The 1934 Thrace pogroms ( tr, Trakya Olayları, "Thrace incidents" or "Thrace events", Ladino: ''Furtuna/La Furtuna'', "Storm") refers to a series of violent attacks against Jewish citizens of Turkey in June and July 1934 in the

Thrace Thrace (; el, Θράκη, Thráki; bg, Тракия, Trakiya; tr, Trakya) or Thrake is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to ...

region of Turkey. One of the main crucial factors behind the events was the Resettlement Law passed by the Turkish Assembly on 14 June 1934.

Background

Some have argued that the acts were initiated by the articles which were written by Pan-Turkist ideologists like

Cevat Rıfat Atilhan Cevat Rıfat Atilhan (1892, Istanbul, Constantinople – 4 February 1967, Istanbul) was a Turkish people, Turkish career officer and Antisemitism, antisemitic writer, who was one of the initiators of the 1934 Thrace pogroms. Biography He was bo ...

and Faik Kurdoğlu in ''Millî İnkılâp'' Rifat Bali, ''1934 Trakya Olayları'', 2008 (National Revolution) magazine and

Nihal Atsız Hüseyin Nihâl Atsız ( ota, حسين نيهال آتسز; January 12, 1905 – December 11, 1975) was a prominent Turkish ultranationalist writer, novelist, and poet. Nihâl Atsız self-identified as a racist, Pan-Turkist and Turanist. He w ...

in ''Orhun'' magazine. One researcher accepted Atilhan's role, but he argued that Atsız did not participate in such an act, because ''Orhun'' only contained two articles about Jews, and both of them were published after Atsız resettled in İstanbul. Then the Resettlement Law was meant to enable demographic engineering in favor of a potentially Turkish speaking majority and the campaign Citizens speak Turkish!, which meant to force the people to speak Turkish, was supported by the Turkish Peoples Houses.Lamprou, Alexandrous (2013).pp.829–830 On the 5 July after having become aware of the potential repercussions, the chairman of the Peoples House in Izmir denied the campaign was directed at Jews and claimed it was only against foreign languages, including Greek, Spanish and Albanian.

Pogrom

The incidents which preceded the pogrom started in Çanakkale in the second half of June 1934. The pogroms occurred in

Tekirdağ Tekirdağ (; see also its other names) is a city in Turkey. It is located on the north coast of the Sea of Marmara, in the region of East Thrace. In 2019 the city's population was 204,001. Tekirdağ town is a commercial centre with a harbour ...

Edirne Edirne (, ), formerly known as Adrianople or Hadrianopolis ( Greek: Άδριανούπολις), is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders ...

Kırklareli Kırklareli () is a city within Kırklareli Province in the European part of Turkey. Name It is not clearly known when the city was founded, nor under what name. The Byzantine Greeks called it Sarànta Ekklisiès (''Σαράντα Εκκλησι� ...

, and Çanakkale, and they were motivated by

anti-Semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

. They were followed by acts of vandalism against Jewish houses and shops. The tensions started in June 1934 and they spread to a few other villages in the

Eastern Thrace Eastern may refer to: Transportation *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai *Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991 *Eastern Air Li ...

region and some small cities in the Western

Aegean region The Aegean Region () is one of the 7 geographical regions of Turkey. The largest city in the region is İzmir. Other big cities are Manisa, Aydın, Denizli, Muğla, Afyonkarahisar and Kütahya. Located in western Turkey, it is bordere ...

. At the height of the violent events, it was rumored that a

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as '' semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form o ...

was stripped naked and shamefully dragged through the streets and his daughter was

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ...

d. The government of

Mustafa Kemal Mustafa ( ar, مصطفى , Muṣṭafā) is one of the names of Prophet Muhammad, and the name means "chosen, selected, appointed, preferred", used as an Arabic given name and surname. Mustafa is a common name in the Muslim world. Given name ...

failed to stop the pogrom. In the context of the 1934 Turkish Resettlement Law, foreign diplomats who were based in Turkey at that time believed that the Turkish government implicitly supported the Thrace pogrom in order to facilitate the relocation of Turkey's Jewish population. After the foreign press reported about the pogroms, Prime Minister Ismet Inönü acknowledged their existence, condemned them and blamed them to Anti-semitism. ''

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' ( , originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , ) is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel, and is now published in both Hebrew and English in the Berliner ...

'' reports that according to the historian Corry Guttstadt, "the Turkish authorities had apparently opted for the strategy of putting the Jews under such pressure with boycott activities and anonymous threats 'from the population' that they would leave the area 'voluntarily.'" Further, according to historian Rifat Bali that the incitement against Jews was common in the press at the time and this contributed to the violence.

Aftermath

Over 15,000 Jewish citizens of Turkey had to flee from the region.

Background

Pogrom

Aftermath

See also

References

Further reading