e Hebrew scholar, Avrum M. Ehrlick, writes in his book “Sabbatean Messianism As Proto-Secularism” (source, Berry’s article: Kerry, Gaza and the New Sabbatean Holocaust): “Dr Nazim, Nuzhet Faik, Mustafa Arif, Muslihiddin Adil, Sukru Bleda, Halide Edip Adivar and Ahmet Emin Yalman were all active in the Young Turks and of Donme families. Mehmet Kapanci (1839-1924) who was a mayor of Salonica and a well-known banker funded the C.U.P [ some Armenians were masons and were part of the Committee of the Union and Progress Party before the Genocide happened ] and was a Donme. Other Jews active in the Young Turks were Nissim Mazliah from Izmir and Vitali Faradji, Moise Cohen (later called Munis Tekinalp) who was an active Jew and once rabbinical student who turned to business and actively asserted a proud Turkish identity along with Zionist sentiments…It is curious that Israelís first and second Prime Ministers, David Ben Gurion and Moshe Sharett and her second president Yitzchak Ben Zvi had lived and studied in Istanbul and embraced the concept ‘lehitatmen’, Hebrew for ‘to become an Ottoman’. Ben Zvi is alleged by some to be descendant of a Sabbatean family. Sharett served in the Ottoman army in WW1. Ben Gurion gave up Russian citizenship for Ottoman citizenship, something many others in Palestine were afraid to do. Israeli Presidents Ben Zevi, Zalman Shazar and to a lesser degree Yitzchak Navon became students of Ottomanism. Mehmet Cavit Bey (1875-1926) was one of the most significant Donme political figures. He was active in the revolution [of 1908] as a highly articulate editor of a tabloid and professor of finance and was three times Finance Minister of Modern Turkey until his execution for his alleged role in the assassination attempt of Ataturk. It is believed that Cavit Bey was an ardent Zionist and saw the advantages for Turkey in the Jewish settlement of Palestine.” Avrum Ehrlich elaborates in more details in his same book: ” The extent to which Jews were involved in the Young Turk revolution is debated, some arguing that Jews and Donme dominated the Committee of the Union and Progress Party (C.U.P) which gained control of the State. Others argue that this was anti-Semitic rhetoric and exaggerated and that while the Jews supported the revolution on a grass roots level, they were not highly represented in the upper echelons of the party. Indeed British diplomats did report to the home office that a Jewish-Masonic conspiracy was at work favoring the revolution. The Donme are believed to have been equally involved in the revolution but exact details are less known due to a number of reasons…It was via the Masonic lodges that the Donme, the Jews, Bektashi and secularists who were less accepted in mainstream society were able to meet on an equal footing, many of them becoming major instruments of the revolution…Whether the suspicions that Masonry is responsible for sedition and subversive activities are true or not, in this context they were a convenient home for the revolution, providing lodges and personnel, secrecy and structures for the revolution. The Donme thrived in the Masonic environment, allowing them to be both secretive and influential, maintaining their religious ideas in a non-dogmatic atmosphere. Bridging the gap between the Jews and the Muslims, they seemed to represent the happy medium of the secular Young Turk revolution. Even today Donme are involved in the Masonic Lodges ofTurkey.”
Posted on: Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:45:38 +0000
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