Carasso, Emmanuel

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CARASSO, EMMANUEL

CARASSO, EMMANUEL (1862–1934), Turkish lawyer and politician. Born in Salonika, Carasso lectured on criminology at the University of Salonika. He was one of the prominent figures in the Young Turk movement to which he gave considerable material support, largely via the masonic lodges in Salonika, in which Carasso held an influential position. After the Young Turks seized power in 1908, Carasso was elected deputy for Salonika in the Turkish parliament and headed the committee which informed Sultan *Abdul Hamid ii of his deposition in 1909. Subsequently, he was a member of the parliamentary commission of 1912 which negotiated the treaty of Ouchy concluding peace with Italy. He was economic adviser to the Turkish government during World War i and in recognition of his services was granted licenses to export Turkish goods to Germany, which enabled him to amass a considerable fortune. However, when Mustafa Kemal Ataturk came to power in 1923, Carasso fell into disfavor (like other Young Turk activists) and his fortune was confiscated. He lived his last years in penury in Italy and died in Trieste.

add. bibliography:

S.J. Shaw, The Jews of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic (1991), index; R. Margulies, "Karasu Efendinin biyografisine bir başlangiç," in: Toplumsal Tarih, 2, no. 21 (Sept. 1995), 24–29.

[Joseph Nehama /

Jacob M. Landau (2nd ed.)]