British And American Minority Policies in Turkey During World War II

Turkey stayed neutral until the last months of World War II, but it lived the economic crisis caused by the war in all its dimensions. Because of the possibility of being attacked by the Allies or the Axis states, Turkey perused a war economy and recruited a million men in the army. Some of the capital owners in Turkey, who took advantage of this war, engaged in black-marketing and stocking. Since all these developments caused inflation and the economy to deteriorate, the Saraçoğlu Government had to take some measures. One of these measures applied by the government was the Wealth Tax Law (Varlık Vergisi Kanunu). Although the law stipulates equal taxation of all citizens based on their wealth, Non-Muslim minorities were subjected to very high taxation compared to the Muslim Turks. Because monirities held most of the capital in Turkey, Wealth Tax effected them the most. Although all citizens had equal rights and freedoms in Turkey, the implementation of the Capital Tax began to be seen as Turkification of the economy and even racism. Minorities, especially Jews, frequently applied to Britain and the United States to correct the unfair tax distribution. However, the United States and Great Britain believed that a non-belligerent Turkey would contribute their eventual victory, and they did not want to deteriorate their relations with Turkey. This article examines the British and the American policy towards non-Muslim minorities in Turkey during the war years in the light of the British and the US consulate archival documents. Thus, this study investigates to what extent the foreign states intervened in the internal affairs of Turkey during WWII.

Keywords

Minorities, Jews, United Kingdom, United States, the Wealth Tax Law