Refugees and Reforms: Turkey's Journey

This book is a collection of readings from the author's published and working papers. It includes a chapter on intrigue tying some of the German professors exiled in Turkey to contacts with the OSS (early CIA) and the ABWEHR (German/Nazi Military Intelligence). There is a chapter documenting how Turkey got a Jewish library scientist it wanted out of occupied Belgium as late as 1941 with Joachim Goebbels, Hitler's Minister of Propaganda, signing the order providing transportation in a sealed train wagon to Istanbul. There is a chapter statistically documenting that the invited intellectuals were not chosen strictly based on merit. There was a healthy bit of nepotism. The chapter also goes into similar cases as those involving the Kasztner Affair, allowing Jews to leave occupied Hungary for Palestine during 1944, and another 1944 train that took some 240 people out Bergen-Belsen through Istanbul, to Palestine. Additionally the world's most ambitious project of translating the best of Western literature is discussed as is Turkey's modernization and development of its musical, performing, and fine arts infrastructure leading up to Istanbul being named the Cultural Capital of Europe for 2010.