page_title: Confiscation of Armenian properties in Turkey
section_title: Confiscation during the Turkish Republic
hierarchical_section_title: Confiscation of Armenian properties in Turkey / History / Confiscation during the Turkish Republic
caption_attribution_description: English: An eviction notice dated 1 January 1950 of an Armenian woman issued by the Internal Revenue Board and sent to the local Cadastral Directorate. Such evictions were assigned to special investigative committees that dealt solely with the properties of Armenians.
context_page_description: The confiscation of Armenian properties by the Ottoman and Turkish governments involved seizure of the assets, properties and land of the country's Armenian community. Starting with the Hamidian massacres in the mid-1890s and peaking during the Armenian Genocide, the confiscation of the Armenian property lasted continuously until the Istanbul pogrom of 1955 and with renewed efforts in 1974. Much of the confiscations during the Armenian Genocide were made after the Armenians were deported into the Syrian Desert with the government declaring their goods and assets left behind as "abandoned". Virtually all properties owned by Armenians living in their ancestral homeland in Western Armenia were confiscated and later distributed among the local Muslim population. Renewed efforts were introduced in 1974 where the property acquired by the Armenian community after the property declaration of 1936 was confiscated.
  Historians argue that the mass confiscation of Armenian properties was an important factor in forming the economic basis of the Turkish Republic while endowing Turkey's economy with capital.
context_section_description: Following the Turkish War of Independence and the creation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, the confiscation resumed with most Armenians having been deported or killed. During the early Republican era, the legal terminology of those deported was changed from "transported persons" to "persons who lost or fled from the country."
  On 15 April 1923, just before the signing of the  Treaty of Lausanne, the Turkish government enacted the "Law of Abandoned Properties" which confiscated properties of any Armenian who was not present on their property, regardless of the circumstances of the reason. While local courts were authorized to appraise the value of any property and provide an avenue for property owners to make claims, the law prohibited the use of any power of attorney by absent property holders, preventing them from filing suit without returning to the country. In addition, the defendant in the case would be the state of Turkey which had created specially tasked committees to deal with each case.
  In addition to this law, the Turkish government continued revoking the citizenship of many people with a law on 23 May 1927 which stated that "Ottoman subjects who during the War of Independence took no part in the National movement, kept out of Turkey and did not return from 24 July 1923 to the date of the publication of this law, have forfeited Turkish nationality." Additionally, a further law passed on 28 May 1928 stipulated that those who had lost their citizenship would be expelled from Turkey, not allowed to return, and that their property would be confiscated by the Turkish government, and Turkish migrants would be resettled in the properties. 
  In the preparation for possible entry into World War II, the Turkish government introduced a tax, the Varlık Vergisi, which disproportionately targeted Turkey's non-Muslim residents. Many Armenians, and other non-Muslim populations, were forced to sell their property at significantly reduced prices through public auctions in order to pay for the sudden tax hike or have the properties confiscated by the state. In addition, the law allowed authorities to confiscate the property of any relative of a taxed person in order to pay the tax. From this tax, the Turkish government collected 314,900,000 liras or about US$270 million (80% of the state budget) from the confiscation of non-Muslim assets.
  This period coincided with further confiscations of private property belonging to Armenians. Special commissions were created to separate the evictions of non-Muslims from others. The investigators of this commission usually expedited the evacuation and eventual confiscation of the non-Muslim property in question.
  The Varlık Vergisi was followed by the Istanbul pogrom a few years later, where an organized mob attacked Greeks and Armenians on 6–7 September 1955. The material damage was considerable, with damage to 5317 properties (including 4214 homes, 1004 businesses, 73 churches, 2 monasteries, 1 synagogue, and 26 schools). Estimates of the economic cost of the damage range from the Turkish government's estimate of 69.5 million Turkish lira (equivalent to 24.8 million US$), the British estimate of 100 million GBP (about 200 million US$), the World Council of Churches' estimate of 150 million US$, and the Greek government's estimate of 500 million US$. The pogrom eventually led to an exodus of non-Muslims from the country, resulting in a significant amount of "abandoned" properties. The properties left behind by those who fled were confiscated by the Turkish state after ten years.
  In the 1960s, new laws were passed, which made it impossible for Armenians to establish new foundations or to buy or bequeath additional properties. One such law code (Law no. 903) adopted in 1967, along with a second paragraph amended to the Turkish Civil Code (no. 743) declared that, "The registration of foundations that are in violation of law, morality, tradition or national interests, or that were established to support a political belief, a certain race or members of a minority will not be approved." Such laws a
caption: An example of an eviction notice dated 1 January 1950 of an Armenian woman issued by the Internal Revenue Board and sent to the local Cadastral Directorate. Such evictions were assigned to special investigative committees that dealt solely with the properties of Armenians.[53]
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