Istanbul
racial and religious identity. When the time came, their neighbors and
business rivals were able to settle scores. It is lucky for the Dönme that
despite the spate of newspaper articles about the group in the 1920 s and
1930 s none of the journalists got their hands on a genealogy that would
have done the most to boost their claims about the racial origins and lack
of mixture of the group. One wonders, however, whether any were used
in the 1940 s during the implementation of the wealth tax, whether any
self-hating Dönme types like Rüştü passed them on to those searching the
origins of the black marketeers.
The behavior of some Dönme during the implementation of the tax
again highlights the poor relations they had with Jews. Although it is said
that Dönme families, such as the Kapancı Bezmen, who were important
in the textile industry, paid a heavy price overall, some Dönme, including
Refik Bezmen, benefited from the Jews’ plight by buying their business
partners’ shares at rock bottom prices and not returning them after the
war.^85 An interviewee’s father suffered during the collection of the tax as
well. Having been assessed a large amount, he faced great financial losses,
but Dönme helped one another pay their debts. The interviewee also says
that because the Dönme had been in the country less time than the Jews
and Greeks, they faced less opposition than the others confronted, whose
enemies sought to rid themselves of their economic rivals and take over
their businesses, reveling in their being bankrupted.^86
According to Turkish government figures, Muslims were assessed
4. 94 percent of their assets, Orthodox Christians 156 percent, Jews 179
percent, and Armenians 232 percent.^87 Since most possessed wealth in the
form of goods or real estate, it is difficult to imagine how they could be
expected to come up with so much money in such a short time. It seems
clear that the goal was to ruin them. The assessments and decisions of the
commissions were irrevocable. Those unable to pay the excessive tax, any-
where from 100 to 500 percent of their estimated assets, even after having
to sell everything they owned, lost all their assets and were sent to hard
labor camps in remote eastern Anatolia, such as at Aşkale. Not a single
Muslim Turk was sentenced like a convict to an unlimited period of hard
labor. Clearing roads of snow in winter and building roads in summer,
these men, some as old as eighty, earned 1 lira per day. If a man had been
taxed 10 , 000 , 100 , 000 , or even 1 million lira, one could calculate how
long it would take to pay off the debt. This drove Christians and Jews
out of business and commercial life, and the financial and psychological