Istanbul
and the ultimately successful nationalist movement. From 1908 to 1926 ,
the CUP had played a leading role in Ottoman and then Turkish politics;
many leading participants in the national movement were former CUP
members, and the movement was the heir of the CUP legacy, but the ex-
ecution of the two leading Dönme in their ranks put an end to it. Atatürk
also acted harshly against two other institutions that had contributed so
much to the revolution of 1908 : he banned Freemasonry and outlawed
Sufi orders in 1925.
Istanbul and the Early Republic
The republic turned its back, not only on Dönme revolutionaries,
but on the international economic ties, religious morality, and eclec-
tic cultural outlook exemplified by Dönme-influenced Salonika. This
is reflected in the choice of capital city. The republic did not favor in-
ternational Constantinople, renamed Istanbul after the founding of the
Republic, but invested in dusty Ankara, a small provincial town on the
steppe famous only for its mohair (the fleece of the Angora goat), a city
with only one, bad restaurant.^5 Istanbul had been either a Roman, Byz-
antine, or Ottoman capital for over 1 , 500 years and residence of ruling
dynasties, the seat of the religious authorities, a city that housed armies
of military men and bureaucrats and attracted artisans, scholars, and
above all else, merchants.^6 The city boasted the largest market in the
Mediterranean, was an importing and consuming colossus, and long the
largest city in Europe. In the late nineteenth century, Istanbul, whose
population was majority Christian, was a crucial node in the circula-
tion of persons, money, commodities, and ideas. Bank buildings were
erected there in the international style, along with monumental foreign
embassies, and the “Parisian and Italianate art nouveau architecture pre-
ferred by the global bourgeoisie of the period.”^7 The city’s bankers, mer-
chants, and new residents “built for themselves mansions, apartment
buildings, hotels, clubs, restaurants, and cafés, as well as less reputable
locales for entertainment” in the district known as Pera, where foreign-
ers and upwardly mobile Christians and Jews lived, a district separated
from the “Old City” by the Golden Horn.^8 This part of the city ben-
efited from urban planning and renewal, like the waterfront districts of
Salonika, and was endowed with paved roads and sidewalks, gas lamps,
and electric trolleys.