The Bastions of Turkish Secularism : Part 3

The donmeh (doenmeh, donme) refers to a group of Sabbatean Crypto-Jews of the Near East who are the followers of the Ottoman Jewish false messiah Sabbatai Zevi who in 1666 converted superficially to Islam but still covertly retained and practised Jewish beliefs and rituals. They are pseudo-Muslims for political purposes and reasons but consider themselves as some kind of Jews although not officially recognised by the Jewish authorities. Reportedly one such known living person is Ismail Cem, who was recently the Foreign Minister of Turkey before the AK Party came into power.
The donmeh, the secret Jews (Jews posing as Muslims), are also variously known as selanikli (people of Salonika), avdeti (converts), momzarim (bastards), minim (heretics), or ma'aminim (believers) depending on which side you are. Though they were socially accepted by the Muslim society unknowingly, they only married within their own community which ended in several recessive genetical traits being typical of donmeh. However at the end of 19th century they started to assimilate with the Turkish people by practising mixed-marriages, and by the end of 20th century the donmeh were fully integrated with the Turkish society. They have largely ignored the restrictions on intermarriage with Muslims since the 1960's.
The donmeh played an enormous role in the establishment of the Young Turks movement, a band of modernist revolutionaries led by young Mustafa Kemal, who brought down the Ottoman Empire under Sultan Abdul Hamid.
After the foundation of the Republic of Turkey, the donmeh strongly supported the Republican Party (CHP) in introducing pro-West reforms of Mustafa Kemal that brought restrictions of power of the religious (Islamic) establishment and modernisation of the Turkish society.