Forgetting to Forget, 1923–1944 of the Turkish Chamber of Commerce for Germany, protested to Nazi au-
thorities that his business was classified as a “Jewish business” although he
was not a Jew, but a Dönme.^32 These two examples serve as evidence that
the Nazis considered the Dönme Jews, which would have had disastrous
consequences for them had they not been deported en masse as part of the
population exchange two decades before the Nazis occupied Thessaloníki.
Attacks on Prominent Dönme Intensify
In the early Turkish Republic, many Dönme former CUP members
were dismissed from their jobs, imprisoned, and banned from journalism.
The Yakubi CUP member and Freemason Fazlı Necip, a contributor to
the literary magazine Gonca-i Edeb, moved to Istanbul in 1909 in order to
run his newspaper, Asır. Yet after World War I, he was not allowed to re-
turn to journalism. In 1919 , Ahmet Emin Yalman was taken into custody
by the Allied occupiers and exiled to British Malta for three years, along
with nationalists, state officials, members of the CUP, and war criminals.
Upon his return, he had a falling out with his partners at the newspaper
Vakit, so he established Vatan in 1923. It only lasted two years before it
was closed under the “Statute for the Establishment of Public Order”
passed in the wake of the Kurdish Sheikh Said rebellion in southeastern
Anatolia and political opposition to Atatürk, since the newspaper was
thought too critical of the new Turkish government.^33 Yalman was tried
at an Independence Tribunal and acquitted, but banned from journalism.
He was not able to return until the mid 1930 s and then only with the per-
mission of Atatürk.^34 Mehmet Zekeriya was also allowed to again practice
journalism the same year.
Mehmet Zekeriya and his wife Sabiha, adopting the surname Sertel,
were frequent targets of the government. They published Resimli Gazete
(Illustrated Monthly) between 1924 and 1930. Like People magazine in
the United States, this journal appealed to a wide audience, was written
in popular language, addressed issues of general concern, and was easy to
read, because it featured many photographs and illustrations.^35 Unlike
People, the journal was also critical of the government, and faced con-
stant lawsuits and censorship, and some of its writers served time in jail,
apparently on charges of inciting class conflict. Mehmet Zekeriya Sertel
had been tried for inciting soldiers to rebel, and sentenced to three years’
exile; in 1930 , he was again banned for three years from journalism.^36