ARMENIAN - Erevangala500

found refuge in the Ottoman Empire. The Sultan even
sent his own ship to them, in order to speed up the rescue
operation. The Turkish government showed similar generosity
towards the Jewish refugees from Germany and
the countries occupied by Hitler. Asylum was granted to
tens of thousands.
"The small Jewish community, being mostly blonde ..."
1 It was not only the Ottomans who offered protection to the Jews
(when they were being threatened by the Catholic kings of Spain).
Kemal Ataturk's Turkey also provided asylum for tens of thousands of
Jewish refugees in the Hitler era. In spite of massive threats and
attempts at intervention, Turkey never turned over a single Jewish
refugee.
Shown here is a painting by the Turkish-Jewish painter-poet J. Gabib
Gerez (1982).
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