Model Citizens of the State: The Jews of Turkey during the Multi-Party Period [Paperback]

Model Citizens of the State: The Jews of Turkey during the Multi-Party Period is about the history of the Turkish Jews from 1950 to present. By using unpublished primary sources as well as secondary sources, the book describes the struggle of Turkish Jews for the application of their constitutional rights, their fight against anti-Semitism and the indifferent attitude of the Turkish establishment to these problems. Finally, it describes Turkish Jewish leaderships involvement in the lobbying efforts on behalf of the Turkish Republic against the acceptance of resolutions in the U.S. Congress recognizing the Armenian Genocide.Rifat N. Bali is an independent scholar specializing in the history of Turkish Jews and an associate member of the Alberto-Benveniste Center for Sephardic Studies and the Sociocultural History of the Jews (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes/CNRS/Universit? Paris-Sorbonne). He is the winner of the Alberto Benveniste Research Award for 2009 for his publications on Turkish Jewry.

The book provides an expose of the treatment of the Jewish community in Turkey from 1950 to the present, their fight against anti-Semitism, the struggle for their constitutional rights, and the attitude of the Turkish state and society towards these problems. ... Groundbreaking&unearthing facts and first-hand accounts that unmistakably illustrate how the Turkish establishment blackmailed the leaders of the Jewish communityand through them Jewish organizations in the United Statesto secure their support of the Turkish position against the Armenians campaign for genocide recognition& The book also offers rich material about how Turkish diplomats and semi-official spokesmen of Turkish policies, threatened both Israel and the U.S. ... This book serves as a valuable case study of how realpolitik in domestic politics and foreign relations distorts the truth, and how coercion by the powerful contributes to the violation of collective human rights. It will be of interest to acalCœ