Istanbul
just as Dönme cemeteries in Salonika had appeared on maps as “Turk-
ish cemeteries.” The school was just southwest of the Bayezid mosque,
Bayezid Square, and the main university gate, not far up Divan Yolu from
Piyer Loti Street. In 1923 , the school was moved to Nişantaşı ( 166 – 67 ).
Leading the way in donating funds to establish the school were the İpekçi
and Kibar families. The Kibar Ali and Sons Business donated much
money ( 149 ). A list of the one hundred or so people who donated money
in 1921 includes fifteen İpekçi, nine Kibar, four Balcı, and a Karakaş ( 149 –
51 ), the Kibar by far being the biggest givers, donating over half the funds,
followed by the İpekçi. The director of the school in Bayezid until 1928
was Nakıyye Hanım, a former CUP member and post–World War II par-
liamentarian, and a close friend of the well-known feminist and Turkish
nationalist Halide Edip Adıvar ( 153 , 155 ).
The founders of the school in Bayezid attempted to set up a commerce
school, but failed ( 157 ). They did manage to replace “non-modern” Arabic
and Persian with philosophy, sociology, logic, and business courses ( 160 ).
According to Sandalcı, this serves as evidence that they were preparing
students for the republic and the post-Ottoman future, as an important
element of the national struggle was waged on the education and linguis-
tic front.
In 1923 , the school moved to the mansion of Naciye Sultan, wife of
Enver Pasha, one of the leaders of the CUP, World War I minister of war
( 167 ), in Teşvikiye, next to the neighborhood’s main mosque and close
to the mansion that housed the Terakki school. A photograph from
that time illustrates how both Dönme schools anchored what became a
Dönme neighborhood. One-third of the money for the land and building
came from donations of the newly established Alumni Association; half
came from a mortgage from a bank, with the Dilber and Kibar acting as
guarantors ( 170 ).
In 1932 , the school faced a major crisis in the shape of a clash between
the two leading families represented on its board, the Dilbers and Kibars,
who could no longer work together amicably, notwithstanding their ap-
parently smooth transition to Istanbul in the 1920 s. The Kibars, who were
in the tobacco trade, suffered great financial losses in the Depression, and
as their fortunes declined, the star of the Dilbers, who were in the textile
business, rose. This was a reversal of what had been the case in Salonika,
where the Dilbers had lost many properties and businesses in the great
fire of 1917.^34 The İpekçis, who, although not as wealthy as the others,