8 Reinscribing the Dönme in the Secular Nation-State
in the Secular Nation-State
Addressing the question of Istanbul schools in his autobiography, the
Karakaş Dönme Reşat Tesal, a recent migrant from Salonika, wrote:
§ Most of my classmates were children who had come from Anatolia. They
looked down on southeastern Europe and people from southeastern
Europe, especially Salonikans. To them, Salonikans were Greek or
Jewish converts to Islam. They taunted me by calling me “Salonikan,”
or “Mishon” [the stereotypical Jewish name in Turkey]. While I could
have responded to these attacks by either turning the other cheek, or
counterattacking, I got so angry I would run away and hide.
My life became better when I transferred to Feyziye in 1927....
The [Karakaş] Feyziye, with which my father had good contacts, had
been my primary school in Salonika, and had recently moved from the
Sultanahmet area to Nişantaşı, where I lived. It was also a school where
they taught English and French very well, which was quite important to
my family. Unlike my previous experience at school in Istanbul, I enjoyed
the experience at Feyziye. My fellow classmates in the small classes
included Salonikans and I instantly became close friends with everyone,
including Ali Muhsin [from the Karakaş Kibar], the son of one of the
school’s owners, Kibar Muhsin Bey.^1Despite the challenge of losing their homeland and facing vicious at-
tacks in their new domicile, some Dönme tried to maintain their bonds
of distinction after 1923 by recreating their Salonikan lives in Istanbul and
establishing a new center for their ethno-religious group strengthened by
all the institutions and businesses they left behind on the other side of the
sea. What distinguished them from others was that relatives settled to-