Aşkale Labor Camp is a
labor camp established in
Aşkale for taxpayers who do not fully and timely pay the extraordinary
wealth tax
A wealth tax (also called a capital tax or equity tax) is a tax on an entity's holdings of assets. This includes the total value of personal assets, including cash, bank deposits, real estate, assets in insurance and pension plans, ownershi ...
enacted with the '
Varlık vergisi
The Varlık Vergisi (, "wealth tax" or "capital tax") was a tax mostly levied on non-Muslim citizens in 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. The underlying re ...
' in
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...
, dated 11 November 1942 and numbered 4305.
With the law enacted in November 1942, a process that particularly affected
minorities in Turkey
Minorities in Turkey form a substantial part of the country's population, representing an estimated 26% to 31% of the population.
Historically, in the Ottoman Empire, Islam was the official and dominant religion, with Muslims having different d ...
. Those who could not pay the determined debts within a month were sent to the labor camps in Aşkale and Erzurum, where they were employed in various jobs. In January 1943, the first convoy went to Aşkale by train for the labor camps to which they would be sent. Due to the number of the first non-Turkic convoys arriving in Aşkale, space problems arose, and the convoys were sent to Erzurum. Taxpayers staying in Aşkale and Erzurum were put on freight wagons in August 1943 and sent to Eskişehir. Non-Turks, who are taxpayers of Wealth Tax, cleared the snow on the highway in Aşkale; In Erzurum, they prevented the highway from being blocked by snow and swept the streets of the city. More than 20 non-Muslim taxpayers, most of whom were older, died in Erzurum. The wealth tax and enslavery conscription, which drew reactions from non-Turks due to the demand for taxes that they could not pay, led to various criticisms both at home and abroad.
[Zafer Toprak, “Erken Cumhuriyet Türkiye’sinde Finansal Yapı,” Bugünün Bilgileriyle Kemal’in Türkiye’si - La Turquie Kamâliste, İstanbul; Boyut Yayıncılık, 2012, s. 118-125.]
References
Discrimination in Turkey
History of the Republic of Turkey