Equality and a New Republic
The Hattı-ı Hümayun
Efforts at reform of the Ottoman Empire led to the proclamation of the Hattı-ı Hümayun in 1856, which made all Ottoman citizens — Muslim and non-Muslim alike — equal under the law. This landmark edict marked the formal beginning of a new civic relationship between the state and its Jewish community.
A secular constitution
World War I brought the Ottoman Empire to an end. In its place rose the Turkish Republic under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Recognised in 1923 by the Treaty of Lausanne, Türkiye accorded minority rights to Greeks, Armenians, and Jews — permitting them to maintain their own schools, social institutions and funds. In 1926, the Jewish Community voluntarily renounced its minority status on personal rights, choosing to be governed by Turkish civil law. This act of civic loyalty reflected the community’s confidence in the secular state Atatürk had built.
Atatürk welcomes Jewish scholars from Nazi Germany
As early as 1933, Atatürk invited prominent Jewish professors fleeing persecution in Nazi Germany to take up positions at Turkish universities. Dozens accepted. They made lasting contributions to Turkish academic and scientific life, and this policy remains one of Atatürk’s most celebrated humanitarian legacies.
The Thrace pogroms
In the summer of 1934, anti-Jewish riots and forced expulsions struck Jewish communities across the Thrace region. This episode caused significant displacement and accelerated emigration. It is often absent from popular histories of Turkish-Jewish relations and deserves its place in the honest record.
Türkiye at war’s edge
During World War II, Türkiye maintained neutrality in one of history’s most dangerous geopolitical positions. By December 1941, when the Struma arrived in Istanbul harbour, Türkiye was encircled: Nazi-occupied Greece to the west, Axis-aligned Bulgaria to the northwest, the Soviet Union to the northeast. German Panzer divisions had massed along the Bulgarian-Turkish border when Germany invaded Greece in April 1941. The pressure on Ankara was existential.
The Varlık Vergisi: a painful chapter
The full story of the Turkish-Jewish experience in the Republic era cannot be told without acknowledging one of its most painful chapters: the Varlık Vergisi, or Capital Tax, enacted on November 11, 1942.
The Varlık Vergisi was passed without parliamentary debate. In practice, non-Muslims were assessed at rates dramatically higher than Muslims — in many cases exceeding their entire net worth. Jews, Greeks, Armenians, and Levantines bore the heaviest burden. Those unable to pay within 15 days faced seizure and auction of their property; defaulters were deported to labour camps at Aşkale, Erzurum. The tax led to the emigration of approximately 30,000 Jews and was described as a “catastrophe” by the community. It was repealed on March 15, 1944, under sustained British and American diplomatic pressure. Property sold at auction was not returned.
In 1951, Faik Ökte, Istanbul’s director of finance at the time, admitted in his memoirs that the law had been applied on a discriminatory basis against non-Muslims.
The Varlık Vergisi must be understood in context without being excused by it. Türkiye in 1942 faced acute economic strain — mobilised for a war it was desperately trying to avoid, subject to German pressure through the chromite trade, and grappling with severe inflation. The tax was framed as an emergency economic measure. But the discriminatory application — non-Muslims taxed at rates several times higher than Muslims for equivalent wealth — was not administrative accident. It reflected a strand of economic nationalism that targeted minority communities specifically.
The Struma disaster of February 1942 occurred simultaneously, in the same city, in the same winter.
The Struma Tragedy →Turkish diplomats who saved Jewish lives
In the same years that produced these painful domestic episodes, a remarkable group of Turkish diplomats abroad were risking their careers and lives to save Jews from the Nazi genocide.
In July 1944, when German forces ordered all 1,700 Jews of Rhodes to report for deportation to Auschwitz, Ülkümen confronted the German commanding general and demanded the release of Turkish citizens. He saved approximately 50 people. His wife Mihrinisa and two consulate employees were killed when the consulate was bombed. On December 12, 1989, Yad Vashem recognised him as Righteous Among the Nations — the first Turkish citizen and first Muslim diplomat to receive the honour.
When 80 Turkish Jews in Marseilles were loaded into cattle cars bound for Auschwitz, Kent rushed to the station and — when Gestapo guards refused to release them — boarded the train himself. He remained on board until the Germans relented and released the prisoners.
As Foreign Minister during the most critical years of the war, Menemencioğlu shaped the diplomatic framework within which Turkish consular officials abroad operated to protect Jews.
Among others: Behiç Erkin (Ambassador to Vichy France), Fikret Şefik Özdoğancı and Bedii Arbel (Consul Generals in Paris), Namık Kemal Yolga (Consul in Paris). Their actions represent a tradition of individual moral courage that stands as one of the proudest parts of this history.
See the full timeline for a complete chronology of World War II events involving the Turkish-Jewish community.
View the full timeline →Next: Turkish Jews today — the community in 2026.
Turkish Jews Today →