Jews leaving Turkey over security concerns: community member

PanARMENIAN.Net - Many people from Turkey’s Jewish community are leaving the country after increased threats and attacks, a businessman from the community has written in an article for the Istanbul-based Jewish newspaper Şalom, according to Hurriyet Daily News.

“We face threats, attacks and harassment every day. Hope is fading. Is it necessary for a ‘Hrant among us’ to be shot to make the government, the opposition, civil society, our neighbors and jurists see this?” Mois Gabay wrote, referring to the murder of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink in 2007.

Gabay, a professional in the tourism industry, added that increasing numbers of Turkish Jews are making plans to move abroad with their families, feeling unsafe and under pressure in the country.

“Around 37 percent of school graduates from the Jewish community in Turkey prefer to go abroad for higher education ... The number doubled this year,” he wrote.

Gabay’s column came a few days after verbal attacks on the Neve Shalom Synagogue in Istanbul's Beyoğlu district, which has been previously attacked with explosives in 1986, 1992 and 2003. A paper reading “to be demolished” was stuck on the entrance of the synagogue by an unknown group two weeks ago.