Enlightened: Why Turks And Jews Love Each Other

President Shimon Peres (of Israel) recently paid a visit to Turkey in order to honor Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern day Turkey.

While Atakturk may be unfamiliar to those in the US, his role in Jewish history help cement ties between the Jewish state long before the nation of Israel was reborn.

(IsraCast.com) Ties between Turkey and the Jewish people go back a long way. Some five-hundred years ago, the Ottoman Empire gave shelter to tens of thousands of Spanish Jews who fled from the Inquisition. They settled in Turkey and many European countries which were under Ottoman rule.

More recently, during the rise of the Nazis in the 1930's, Turkish president Mustafa Kemal Atatürk allowed many German Jewish refugees to enter Turkey, despite Ankara's alliance with Nazi Germany. During the Nazi era most of the Jewish communities in Turkish controlled countries of Europe survived the Holocaust. Many of these Jews went on to make their homes in the ancient Jewish homeland of Israel. In fact, Israel's first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and the country's second State President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi studied law at the University of Istanbull.

This probably explains why both Israel and Turkey enjoy very close relations with each other, not to mention the fact that Turkey is a primary vacation spot for many Israelis.

Israeli's Love Their Turkey! For Vacation That Is...

Turkey seems to be the prime spot for Israeli's to "get away from it all," beating even the United States (which came in second place).

(Globes Online) Turkey was the most popular holiday destination for Israelis, with 195,000 visitors in August 2007, 15% of total outgoing travelers, the Israel Airports Authority reports. The second most popular destination was the US, with 151,000 travelers, followed by France with 119,000, and Italy and Germany with 93,000 each.

Israel and Turkey already have very friendly relations with each other, so it should not be a surprise to see Israeli's choosing this Arabian nation as a favorite vacation spot.

Note: If Israel were physically closer to the US, I wonder if these numbers would actually change?

Turkey Views Israel As Its Closest Friend

(Image Credit: Stayxs.com)

Despite the recent elections putting what some see as extremists in power, Turkey's ambassador went on to reassure the Jewish public that not only would Israeli-Turkey relations will continue to remain healthy, but also informed them about Turkey's view of the Jewish state.

(Ynet News) The Turkish ambassador told the panel that "Israel is so important to Turkey... it is at the very top of Turkey's foreign policy," Erdogan said. "We see Israel as our number one county that we trust, it plays a very important role in our considerations."

During his address, Tan sought to reassure Israeli concerns about the results of the Turkish events, and alay fears that Turkey was embarking on a process of Islamification.

He described questions by Israelis on whether they could continue to visit Turkey as "ridiculous," declaring: "Whatever party comes into power doesn't make any difference on our principle stance of seeing Israel as a close and friendly ally."

Turkey seems to be popular vacation spot for many Israeli's, as it is not only fairly close, but very affordable for many citizens as well.

Turkey is also one of the few Muslim countries that Jewish citizens can safely visit, although that may have something to do with the fact that Turkey is a secular democracy.