Russia vs Turkey: The Geopolitics of the South & The Turk Stream Pipelines by Lakovos Alhadeff - HTML preview

 A Final Note

 My essays are always somewhat aggressive towards Turkey. However I  believe I am fair on my critique towards Turkey. It is not a secret that  Turkey is very aggressive when it comes to her energy policy. But that's  not the point. The point is that I have to make a confession. I am half   

 Jewish, and my father was born from Jewish parents in Rhodes, Greece.  His father's family were Spanish Jews, who ended up in Rhodes when  they were thrown out of Spain by the Spanish Christians in 1492 during  the Inquisition. At the time Rhodes was a part of the Ottoman Empire,  and remained a part of the Ottoman Empire until 1912, when the island  was taken over by the Italians during the Italian-Turkish War. The  Turkish people had a lot of respect for the Jewish religion, and they gave  shelter to the Spanish Jews.

 My father's mother was from Ukraine, which at the time was a part of the  Russian Empire. The anti-Semitic policies of the Russian Char forced  many Jews, among them my grand mother's family too, to flee the  Russian Empire. Her family ended up in Lebanon, and she was born in  Beirut in 1905. At that time Lebanon, like Rhodes, was a part of the  Ottoman Empire. My grand mother's family, like my grand father's  family, found shelter at the Ottoman Empire. Therefore my grand mother  had Turkish papers, and she was a Turkish citizen.

 When the Nazis gathered the Jews of Rhodes at Platanakia Square in  1944, in order to send them to Auschwitz, the Turkish consul of Rhodes,  Selahattin Ülkümen, managed to save the Jews who had Turkish papers.  For Selahattin Ülkümen see the end of the chapter. My grand mother was  among the lucky ones, since she did have Turkish papers. My grandfather  had Italian papers. Thanks to the Turkish consul and my grand mother,  both my grand father and my father were allowed to leave the building  where the Germans had gathered the Jews of Rhodes in 1944. Afterwards  they managed to escape to Symi, another island of the Dodekanese,  which was under British control. At Symi they stayed with the Petridis  family and they survived the war. However the man who really saved  them from the Nazis was the Turkish consul of Rhodes, Selahattin  Ülkümen.

 Therefore even though I very often criticize the Turks, as I have every  right to do, I have to admit that I owe them my life, because they saved  my family many times during the last centuries, sometimes from  Christian fundamentalists, and some times from socialist fundamentalists.  And therefore it is true that I, as a Greek, can criticize Turkey, which is  Greece's main geopolitical rival, but at the same time as a human being I  have to express my gratitude to the Turkish people, to whom I owe my  life. And even though Turkey and Iran are today Israel's most dangerous  enemies, history cannot be undone. No matter what happens in the future  it will be true that Jewish people owe so much to the Turkish people.

 Below you can see my father's map, Spain-Rhodes and Ukraine—  Lebanon-Rhodes. It might seem like a strange map, but there is a similar  map behind every Jew. The map is larger for most Jews. It usually  involves trans-Atlantic lines. And that's the reason you should be for a  Jewish state.

 Picture 86

 For the Turkish consul, Selahattin Ülkümen, who risked his life in order  to save my grand father, my grand mother and my father, together with  another 200 Jews of Rhodes, you can read the following two Wikipedia  links.

 'Selahattin Ülkümen'

 4th and 5th Paragraphs

 On 19 July 1944, the Gestapo ordered all of the island‘s Jewish population to gather at its headquarters: ostensibly they were to register for 'temporary transportation to   a small island nearby', but in reality they were gathered for transport   to Auschwitz and its gas chambers. Ülk ümen went to the German commanding officer, General Kleeman, to remind him that Turkey was neutral in World War II. He asked for release of the Jews, including not only Turkish citizens but also their spouses and relatives, even though many of the latter were Italian and Greek citizens.[2] At first the commander refused, stating that under Nazi law, all Jews were Jews and had to go to the concentration camps. Ülkümen responded with 'under Turkish law all   citizens were equal. We didn‘t differentiate between citizens who were Jewish,

 Christian or Muslim. '[3]

 Ülkümen told Kleeman that 'I would advise my Government if he didn‘t release the   Jewish Turks it would cause an international incident. Then he agreed.'[4] The Jews protected by Ülkümen were released, though not until they were subjected to considerable additional harassment by the Nazi authorities. Ülkümen continued to   provide protection and moral support to those whom he had rescued and other Jews   who remained on the island. They feared suffering deportation, as they were required   to report to the Gestapo daily and never knew whether or not they would be able to   return home.

 Soon after Ülkümen's gaining release of Turkish Jews, the Germans rounded up the   Greek Jews on Rhodes, numbering 1,673 in all, and deported them to Greece. From there, the Germans had them transported to extermination camps; only 151 of the group survived the war.[5]

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selahattin_%C3%9Clk%C3%BCmen

 Rhodes, Modern history (3rd, 4th and 5th Paragraphs)

 In 1912, Italy seized Rhodes from the Turks during the Italo-Turkish War. The island's population thus bypassed many of the events associated with the 'exchange of    the minorities' between Greece and Turkey. After World War I, the island, together with the rest of the Dodecanese, was officially assigned to Italy in the Treaty of

  Lausanne. I t then became the core of their possession of the Isole Italiane dell'Egeo.

 Following the Italian Armistice of 8 September 1943, the British attempted to get the Italian garrison on Rhodes to change sides. This was anticipated by the erman    Army, which succeeded in occupying the island. In great measure, the German occupation caused the British failure in the subsequent Dodecanese Campaign.

 The Turkish Consul Selahattin Ülkümen succeeded, at considerable risk to himself and his family, in saving 42 Jewish families, about 200 persons in total, who had Turkish citizenship or were members of Turkish citizens' families.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodes#Modern_history

 May 2015