- Aşkale
Aşkale is a town and district of
Erzurum Province in the Eastern Anatolia region ofTurkey .During WWII, an extremely high tax burden was imposed on Armenian, Greek and Jewish citizens of Turkey, and tax assessors had a free hand in determining the amount, often amounts that could not be paid. In the winter of 1942, hundreds who could not pay, including elderly men, were brought to the town of
Aşkale , with very harsh winters, and made to shovel snow continually for as much as 5 months. Some were able to pay locals to perform the labor for them, and some succumbed to the cold and conditions, sleeping in barns, coffeehouses, or anywhere else they could get shelter. [Yalcin, Kemal. " [http://www.gomidas.org/books/KemalYalcin.htm You Rejoice My Heart] ," Gomidas Books Ltd., London. 2007, pp. 78–89] The book "You Rejoice My Heart" by Turkish authorKemal Yalçın includes a visit by the author to Aşkale in the 1990s to learn first hand about the tax and the labor camps, the conditions and the victims at a time when this incident was dangerous and taboo to discuss in Turkey. [Yalçın, Kemal. "You Rejoice My Heart" pn]
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