Istanbul
public discourse. At the end of 1940 , when the RPP debated what to do
in the event Nazi Germany should invade and occupy Istanbul, an out-
spoken Istanbul MP named Kâzım Karabekir argued that non-Muslims
“who suck the blood of Turks,” would be fifth columns, so they should
be deported to the interior and replaced with Muslim Turks.^90 The prime
minister’s statements during the implementation of the tax confirm the
prevalence of the parasite theme. In an interview with The Times (Lon-
don) at the beginning of 1943 , Saracogˇlu declared that the non-Muslims
had “grown rich by taking advantage of the hospitality shown by this
country.”^91 Moreover, he admitted, “If these fortunes have been made in
Istanbul and if their owners are in the proportion of 75 per cent Jews and
non-Moslems, that is a coincidence which the Turkish Government will
be the first to deplore.” That is to say, deploring the fact that so many
Jews and Christians have become rich in Istanbul.^92
Ahmet Emin Yalman wrote the only critical words about the tax in the
Turkish press, focusing especially on its inequitable administration.^93 His
statements remind the reader of what he had written as the anonymous
author of the series on the Dönme twenty years previously, that loyalty
and patriotism should be the only litmus test of belonging to the nation.
He still had a hard time convincing others of his definition of who was a
Turk. Yet he waited until after the tax was abolished and had much posi-
tive to say about the tax as well.
In his English-language autobiography, written a little over a dozen
years after the war, Yalman criticizes the wealth tax without mentioning
the Dönme or his relatives who suffered from it. He called it one of the
greatest shocks of his life. Yet he defends its motivation.^94 This echoes an-
other remark he makes in the book, that it was all too vividly remembered
how during the foreign occupation of Turkey following World War I,
“minorities had not behaved generally as loyal citizens.” These were some
of the same false charges that Yalman had been countering for three de-
cades, but here he seems to be accepting their validity. He did complain
of the unjust way the wealth tax was implemented, including “discrimi-
nations of a political or religious character” and its enforcement “in an
atmosphere of terror.”^95
In his Turkish-language autobiography, written thirty years after the
war, Yalman devotes a number of pages to the wealth tax, but again avoids
mentioning that Dönme were made to pay twice as much as Muslims.^96
He explains how it was intended to crush the economic power of minori-