Tag #123140 - Interview #90453 (Nesim Alkabes)

Turkey (consequently also Istanbul) was being governed by occupying countries during the 1910s and the English and French governments would give a certificate called “Protégés Orientaux” to every person leaving the country; [these certificates would be considered that person’s passport]. My mother’s two other brothers Albert and Vitali Sisa (I don’t know their birthdates] did not want to live here [Istanbul] and in 1918 went to France to try their luck and settled there. After they left, they were forbidden to reenter Turkey because they did not have a Turkish passport. Both brothers lived in France as “Protégés Orientaux”. They did not have any papers to prove they were Turks.