A Scapegoat for All Seasons

The topic of Dönme, or "Sabbateans (Sabetaycı) as they have increasingly been referred to of late, has in recent years grown into a much discussed and hotly debated issue in the Turkish media, so much so that certain journals have devoted entire issues to it and television talk shows have hosted lengthy and repeated debates, with various so-called "specialists" on the subject- as often as not ill-imformed conspiracy theorists or antisemits- taking part along side or in place of journalists and academics. But despite the volume of discussion and ink spilled in the past decade, the subject has heretofore enjoyed woefully little scholarly research in Turkey.