Who Threatens Turkey’s Jews?
In his column, Mustafa Akyol reports on his interview with one of Turkey’s most respected industrialists, Ishak Alaton, and discusses the extent and history of anti-Semitism within the secular and Islamic communities in Turkey. (for full article, click here)
An excerpt:
Ishak Alaton is one of the most prominent names in Turkey’s tiny Jewish community. He, as the boss of the well-established Alarko Holding, is not just a very successful businessman, but also a man of intellect who comments on social and political problems. As a self-defined social democrat, Mr. Alaton believes in social responsibility – not as a public relations strategy, but as a value in itself.
A few weeks ago, Mr. Alaton sent a letter to Eyüp Can, the editor-in-chief of Turkey’s up-and-coming business daily, Referans. On April 22, Mr. Can published the letter in his column. In it, the 81-year-old business guru was rightfully complaining about “this paranoia, this xenophobia, this enmity toward non-Muslims, this anti-Semitism” which pervades Turkey.
Mr. Alaton was specifically referring to two examples: Israeli businessman Sammy Ofer, a zillionaire, wanted to invest in Turkey, but he was repelled by “the bureaucracy and the media which worked hand in hand against him… for simply that he was Jewish.” And, decades ago, an oil-rich Armenian businessman, Mr. Gülbenkyan, had tried to set up a museum in Istanbul, but was “forced back with sticks in hand by the ‘patriots’ in Ankara.” …
After his letter in Referans, Mr. Alaton soon gave an interview to journalist Nagehan Alçi from daily Aksam. When asked about the origins of anti-Semitism in Turkey, Mr. Alaton went right back to the days of Atatürk and said this:
“I met Atatürk. We saw him when we were kids. There was no such discrimination at his time. At, least there was no such thing in his mind. But some of the people around Atatürk had a fierce reaction against us, i.e., the ‘others.’ That’s why special instructions were sent to governors in order to make our lives difficult. This, over time, turned in to a state policy.”
Alaton is wrong, the same reaction would have happened had Ofer been an Arab (or a Russian or an American or a rich Turk without a media group and so on). Any Jew-baiting was purely incidental to what people were really reacting to: an ongoing cosy relationship between the government and this particular tycoon. Here’s a link to Haaretz summarizing the events.
I think is is a gross disservice to the cause of economic liberty in Turkey to pretend that gov’t deals like these have anything to do with free market capitalism.
Bingo! most of the modern day ironies are self inflicted by post MKA nationalist/isolationist republicans, who would rather raise walls with all the others…
Oh, you meant that analogy. Went completely over my head. Yes, of course, you’re right Nihat.
I’d agree with you on small-government style of libertarianism, but I think any government here is bound to be huge unless something dramatic (and probably scary) happens. I’ll give you two links, one concerning free health care, another about social security. The age of ‘golge etme’ seems to be over, huge numbers of people are actively dependent on the government now.
Add to those programs the legal but unregulated handouts of food and fuel to the poor at the local level and you get a picture where we have the worst of both worlds: a large and growing welfare state that’s untouchable because of the number of votes involved, and a cross between crony capitalism and outright gov’t assisted private rapine backed by both sides of the high-circulation press (they bicker on who benefits, but that’s it). The telco example Fethi bey used is a good one. Here’s another piece linked from this blog that confounds gov’t assisted rent-seeking with productive investment and, in a sly propaganda attempt, further confounds loathsome xenophobia with a healthy reaction against concentrated private power influencing the gov’t.
So if I could see a way to go from the present situation to one where we have a substantial productive middle class who do their magic alongside a small government that’s democratically forced to maintain the rule of law and the integrity of the free market, I’d be more hopeful. Outside of a small libertarian fringe and a small part of the marginal (but intellectual) left, I have not seen much recognition of the gross flaws of the present order and the transformative effects of markets warped by gov’t action (but called ‘free’) on the culture of the productive classes. Instead, people who ought to know better seem eager to take pride in the fact that Istanbul is about to overtake London in the Forbes list of cities where billionaires live. You’ll note that Moscow tops that list. It is a bit scary to draw the parallel and contemplate what would ensue if an economic crisis comparable to the Russian default of ‘98 were to happen here.
I’m just shooting from the hip, of course. To pull all this together in a cogent (and correct!) story would require substantial data, and a well-rounded social science background that I lack. We have merely bits and pieces of the story here and there, and an insane polarization on the religiosity-secularism and Western interests-national interests axes obscuring the goings on in the rapidly shifting economic landscape for both the rich and the poor.