Jews and Turks in Germany after 9/11 · 81is not the problem of Turks.”^35 In this sense, many Turks distanced them-
selves from Arab immigrants who feel strongly about the Israel-Palestine
conflict.
While Arabs and Turks are both Muslim peoples, Turkey, on account
of Kemalist modernization, has sought to be a part of the West. The poli-
cies of recent Turkish governments have been cautiously pro-Israel.^36
Turks have collaborated with Israel on many occasions, including the
1999 capture of the Kurdish leader Öcalan in Kenya.^37 Anti-Arab senti-
ments in Turkey were exacerbated by the 2003 synagogue bombings in
Istanbul.^38 In order to protest the Istanbul bombings, on the anniversary
of the Mölln pogrom on November 22, a group of immigrants in Berlin
organized the Migrants’ Initiative against Anti-Semitism. Emphasizing
that the Jews were not alone in their struggle, initiative leaders organized
a demonstration to show their solidarity with Jews in Germany.^39
The spokesperson of the TBB, Safter Çınar, sent a note to Jüdisches Ber-
lin, the monthly bulletin of the Jewish Community in Berlin, saying that
Turks were in solidarity with the members of Berlin’s Jewish commu-
nity.^40 Indeed, the next issue of the Jüdisches Berlin published interviews
and articles of Turks and Turkish Jews, as well as photographs from a
joint Chanukah party that was organized by the Jüdischer Kulturver-
ein.^41 The articles and interviews refer to the days of the Ottoman Empire,
when the millet system provided for the Turkish majority to coexist with
Jews and other ethnic and religious minorities. It further emphasized that
Jews who fled Germany after 1933, like those who fled from the Spanish
Inquisition after 1492, found shelter as refugees in the Ottoman Empire.
Thus Jüdisches Berlin condemned the synagogue bombings in Istanbul
and provided public space for Turks to show their solidarity with Jews.^42
Fallout from 9/11 posed a twofold challenge to Turkish leaders in Ger-
many: they had to attempt not to be painted with the anti-Arab/anti-
Muslim brush, and they had to combat anti-Semitism in their own ranks,
which had assumed a new intensity among both Turkish immigrants and
the radical Right. Within the Right, the increased anti-Semitism accompa-
nied increased racism against Muslims. Neo-Nazi graffiti, such as “What
the Jews have behind them is what is still to come for the Turks,”^43 virtu-
ally forces Turkish German leaders into an alliance with Jews, according
to the theorem, “The enemies of my enemies are my friends.” Accord-
ingly, a photo taken during a street protest in Berlin and displayed at the
Jewish Museum in Berlin during a short-term exhibit on Jewish history