Between Empire and Nation-State
of Greek rule following the conquest of the city, Osman Said retained his
post ( 1912 – 16 ). Thus he was both the last Ottoman mayor and also the
first “Greek” one.
The Dönme entered a new phase in their history when Salonika fell
to Greece, ending nearly five centuries of Ottoman rule.^2 Those Dönme
who remained in the city faced new challenges. Despite all of the radical
transformations spearheaded by Dönme since Salonika had obtained its
municipal status, the city abruptly returned to being a more culturally
and economically provincial town in 1912. Fearing that it would be cut off
from its markets, some Jewish leaders proposed the city become an auton-
omous region protected by the major European powers. Dönme acted as
intermediaries with Young Turks in Vienna, and a committee was formed
in Istanbul to support the idea of internationalizing the city.^3 Dönme
wrote to the Greek Prime Minister Eleuthérios Venizélos arguing that Sa-
lonika’s independence, rather than incorporation into the Greek nation-
state, would mean its continued economic prosperity.^4 Dönme leaders
were not ready to throw in their lot with Greek nationalism and preferred
a free state under the mandate of the Habsburgs of Austro-Hungary, an
empire whose passports many Dönme carried.
Some Jews thought the future in Greek Thessaloníki looked bright.
The socialist Avram Benaroya stayed on and became a very influential fig-
ure in Greece, at least through the Civil War ( 1946 – 49 ).^5 Other politically
important Jews, such as Emmanuel Carasso, however, emigrated.^6
The Jews and Dönme who did not leave Thessaloníki faced new circum-
stances. As Leon Sciaky and others relate, change was swift for those who
remained in the city. “The wealthy Turkish [Muslim] families had, with the
coming of the Greeks, left the city,” Sciaky notes. One might add, many of
the Dönme as well. Hurriedly, the Muslims “had packed what belongings
they could and had gone to Constantinople or to Asia Minor.” The city-
scape was immediately transformed. Ottoman characters “vanished from
shop fronts and from posters on the walls of corner houses, and Greek
ones had taken their place. In ancient Byzantine churches which had been
taken over by the Moslems at the time of their conquest, new altars had
been raised and holy icons had displaced suras of the Koran proclaiming
the oneness of God.”^7 An Italian journalist wrote that the Dönme had
“disappeared into their lanes and the cafés of the Upper Town.”^8
The Electoral Register of Thessaloníki of 1913 , compiled following
Greek conquest of the Ottoman city and published the following year,