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JewishHistoryעברית

Thrace pogroms

Date
21 June 1934 – July 1934Hebrew date: 8th of Tamuz, 5694
Location
Eastern Thrace (Çanakkale, Edirne, Kırklareli, Tekirdağ)Türkiye
Then part of
Republic of Turkey
Perpetrators
  • Local civilian attackers in Eastern Thrace (Mob)
Killed (estimate)
0[1]Jews killed. Basaranlar states that the attacks did not result in casualties for the Jewish population. A participant, quoted via Erol Haker, said the intention was not to kill Jews but to take their goods.
Locality

0% of the Jewish population of Eastern Thrace (Çanakkale, Edirne, Kırklareli, Tekirdağ)[1]

Country

0% of the Jewish population of Republic of Turkey (c. 1935)[40]

Worldwide

0% of the worldwide Jewish population (c. 1933)[5]

Expelled (estimate)
3,000[1]About 3,000 of 13,000 Jewish inhabitants forced to leave, as Burak Basaranlar writes (source 1).
Locality

23% of the Jewish population of Eastern Thrace (Çanakkale, Edirne, Kırklareli, Tekirdağ)[1]

Country

3.8% of the Jewish population of Republic of Turkey (c. 1935)[40]

Worldwide

0.02% of the worldwide Jewish population (c. 1933)[5]

Category
Pogrom, Expulsion
Confidence
Medium

Summary

Attacks on Jews in Eastern Thrace began in Çanakkale on 21 June 1934 and spread to Edirne, Kırklareli and Tekirdağ. Burak Basaranlar, in New Perspectives on Turkey, writes that the assaults lasted a little over two weeks, that Jewish homes and shops were raided and looted, that they did not result in Jewish deaths, and that about 3,000 of 13,000 Jewish inhabitants were forced to leave. The Jewish Virtual Library records that thousands of Jews fled Edirne after a mob attack in 1934.

Sources

  1. Burak Basaranlar, When neighbors become aggressors. New Perspectives on Turkey (Cambridge University Press) (2024)
  2. Turkey Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library

Jewish population (estimates)

  • Worldwide: 15,300,000[5]c. 1933USHMM, citing the American Jewish Year Book, estimates 15.3 million Jews worldwide in 1933 (about 9.5 million of them in Europe).
  • Republic of Turkey: 78,730[40]c. 1935AJYB 1940–41 Table XIV: 78,730 Jews in Turkey, matching the 1935 Turkish census figure cited in the Year Book footnotes (total population 16,158,018; Jewish population 78,730). Başaranlar notes about 13,000 Jews in Eastern Thrace at the time of the 1934 assaults (regional, not national).
  • Eastern Thrace (Çanakkale, Edirne, Kırklareli, Tekirdağ): 13,000[1]About 13,000 Jews in Eastern Thrace in the summer of 1934, the season of the attacks, which covered Çanakkale, Edirne, Kırklareli and Tekirdağ rather than one town.

Sources for population estimates

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