Three Foundation Stones of Turkish Jewish Identity: Belonging, Citizenship and Asabiyyah

Abstract

In the early 20th century, the Republic of Turkey has emerged as a nation state from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire from which it had derived its state and sociocultural structure. In fact, the sociocultural heritage has led to a great number of serious issues, especially in terms of citizenship, identity and rights, administration, and, even in daily life in the newly-founded republic. With their distinct sociocultural experience, the Jewish community, one of the many religious communities in Turkey, has distinguished itself from the other communities. Although the Jewish community had been under the protection of the Ottoman Empire for centuries, their existence in Anatolia roots back to earlier centuries, even millennials. Additionally, in the late 15th century, the Jews that are exiled from the Iberian Peninsula by inquisitions took refuge in the Ottoman Empire. With the occurrence of some disturbing events in the country and the establishment of the Jewish state, Israel, their population has significantly decreased due to emigrations over the years. In this study, the main pillars of the construction of the identity of Turkish Jewish community in terms of “belonging”, “citizenship” and “asabiyet”. Not only does the study analyze the presence of Israel State as a “safe shelter”, but it also discusses the notion of land and history, and the laws regarding taxation and conscription with regarding to belonging and citizenship respectively.