Istanbul
he was called a Dönme. Yalman refers to Salonika, which when he was
born had a majority Jewish population and the largest concentration of
Dönme, as “a Turkish city, very much part of the homeland” and men-
tions that it was also the birthplace of Atatürk.^105
Yalman, looking back much later on his Feyziye education, argues
Şemsi Efendi instilled Turkish national feeling into him, an implausible
claim.^106 The aim of Yalman’s autobiography was to establish himself in
the minds of the public as a patriotic Turkish Muslim who had devoted
his life to fighting for the Turkish nationalist interest. The Dönme are not
mentioned in the place one would expect, the section on Salonika. The
only hint is his discussion of there being two worlds at home, one conser-
vative and old-fashioned, the other progressive and new.^107 But this mir-
rors Atatürk’s own analysis of his childhood in the city and merely serves
as a generalization about the era.^108 Yalman even avoids mentioning the
anti-Dönme slurs hurled at the CUP by parties opposing it. Yalman only
mentions they were called Freemasons.^109 Yalman displays his patriotism
by writing about Armenians and Orthodox Christians as subversives.^110
Only Turks, he declares, were willing to sacrifice for the nation; the rest
were separatists. Worse, the minorities were gaining economic power.^111
Yalman’s autobiography is remarkable more for what is left out than
what is included. He repeatedly asserts that his aim, manifested in the
newspapers he founded and for which he wrote, was to support the na-
tional struggle and national unity, and hinder the enemies of the Turk-
ish nation.^112 He asserts that he had always supported Atatürk and his
principles. When the Allies left Istanbul, the headline in Vatan declared
that Beyogˇlu, the district of the city with perhaps the most prevalent non-
Muslim population “has become Muslim.”^113 He praises the spiritual
leaders of the minorities that had gone astray under occupation, but who
participated in military ceremonies and made speeches peppered with pa-
triotic phrases in 1922.^114 He celebrates the heroism of Turkish soldiers,
the success of the independence struggle, and the power of Turkish unity
in the face of foreign intrigue.^115 Denying the Dönme background, avoid-
ing any mention of Jews, even in Salonika where they predominated, and
asserting his Muslim and Turkish bona fides, perhaps Yalman did not
wish to resurrect the bitter, painful personal attacks he faced at the time,
which culminated in an attempt on his life decades later.
The story of the Sertels is more dramatic, and ultimately, more tragic.
On the occasion of Atatürk’s death in 1938 , Sabiha Sertel wrote an elegy