Yorgo Hacıdimitriadis'in Aşkale-Erzurum Günlüğü (1943)

Flour merchant Yorgo Hacıdimitriadis is one of the victims of the Wealth Tax implemented during the Second World War. Because he could not pay his Wealth Tax debt, he was sent to the labor camp in Aşkale-Erzurum by train from Haydarpaşa on 22 March 1943. The impressions of Hacıdimitriadis, who kept a diary during his stay in Erzurum, reveal the "labor camps" dimension of the Wealth Tax, which has been little known to date. Yorgo Hacıdimitriadis describes his first day in Erzurum in his colorful Turkish as follows:

"4 April: On the occasion of Sunday, some friends went to the bathhouse. At that time, the order came for us to be ready for work at one o'clock, and at one o'clock we went as a group of two people... Since it was Sunday, the people of Erzurum came to watch us and many of them smiled and said They made fun of us with insulting words. They gave us pickaxes, shovels and wheelbarrows in the group building and ordered us to clear the snow and other dirt on the way to the building. We worked until 17.30. The place where we worked was in the back street, which had nothing to do with cleaning. "It was a graveyard [place] so much so that, even though the weather was very cold, teafuns [bad odors] could be felt from under the digging."

Ayhan Aktar also contributes to the book with a long article re-examining the Wealth Tax application, a biographical research on the Istanbul Treasurer of the period, Faik Ökte, and two new studies on the position of non-Muslims in Istanbul's commercial life. In addition, the book contains selections from journalist Feridun Kandemir's impressions of Aşkale. Additionally, the name lists of non-Muslims sent to Aşkale-Erzurum and Eskişehir-Sivrihisar camps are published for the first time.

An important book to understand a dark period of our recent history...



Number of Pages: 325

Year of Printing: 2011


Language: Turkish
Publisher: İletişim Publishing

First Print Year: 2011

Language: Turkish