Ottoman Tax Receipt 1924 Armenian Merchant Pickle Shop İstanbul Aksaray Armenia

Ottoman Municipal Tax Receipt (Rüsum-ı Belediye Tahsilatına Mahsus Makbuz) 1340 (1924)

Description:
An Ottoman municipal tax receipt dated 12 Teşrîn-i Evvel 1340 (12 October 1924), issued for the pickle shop (turşucu dükkânı) located at No. 48, Bayazid Ağa Mahallesi, Aksaray Street (Istanbul). The document records the payment of 50 kuruş, with official stamps and signatures present.

The taxpayer is listed as Tatyos, an Armenian tradesman, who appears to have inherited or continued operating the same family business previously recorded under Araksi Hanım and later Turşucu Tatos in earlier documents. The continuity of ownership across multiple generations of the same Armenian family provides an intimate record of Armenian entrepreneurial persistence in post-Ottoman Istanbul, even after the political transformations of the early 1920s.

The Aksaray–Bayazid district was one of Istanbul’s most active commercial centers during the late Ottoman and early Republican periods. Positioned near the Yenikapı port and customs gate, the area was populated by Armenian, Greek, and Jewish merchants and craftsmen, whose shops and small manufacturing enterprises helped shape the multicultural economic fabric of the capital. This document part of a consistent chain of tax records from the same address not only traces the history of a single family business but also reflects the continuity of minority economic life through a time of great political and social change.

Key Features:

• Date: 12 Teşrîn-i Evvel 1340 (12 October 1924)

• Location: Bayazid Ağa Mahallesi, Aksaray Street, No. 48 (Istanbul)

• Business: Pickle shop (turşucu dükkânı)

• Taxpayer: Tatyos (Armenian Ottoman citizen)

• Document type: Rüsum-ı Belediye Tahsilatına Mahsus Makbuz (Municipal Tax Receipt)

• Amount paid: 50 kuruş

• Language: Ottoman Turkish

• Features: Official stamp and signature

• Historical context:

  • Part of a documented chain of tax records from the same Armenian family business (see related receipts under Araksi Hanım and Turşucu Tatos).

  • Reflects the survival of Armenian-run commercial enterprises during the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the early Turkish Republic.

  • Highlights Aksaray’s historical role as a vibrant trade hub, home to Armenian, Greek, and Jewish merchants, central to the city’s multicultural economic structure.