetrators | Republican People's Party |
1934 Thrace pogroms (Turkish: Trakya Olayları) refers to a series of violent events that took place in June and July 1934 which involved Turks and Jewish residents of Thrace region of Turkey.
History
The pogroms occurred in Tekirdağ, Edirne, Kırklareli, and Çanakkale, and were motivated by anti-Semitism.[1] Some have argued the acts were initiated by the articles produced by the Pan-Turkic leader Cevat Rıfat Atilhan in Millî inkılâp [dubious ][2] (National Revolution) magazine and Nihal Atsız[2][3] in Orhun magazine. Atsız was known to be a sympathiser of the Nazi racist doctrine.[4]
It is argued these articles stirred up the Muslim population of Thrace, leading them to boycott Jewish businesses, but the actual perpetrators were members of the local branch of Atatürk's Republican People's Party[5][6]
It was followed by vandalizing of Jewish houses and shops. The tensions started on 5 June 1934 and spread to few other villages in Eastern Thrace region and to some small cities in Western Aegean region. At the height of violent events, it was rumoured that a rabbi was stripped naked and was dragged through the streets shamefully while his daughter was raped. Over 15,000 Jews had to flee from the region. Other racist incidents had already taken place in Turkey before and would happened after wards, but this was apparently the first pogrom during the Republican period.[6]
References
- ^ Özkırımlı, Umut, & Sofos, Spyros A., Tormented by History, (Columbia University Press, 2008), p. 168.
- ^ a b Rifat Bali, 1934 Trakya Olayları, 2008
- ^ Nihal Atsız profile (in Turkish)
- ^ John M. VanderLippe "The politics of Turkish democracy", SUNY Press, 2005. p. 105: "Nihal Atsız, who favored a Hitler style haircut and mustache, and advocated racist Nazi doctrine."
- ^ Zafer Toprak, "Trakya Olaylarında hükümetin ve CHF'nin sorumluluğu", Toplumsal Tarih, Ekim 1996, S. p. 34, s. 19-25
- ^ a b Ayşe Hür, Münferit(!) antisemitizm vak’aları, Taraf, 8 February 2009, "CHF Trakya teşkilatının örgütlediği anlaşılan olaylar sonucu 15 bin Yahudi, mal ve mülklerini geride bırakıp can havliyle başka şehirlere, ülkelere kaçmak zorunda kaldı. Yani Cumhuriyet’in ilk ‘pogrom’ uygulaması oldukça başarılı geçmişti."
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