Varlık Vergisi

Varlık Vergisi (Turkish: [vɑɾˈɫɯk ˈvæɾɟisi], "wealth tax" or "capital tax") was a tax levied on citizens of Turkey in 1942, with the stated aim of raising funds for the country's defense in case of an eventual entry into World War II. However, it is accepted that the underlying reason for the tax was to inflict financial ruin on the minority non-Muslim citizens of the country,[1] terminate their prominence in the country's economy[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] and move the assets of non-Muslims into the hands of the Muslim bourgeoisie.[11] It can be defined as the last application to date of the jizya (cizye) tax on non-Muslims in Turkish history, and the only such application after the establishment of the constitutionally secular Turkish Republic in 1923; breaching the articles regarding secularism and citizen equality in the Turkish Constitution.

Background
Fazıl Ahmet Aykaç, one of the proposers of the Varlık Vergisi.
Neşet Özercan, one of the opposers of the tax.
Non-Muslims auctioning off their furniture to pay for the tax.

The bill for the one-off tax was proposed by the Şükrü Saracoğlu government, and the act was adopted by the Turkish parliament on November 11, 1942. It was imposed on the fixed assets, such as landed estates, building owners, real estate brokers, businesses, and industrial enterprises of all citizens, but especially targeted the minorities. Those who suffered most severely were non-Muslims like the Jews, Greeks, Armenians, and Levantines,[12] who controlled a large portion of the economy,[13] though it was the Armenians who were most heavily taxed.[14]

The tax was supposed to be paid by all citizens of Turkey, but inordinately higher rates were imposed on the country's non-Muslim inhabitants, in an arbitrary and predatory way.[15] Because those forced to pay the bulk of the taxes were exclusively non-Muslims,[16][17] the law was perceived by the public as a "jizya - gavur tax" against them.[17] These taxes led to the destruction of the remaining non-Muslim merchant class in Turkey,[16][18][19] the lives and finances of many non-Muslim families were ruined.[20][21] The taxes were very high, some times higher than a person's entire wealth.[22] In addition, the law was also applied to the many poor non-Muslims such as drivers, workers and even beggars, whereas their Muslim counterparts were not obliged to pay any tax.[23]

The Varlık Vergisi resulted in a number of suicides of ethnic minority citizens in Istanbul.[24][25]

Population groupAmount of taxes to be paid[26][27][28]
Christian Armenians232%
Jews179%
Christian Greeks156%
Muslims4.94%

During World War II, Turkey remained neutral until February 1945. Officially, the tax was devised to fill the state treasury that would have been needed had Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union invaded the country. However, the main reason for the tax was to nationalize the Turkish economy by reducing minority populations' influence and control over the country's trade, finance, and industries.[29]

The tax could not be challenged in court. Non-Muslims had to pay their taxes within 15 days in cash.[30] Many people who could not pay the taxes borrowed money from relatives and friends, also sold their properties at public auctions or sold their businesses to gather some money to pay.[31][32] People who were unable to pay were sent to labor camps in eastern Anatolia.[33][34][35][36] Workers were paid for their service but half of their wages were set-off for their debts.[37] Because of the hard plowing work elder obligors conspired with young villagers from Aşkale to make them work instead and they paid villagers daily wages in return.[38] Five thousand were sent there and all were non-Muslims,[39] since the Muslim taxpayers who failed to pay received lighter sentences.[40] Also, there were easiness for payments and tax discounts for the Muslims taxpayers. Although the law stipulated that people over fifty-five years old were exempt from labor service, elderly men, even sick people were sent there.[41] Twenty-one of the people who were sent to the labor camps died there[42] and the Turkish government usurped their wealth and sold it to Turkish Muslims at extremely low prices, paving the way to the creation of some of the contemporary Turkish conglomerates.[43]

The state also confiscated the property of the taxed person's close relatives (including parents, parents-in-law, children, and siblings) and sold it to settle the tax amount, even if the person had been forced into labor service.[44]

Foreign-passport residents in Turkey who gave in a tax return or owned a business were forced to pay a huge capital levy on supposed wealth too. However, none of them were ruined or committed suicide. The tax was not based on any reality, but just on a whim of the authorities.[45] This provoked the intervention of foreign embassies and consulates on behalf of their nationals.[46]

Taxpayers were classified into four separate lists, the "M" list, for Muslims, the "G", for non-Muslims (Gayrimuslim), the "E", for Foreigners (Ecnebi) and the "D" for converts (Dönme).[47]

The rigidly-enforced, discriminatory law did not yield the results the government had hoped for. Companies increased the prices of their products sharply to recoup their losses, creating a spiral of inflation that ruined low-income consumers.

However, according to official information, the Turkish government collected 324 million liras (at a time when 1 US dollar was equivalent to 1.20 Turkish lira) through the confiscation of non-Muslim assets.[15] This amount would be equivalent to more than $4 billion today.

According to Faik Ökte, the director of finance for the province of Istanbul at the time of the Varlık Vergisi, the Turkish government collected 289,256,246 liras from non-Muslim minorities, 34,226,764 liras from dönme and 25,600,409 liras from Muslims.[48]

According to T.C. Resmi Gazete, the official journal of Turkey that publishes the new legislation and other official announcements, the Varlık Vergisi (Law #4305) was not applied to any particular ethnic or religious communities.[49] Tax tariffs were determined one by one for every business sector. According to the T.C. Resmi Gazete, the tax tariff of 4.94% was for the large-scale farmers, and not limited to any particular religious community. It was also indicated that the tariff for the large-scale farmers could not exceed 5%.[50]

During the period, the Turkish press allegedly had "anti-minority" articles and reports.[51][52][53]

Repeal and aftermath

The law could not sustain relentless international criticism. Under pressure from the United Kingdom and the United States, it was repealed on 15 March 1944.[54] After the abolition of the law, the minority citizens who were at the labour camps were sent back to their homes.[55] The Turkish government promised to give back the paid taxes to non-Muslims, but this did not happen.[56]

The opposition Democratic Party (DP) capitalized on its unpopularity in the general election of 1950,[13] which was the first democratic general election in the Turkish Republic, thereby achieving a landslide victory against the Republican People's Party (CHP).

These taxes brought about a permanent demographic change within the minority population. Many people of the minorities, especially the Greek minority, felt that there was no future for them in Turkey and they left their ancestral homes and became refugees in Greece. On the other hand, some, especially from the Jewish community had managed to secrete assets abroad and they were able to restart a reduced and hesitant life in Turkey.[57] The tax also resulted in state confiscation of much minority property in Istanbul, "Turkifying" not only the economy but also the landscape.[58] The 1935 Census records non-Muslims as 1.98% of the population; by 1945, this had fallen to 1.54%.

In addition, the Varlık Vergisi once more demonstrated that being Muslim constituted a significant part of the definition of citizenship in Turkey.[59]

The Varlık Vergisi in the way it was dealt with by the Turkish Press exemplifies the close relations between the Executive and the Press, in Turkey.[60]

Furthermore, the tax made small businesses to close or sell their properties and stock to large operators, leaving the market under the control of big business interests.[61]

In 1951, Faik Ökte published his memoirs. There he confessed that the tax had been applied in discriminatory way against the non-Mulsims. The Turkish press condemned him for publishing this and declared him "traitor to the homeland".[62]

Years after the introduction of the Varlık Vergisi, the political elite of Turkey had difficulties coming to terms with the subject. The historical novel Salkım Hanım'ın Taneleri (variously translated as Mrs. Salkım's Diamonds/Pearls/Beads/Necklace), written by Turkish author Yilmaz Karakoyunlu, recounts stories and witnesses of the non-Muslims during the Varlık Vergisi. The novel was soon turned into a film of the same name, Mrs. Salkım's Diamonds. Members of parliament, such as Ahmet Çakar (MHP), were outraged at the screening.[63]

gollark: ...···
gollark: ...
gollark: It is still relevant to whether it is actually good or not (SPOILER: it's not).
gollark: ... no.
gollark: That is in fact bad.

See also

References
  1. Nowill, Sidney E. P. (December 2011). Constantinople and Istanbul: 72 Years of Life in Turkey. Matador. p. 77. ISBN 978-1848767911."In reality, the idea was to reduce the influence of the minority non-Turkish citizens to the country's affairs."
  2. Ince, Basak (April 2012). Citizenship and Identity in Turkey: From Atatürk's Republic to the Present Day. I. B. Tauris. p. 75. ISBN 978-1780760261."These quotations reveal that the real reason for the Wealth Tax was the elimination of non-Muslims from the economy."
  3. Ince, Basak (April 2012). Citizenship and Identity in Turkey: From Atatürk's Republic to the Present Day. I. B. Tauris. p. 75. ISBN 978-1780760261."However, the underlying reason was the elimination of minorities from the economy, and the replacement of the non-Muslim bourgeoisie by its Turkish counterpart."
  4. C. Fortna, Benjamin; Katsikas, Stefanos; Kamouzis, Dimitris; Konortas, Paraskevas (December 2012). State-Nationalisms in the Ottoman Empire, Greece and Turkey: Orthodox and Muslims, 1830-1945 (SOAS/Routledge Studies on the Middle East). Routledge. p. 195. ISBN 978-0415690560."... an attempt was being made by means of the Wealth Tax to eliminate the minorities who occupied an important place in Turkey's commercial life."
  5. Akıncılar, Nihan; Rogers, Amanda E.; Dogan, Evinc; Brindisi, Jennifer; Alexieva, Anna; Schimmang, Beatrice (December 2011). Young Minds Rethinking the Mediterranean. Istanbul Kultur University. p. 23. ISBN 978-0415690560."The first visible attempt in order to remove minorities from economic life was the implementation of 'Wealth Tax' in 1942 which was accepted in the National Assembly with the claim of balancing and distributing properties of minorities. The actual aim behind the scenes was to impoverish the non-Muslim minorities and eliminate them from the competition in the national economy. Instead, the RPP government tried to create a new wealthy Turkish Muslim bourgeoisie."
  6. Turam, Berna (January 2012). Secular State and Religious Society: Two Forces in Play in Turkey. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 43. ISBN 978-0230338616."With the introduction of the Varlik Vergisi (capital tax) in 1942, which aimed to confiscate the property and assets of non-Muslims, an attempt was made to bring the national economy also under the control of Muslim citizens."
  7. Çetinoğlu, Sait (2012). "The Mechanisms for Terrorizing Minorities: The Capital Tax and Work Battalions in Turkey during the Second World War". Mediterranean Quarterly. 23. DUKE University Press. p. 14. doi:10.1215/10474552-1587838."The aim was to destroy the economic and cultural base of these minorities, loot their properties and means of livelihood, and, at the same time "turkify" the economy of Turkey."
  8. Egorova, Yulia (July 2013). Jews, Muslims and Mass Media: Mediating the 'Other. Routledge. p. 43. ISBN 978-0253005267."That tax was instrumental in transferring the control of the market from the non-Muslim groups to the Muslims."
  9. Brink-Danan, Marcy (December 2011). Jewish Life in Twenty-First-Century Turkey: The Other Side of Tolerance (New Anthropologies of Europe). Indiana University Press. p. 11. ISBN 978-0253223500."Varlik Vergisi is commonly translated as "Capital Tax" or "Wealth Tax" we might, however, consider an alternate translation of varlik as "presence" which focuses attention on the devaluation- both financial and political of minority presence during this time"
  10. Guttstadt, Corry (May 2013). Turkey, the Jews, and the Holocaust. Cambridge University Press. p. 76. ISBN 978-0521769914."... We will use it to eliminate the foreigners who control the market and hand the Turkish market over the Turks." "The foreigners to be eliminated" referred primarily to the non-Muslims citizens of Turkey."
  11. Şakir Dinçşahin, Stephen Goodwin, "Towards an Encompassing Perspective on Nationalism: The Case of Jews in Turkey during Second World War, 1939-1945"
  12. Nowill, Sidney E. P. (December 2011). Constantinople and Istanbul: 72 Years of Life in Turkey. Matador. p. 77. ISBN 978-1848767911."Those mmainly afflicted were the Greeks, Jews, Armenians, and, to some extent, foreign-passport Levantine families."
  13. Güven, Dilek (2005-09-06). "6-7 Eylül Olayları (1)". Radikal (in Turkish). Retrieved 2008-10-25. Nitekim 1942 yılında yürürlüğe giren Varlık Vergisi, Ermenilerin, Rumların ve Yahudilerin ekonomideki liderliğine son vermeyi hedeflemiştir...Seçim dönemleri CHP ve DP'nin Varlık Vergisi'nin geri ödeneceği yönündeki vaatleri ise seçim propagandasından ibarettir. |section= ignored (help)
  14. Smith, Thomas W. (August 29 – September 2, 2001). "Constructing A Human Rights Regime in Turkey: Dilemmas of Civic Nationalism and Civil Society": 4. One of the darkest events in Turkish history was the Wealth Tax, levied discriminatory against non-Muslims in 1942, hobbling Armenians with the most punitive rates. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  15. "Varlik vergisi (asset tax) - one of the many black chapters of Turkish history..." Assyrian Chaldean Syriac Association. Retrieved 14 October 2011.
  16. Kasaba, Reşat (June 2008). The Cambridge History of Turkey (Volume 4). Cambridge University Press. p. 182. ISBN 978-0521620963."But in its application it differentiated between Muslim and non-Muslim taxpayers, and levied far heavier taxes on non-Muslims, leading to the destruction of the remaining non-Muslim merchant class in Turkey."
  17. Guttstadt, Corry (May 2013). Turkey, the Jews, and the Holocaust. Cambridge University Press. p. 75. ISBN 978-0521769914."They were almost exclusively non-Muslims. The law was thus perceived by the public as a "punitive measure" against non-Muslims."."
  18. Brink-Danan, Marcy (December 2011). Jewish Life in Twenty-First-Century Turkey: The Other Side of Tolerance (New Anthropologies of Europe). Indiana University Press. p. 11. ISBN 978-0253223500."Further, the Varlik Vergisi, an excessive tax instituted during World War II, pilfered small Jewish (and other minority) businesses to the point of bankruptcy"
  19. Ince, Basak (April 2012). Citizenship and Identity in Turkey: From Atatürk's Republic to the Present Day. I. B. Tauris. p. 76. ISBN 978-1780760261."Due to the law, most non-Muslim merchants sold their properties and vanished from the markets."
  20. Kasaba, Reşat (June 2008). The Cambridge History of Turkey (Volume 4). Cambridge University Press. p. 182. ISBN 978-0521620963."As a consequence of Varlık Vergisi and the labour camps, the lives and finances of many non-Muslim families were ruined."
  21. Egorova, Yulia (July 2013). Jews, Muslims and Mass Media: Mediating the 'Other. Routledge. p. 43. ISBN 978-0253005267."..., by the time that tax was abolished the major Greek, Armenian and Jewish merchant figures were shaken and dislocated."
  22. Bayir, Derya (January 2013). Minorities and Nationalism in Turkish Law. Routledge. ISBN 978-1409420071.
  23. Ince, Basak (April 2012). Citizenship and Identity in Turkey: From Atatürk's Republic to the Present Day. I. B. Tauris. p. 74. ISBN 978-1780760261."The law was also applied to the many poor non-Muslims (numbering 26,000) such as drivers, workers and even beggars, whereas their Muslim counterparts were not obliged to pay any tax."
  24. Nowill, Sidney E. P. (December 2011). Constantinople and Istanbul: 72 Years of Life in Turkey. Matador. p. 78. ISBN 978-1848767911."The Varlık resulted in a number of suicides of ethnic minority citizens in Istanbul, indeed, I saw one myself. One evening while on a ferryboat I saw a man jump off the stern into the Bosphorus current."
  25. Guttstadt, Corry (May 2013). Turkey, the Jews, and the Holocaust. Cambridge University Press. p. 76. ISBN 978-0521769914."Some people committed suicide in despair."
  26. Corry Guttstadt: Turkey, the Jews, and the Holocaust. Cambridge University Press, 2013. p. 75
  27. Andrew G. Bostom: The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism: From Sacred Texts to Solemn History. Prometheus Books; Reprint edition, 2008. p. 124
  28. Nergis Erturk: Grammatology and Literary Modernity in Turkey. Oxford University Press, 2011. p. 141
  29. Aktar, Ayhan (2006). Varlık vergisi ve "Türkleştirme" politikaları (in Turkish) (8. bs. ed.). İstanbul: İletişim. ISBN 9754707790.
  30. Peretz, Don (January 1994). The Middle East Today. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 179. ISBN 9780275945756."In addition, the non-Muslims were required to pay their taxes in cash within 15 days."
  31. Peretz, Don (January 1994). The Middle East Today. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 179. ISBN 9780275945756."The property of individuals who could not raise their assessments was sold at public auctions,..."
  32. Ince, Basak (April 2012). Citizenship and Identity in Turkey: From Atatürk's Republic to the Present Day. I. B. Tauris. pp. 74–75. ISBN 978-1780760261."..as a result they had to sell their businesses or property to Muslim businessmen at low prices to cover the bill."
  33. Nowill, Sidney E. P. (December 2011). Constantinople and Istanbul: 72 Years of Life in Turkey. Matador. p. 77. ISBN 978-1848767911."..., and those unable to pay were packed off to a camp at Askale, near Erzerum - an area cooler than Moscow in the winter - where they were put to work breaking stones."
  34. Nowill, Sidney E. P. (December 2011). Constantinople and Istanbul: 72 Years of Life in Turkey. Matador. p. 77. ISBN 978-1848767911."The Askale victims were later sent south to a camp in the Tigris Valley."
  35. Peretz, Don (January 1994). The Middle East Today. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 179. ISBN 9780275945756."..., and if the sale failed to produce the required amount, the owners were sent to forced labor camps run by the Ministry of Public Works."
  36. Ince, Basak (April 2012). Citizenship and Identity in Turkey: From Atatürk's Republic to the Present Day. I. B. Tauris. pp. 74–75. ISBN 978-1780760261."Those unable to pay had to work off their debt in labour camps in Askale, in eastern Turkey."
  37. Resmi Gazete (PDF) http://www.resmigazete.gov.tr/arsiv/5255.pdf. Madde 12 - ...Bu fıkra hükmüne göre çalıştırılanlara verilecek yarısı borçlarına mahsup olunur. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  38. Ayhan, Aktar (2011). Yorgo Hacıdimitriadis'in Aşkale-Erzurum Günlüğü (1943). İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları."Yaşlılar, Kop geçidinde kar temizleme işinin ağırlığından dolayı Aşkaleli köylülerden bazıları ile anlaşarak kendi yerlerine gençleri çalışmaya göndermişler, bunun karşılığında da onlara günlük ödeme yapmışlardır."
  39. Ince, Basak (April 2012). Citizenship and Identity in Turkey: From Atatürk's Republic to the Present Day. I. B. Tauris. p. 75. ISBN 978-1780760261."Out of 40,000 tax debtors, about 5,000 were sent to these camps, and all of these were members of non-Muslim communities."
  40. Kasaba, Reşat (June 2008). The Cambridge History of Turkey (Volume 4). Cambridge University Press. p. 182. ISBN 978-0521620963."Muslims taxpayers who failed to pay in full received lighter sentences."
  41. Guttstadt, Corry (May 2013). Turkey, the Jews, and the Holocaust. Cambridge University Press. p. 77. ISBN 978-0521769914."Although the law stipulated that people over fifty-five years old were exempt from labor service, seventy-five and eighty year old men and even sick people were dragged to the train station and deported."
  42. Guttstadt, Corry (May 2013). Turkey, the Jews, and the Holocaust. Cambridge University Press. p. 77. ISBN 978-0521769914."Twenty-one people died in these camps."
  43. Ince, Basak (April 2012). Citizenship and Identity in Turkey: From Atatürk's Republic to the Present Day. I. B. Tauris. p. 75. ISBN 978-1780760261."Unfortunately, 21 people died in these camps and the government usurped their wealth and sold it to Turkish Muslims at low prices."
  44. Guttstadt, Corry (May 2013). Turkey, the Jews, and the Holocaust. Cambridge University Press. p. 79. ISBN 978-0521769914."The law empowered the state to confiscate the property of the taxed person's closed relatives (including parents, parents-in-law, children, and siblings) and to sell it to settle the tax amount, even if the person had been forced into labor service."
  45. Nowill, Sidney E. P. (December 2011). Constantinople and Istanbul: 72 Years of Life in Turkey. Matador. p. 77. ISBN 978-1848767911."No foreign-passport residents in Turkey were ruined or committed suicide. However, every foreigner who gave in a tax-return, or owned a business, was forced to pay a huge capital levy on supposed wealth. The tax was not based on any reality, but just on a whim of the Authorities."
  46. Ince, Basak (April 2012). Citizenship and Identity in Turkey: From Atatürk's Republic to the Present Day. I. B. Tauris. p. 75. ISBN 978-1780760261."This provoked the intervention of foreign embassies and consulates on behalf of their nationals."
  47. Ince, Basak (April 2012). Citizenship and Identity in Turkey: From Atatürk's Republic to the Present Day. I. B. Tauris. p. 75. ISBN 978-1780760261."Taxpayers were classified into two separate lists, the M list, for Muslims, the G, for non-Muslims (Gayrimuslim). Later, two other categories were added, E, for Foreigners (Ecnebi) and the D for converts (Dönme), i.e., members of the Sabetaist sect of Jewish converts to Islam."
  48. Valansi, Karel (February 2018). The Crescent Moon and the Magen David: Turkish-Israeli Relations Through the Lens of the Turkish Public. Hamilton Books. p. 129. ISBN 978-0761870081.
  49. http://www.tbmm.gov.tr/anayasa/anayasa_2011.pdf MADDE 10- Herkes, dil, ırk, renk, cinsiyet, siyasî düşünce, felsefî inanç, din, mezhep ve benzeri sebeplerle ayırım gözetilmeksizin kanun önünde eşittir.
  50. http://www.resmigazete.gov.tr/arsiv/5255.pdf Madde 2B) Büyük çiftçiler (Büyük çiftçiden maksat, işinin idaresine ve vüsatine halel getirmeksizin bu mükellefiyeti ifa edebilecekleri bu kanunda yazılı komisyonlarca tesbit edilenlerdir)' . Madde 6 - ... İkinci maddenin (B) fıkrasında yazılı çiftçilerin mükellefiyetleri de varlıklarının yüzde beşini geçemez.
  51. C. Fortna, Benjamin; Katsikas, Stefanos; Kamouzis, Dimitris; Konortas, Paraskevas (December 2012). State-Nationalisms in the Ottoman Empire, Greece and Turkey: Orthodox and Muslims, 1830-1945 (SOAS/Routledge Studies on the Middle East). Routledge. p. 205. ISBN 978-0415690560."One or two weeks after the Wealth Tax lists were displayed, the attitude of the press began to harden further. The "anti-minority" attitude of the news reporting and leading articles that appeared to the press became more pronounced. In particular, during the process of levying distress and sending taxpayers to Askale, anti-minority sentiment reached its zenith."
  52. Guttstadt, Corry (May 2013). Turkey, the Jews, and the Holocaust. Cambridge University Press. p. 72. ISBN 978-0521769914."The newspapers depicted individual black marketers or suspected "usurers" as "parasites of the Turkish people"; those explicitly named were always non-Muslims."
  53. Guttstadt, Corry (May 2013). Turkey, the Jews, and the Holocaust. Cambridge University Press. p. 72. ISBN 978-0521769914."Although the smear campaign was directed against non-Muslim minorities in general, it was mostly Jews who were specifically targeted by articles and caricatures, which employed stereotypical anti-Semitic tropes.
  54. Ince, Basak (April 2012). Citizenship and Identity in Turkey: From Atatürk's Republic to the Present Day. I. B. Tauris. p. 76. ISBN 978-1780760261."The Wealth Tax was withdrawn in March 1944, under the pressure of criticism from Britain and the United States"
  55. Ince, Basak (April 2012). Citizenship and Identity in Turkey: From Atatürk's Republic to the Present Day. I. B. Tauris. p. 76. ISBN 978-1780760261."Minority citizens still in the camps were sent back to their homes."
  56. Akıncılar, Nihan; Rogers, Amanda E.; Dogan, Evinc; Brindisi, Jennifer; Alexieva, Anna; Schimmang, Beatrice (December 2011). Young Minds Rethinking the Mediterranean. Istanbul Kultur University. p. 23. ISBN 978-0415690560."Although the RPP government promised to give back the paid taxes to non-Muslims, it did not happen."
  57. Nowill, Sidney E. P. (December 2011). Constantinople and Istanbul: 72 Years of Life in Turkey. Matador. p. 77. ISBN 978-1848767911."The Varlık Vergisi brought about a permanent demographic change within the minority population. Many (especially the Greek minority) felt that there was no future for them in Turkey, and they left their ancestral homes and became refugees in Greece. On the other hand, some, especially within the Jewish community had managed to secrete assets abroad and they were able to re-start a reduced and hesitant life in Turkey, being careful to abstain from displaying any sign of affluence."
  58. Mills, Amy (June 2010). Streets of Memory: Landscape, Tolerance, and National Identity in Istanbul. University of Georgia Press. p. 54. ISBN 978-0820335742."The tax resulted in state confiscation of much minority property in Istanbul, Turkifying not only the city's economy but also its landscape".
  59. Ince, Basak (April 2012). Citizenship and Identity in Turkey: From Atatürk's Republic to the Present Day. I. B. Tauris. p. 76. ISBN 978-1780760261."The Wealth Tax once more demonstrated that being Muslim constituted a significant part of the definition of citizenship in Turkey."
  60. ANGELETOPOULOS, GEORGE. THE TURKISH CAPITAL TAX (VARLIK VERGISI): AN EVALUATION (PDF). p. 365."The Capital Tax in the way it was dealt with by the Turkish Press exemplifies exactly the close relations between these two Powers, the Executive and the Press, in World War II Turkey."
  61. Vanderlippe, John M. (June 2006). The Politics of Turkish Democracy: Ismet Inonu And the Formation of the Multi-Party System, 1938-1950. State University of New York Press. pp. 85–86. ISBN 978-0791464366.
  62. Bali, Rifat (April 2012). Model Citizens of the State: The Jews of Turkey during the Multi-Party Period. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. p. 30. ISBN 978-1611475364.
  63. "MHP's Cakar blames Karakoyunlu for being, a 'Traitor'". Turkish Daily News. Ankara. 28 November 2001. This scene insults Turkish officers and they try to show our officers as a indecent people. As Turkish nationalists, it is not possible for us to accept it,

Further reading
  • Levi, Avner (1996). Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'nde Yahudiler (in Turkish) (1st ed.). İstanbul, Turkey: İletişim Yayınları. ISBN 975-470-583-6.
  • Aktar, Ayhan (2002). Varlık Vergisi ve "Türkleştirme" Politikaları (in Turkish) (6th ed.). İstanbul, Turkey: İletişim Yayınları. ISBN 975-470-779-0.
  • Özcan, Yeldağ (1998). Çoğunluk Aydınlarında Irkçılık (in Turkish) (1st ed.). İstanbul, Turkey: Belge Uluslararası Yayıncılık. ISBN 978-975-344-160-5.
  • Özcan, Yeldağ (2000). İstanbul'da Diyarbakır'da Azalırken (in Turkish) (3rd ed.). İstanbul, Turkey: Belge Uluslararası Yayıncılık. ISBN 975-344-110-X.
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