A group of Jews who were victims of the 1942 Turkish law which imposed special taxation on the Jewish population, leading to the bankruptcy of numerous Jewish firms, today submitted a petition to parliament asking that they be freed from the payment of a year’s taxes.
Most of these Jews were forced to liquidate their businesses and were deported to labor camps on the charge of non-payment of the special tax imposed because they were Jews. Although they were kept in labor camps for more than a year, the Turkish authorities levied the special tax on them even for that year.
Since their return home from the camps, many of these Jewish victims have been hounded by the authorities for the payment of the back taxes, which amount to tens of thousands of dollars for some individuals. Protests lodged with the former government brought no results. In their petition today, made public in the Turkish press, the Jews argue that they could not pay a tax on income which they did not receive since they were held in the labor camps during that year.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
