Turkey's Pogrom of September 6-7, 1955

[Ptolemy]

Turkey's Pogrom of September 6-7, 1955


Britain's Role, the U.S. Response and Lessons for Today


By Gene Rossides

September 13, 2005

Britain opposed freedom and democracy for Cyprus following World War II and bears the original and primary responsibility for the post-World War II tragedies that have befallen Cyprus. While other colonies were gaining their freedom, Cyprus was told by the British Minister of State for Colonial Affairs Harry Hopkinson, during a House of Commons debate in 1954, that "[t]here can be no question of any change ofsovereignty in Cyprus" and that "there are certain territories in the Commonwealth which, owing to their particular circumstances, can never expect to be fully independent."

Following the Hopkinson "never" statement, Greece decided to bring an application for self-determination to the 1954 UN General Assembly session on behalf of the people of Cyprus. Britain opposed the application. Although Turkey had renounced all rights to Cyprus in the Lausanne Treaty of 1923, Britain claimed that the presence of an eighteen percent Turkish Cypriot minority was an obstacle to a solution. Britain called for a tripartite conference among Britain, Greece and Turkey which was held in London in late August and early September 1955 to discuss the situation in Cyprus. The conference ended in failure. Britain, however, accomplished her objective: greater Turkish involvement in the matter to blunt the Greek Government's efforts on behalf of self-determination for the people of Cyprus.

The Turkish government, to demonstrate its interest in Cyprus at the time of the tripartite conference, planned and organized riots against its Greek citizens and residents in Istanbul and Izmir. It exploded a bomb in the Turkish Consulate in Salonika, Greece, and a false report was spread that Kemal Ataturk's birthplace had been bombed and destroyed. The following account from an article by John Phillips in Harper's Magazine in June 1956 describes the carnage:

"On the fifth of September 1955, a bomb exploded under singular circumstances inside the Turkish Consulate at Salonika in Northern Greece.
The Turkish press and radio, over which the government is influential, blared out the incendiary and false report that the nearby birthplace of Kemal Ataturk, a sort of Turkish Mount Vernon on foreign soil, had also been destroyed. The events of the following day (September 6, 1955) in Turkey were planned and executed with the same discipline the Nazis used in their onslaughts on the Jews. Squads of marauders were driven to the shopping area in trucks and taxis, waving picks and crowbars, consulting lists of addresses, and the police stood by smiling. Greek priests were reported circumcised, scalped, burned in bed; Greek women raped. The Greek Consulate was destroyed in Izmir. Just nine out of eighty Greek Orthodox churches in Istanbul were left undesecrated; twenty-nine were demolished. Ghouls invaded the huge Greek cemetery where Patriarchs of Constantinople are buried, opened mausoleums, dug up graves, and flung bones into the streets; corpses
waiting burial were lanced with knives. There had been no comparable destruction of Greek sanctuaries since the fall of Constantinople.

The Turkish government did its best to keep the world from knowing. A familiar heavy hand fell upon the press, and editors who criticized Premier Menderes were jailed again."

The New York Times on September 7, 1955 reported the riots in a front page story but did not do an adequate follow-up of the events nor any investigative reporting.

On September 13, 1955 the New York Times stated that "The amount of damage has been assessed unofficially at $300,000,000." U.S. Senator Homer Capehart, who was in Ankara at the time, said the riots were "ghastly and unbelievable." He estimated the damage at $500 million. Turkey said it would pay compensation to the victims. It paid very little to a limited number of victims over a drawn-out period of years.

If you add interest at 5% compounded annually for the 50 years since 1955, the amount owed to the victims would be several billion dollars.

There was very little coverage in the rest of the American press and media and little has been written in the U.S. about this barbarism by the Turkish government since Mr. Phillips article.

Now, 50 years later, we have an exceptional account of the catastrophe by Dr. Speros Vryonis, Jr., one of the world's most eminent scholars of Ottoman and Byzantine history. His magesterial work: The Mechanism of Catastrophe: The Turkish Pogrom of September 6-7, 1955, and the Destruction of the Greek Community of Istanbul, was published this year by greekworks.com of New York. It numbers over 700 pages.

Dr. Vryonis devoted many years to the research and writing of this extraordinary book. He dedicated the book to Demetrios Kaloumenos the
photographer for his two-fold contribution. First his copious photography, done under dangerous circumstances, and for his personal record of the events. He graciously acknowledged the financial assistance of the Michael and Mary Jaharis Family Foundation without which this monumental work would not have become a reality.

In the introductory chapter Dr. Vryonis describes the Greek community of Istanbul on the eve of September 6, 1955 who numbered about 100,000. Under the terms of the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne regarding the exchange of populations, the Greek population of Istanbul and the Muslim community residing in Western Thrace were exempted from the exchange process. From about 300,000 Greeks in Istanbul in 1922, the number in 1955 had fallen to about 100,000. They had achieved some limited success under exceptionally difficult circumstances and years of discrimination and harassment by the Turks who repeatedly violated the terms of the Lausanne Treaty.

In chapter one Dr. Vryonis describes in detail the existing and newly organized institutions that were the instruments of destruction used by the Menderes government in the pogrom of September 6-7, 1955.

In chapter two Dr. Vryonis depicts the events of the nine hours of the pogrom, from 5:30 p.m. on September 6, 1955 to 2:30 a.m. on September 7, 1955, which destroyed the Greek community of Istanbul. "Pogrom" is defined as government instigated and organized violence against an ethnic minority.

He writes: "the events were traced to the five geographical areas in which they transpired..The pogrom's intent was twofold: first it was a planned and successful effort to destroy the forty-five Greek communities spread out over the vast area of greater Istanbul and its environs; second, it served certain domestic and foreign policies of the Menderes regime."

The government brought many thousands of Turks from Asia Minor and Thrace to join the pogromists in Istanbul. They were "provided with the crowbars, acetylene torches, clubs, spades, pickaxes, dynamite, and gasoline (for the planned arson) that would be the tools" of the destruction. (p. 99) Approximately 100,000 Turkish citizens participated in the pogrom. (p. 68)

Dr. Vryonis describes the system of attack in three waves. The first wave broke down doors and windows and moved on to the next store, dwelling or church. The second wave fell upon the contents and the third wave finished the work of destruction both inside and outside a building but not before it had thoroughly looted the property. (p. 546)

Continued...

[Ptolemy]

The material damage to the Greek community was enormous:

1000 homes destroyed and 2500 partially destroyed and all were looted;
4000-4500 stores were looted and destroyed or damaged; Thirty Greek males were killed; and
200 Greek women raped.

The damage to the Greek Orthodox churches was enormous and is documented in detail by Dr. Vryonis in chapter five:

of the 83 Greek Orthodox Churches, 59 were burned and most others suffered serious damages to the icons and ancient paintings of great value; the tombs of Patriarchs were destroyed; Christian cemeteries were defiled.

In chapter three, Dr. Vryonis examines "the pogrom's damages, both moral and material," and in chapter four he details "the efforts of various
organizations or individuals to put a financial value on them." Turkey took actions to limit and reduce the claims for damages and paid only a small percentage of the reduced claims over a period of eleven years.

Menderes official version of what happened was broadcast by radio on the evening of September 7, 1955. It was replete with falsehoods and he tried to blame the communists.


British role and responsibility

Britain had made strenuous efforts in 1954 and 1955 to change Turkey's policy of being neutral towards Cyprus and to get Turkey on its side despite the terms of the Lausanne Treaty of 1923 in which Turkey had renounced all rights to Cyprus. Britain successfully pressured Turkey to change its neutral position and support Britain in the UN and at the Tripartite conference in London. British Foreign Secretary Harold Macmillan led the effort. Dr. Vryonis states that "Macmillan prevailed upon Turkey to alter its policy on Cyprus and make vigorous representations as to its claims and rights on the island."

Prior to August 1955, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mehmet Fuat Koprulu had declared that Cyprus was a British concern and not a Turkish concern. On August 24, 1955, Prime Minister Menderes replaced Koprulu with Fatin Fustu Zorlu, a virulent anti-Greek and anti-minority zealot.

In a British Foreign Office memorandum of September 14, 1954, at a time when Greece was bringing its appeal for self determination for Cyprus to the UN and the British were courting Turkey to change its neutral stance on Cyprus, a British official stated: " A few riots in Ankara would do us nicely."

Dr.Vryonis writes: "[t]he facts that have come to light are sufficient to suggest that, by the early fall of 1954, the British government may have made vague, informal references on the desirability of some demonstrations in Istanbul as a political barometer of public, and violent, Turkish sentiment on the subject of Cyprus."


The American reaction

On September 18, 1955, 12 days after the devastating attacks against the Greek community of Istanbul and when there was sufficient evidence of the Turkish governments involvement, U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles wrote almost identical letters to Greek Prime Minister Alexandros Papagos and Turkish Prime Minister Adnan Menderes. These letters, in effect equating the victims with the victimizers will "live in infamy."

The British Foreign Office applauded Dulles' action in sending common letters to the Greek and Turkish governments. Mr. J. A. Thomson of the
Foreign Office Southern Department wrote on a Foreign Office copy of Dulles' letters the following:

"This message has produced a lively resentment among the Greeks. But it no doubt will do good in the long run. It is satisfactory that Mr. Dulles has reversed the earlier line of the State Department which blamed the Turks and favored the Greeks.

The [British] Secretary of State has sent a message to Mr. Dulles expressing his appreciation of his appeal.."



Lessons for today

The Turkish military made no objection to Prime Minister Menderes actions. The Chief of Staff of the Turkish military promised Menderes protection. On May 27, 1960 a military junta took over the government for a number of reasons in a basically bloodless coup. It then arrested and tried Prime Minister Menderes and his cohorts, found them guilty with a few exceptions and executed Menderes, Zorlu and others.

The military's direct intervention into the political life of Turkey tightened the government's grip on the Greek minority and the other minorities-- the Kurds, Armenians, Jews, Alawis, Assyrians, Christians and others. Dr. Vryonis writes that the military:

"intensified its suppression of the rights and freedoms of ethnic and religious minorities, as well as of the country's citizens as a whole" and
"proved itself to be a worthy successor to the oppressive regime of the Young Turks. The demographic decline of both the Greek and Jewish communities in Turkey during the latter half of the twentieth century was a direct result of the Menderes and post-Menderes policies and persecution of minorities..

Indeed, the entire history of the last fifty years of Turkish society is tied to the imperialism of the Turkish general staff, which has successfully utilized its forces to impose its territorial aggression and conquest. In effect, the spirit of the pogrom of 1955, whose motive force was the final destruction and expulsion of the Greeks from Istanbul, was continued and finally consummated by successive governments and the activities of the Turkish general staff.General Cemal Gursel proved to be a vigorous and willing heir to the pogrom's spirit.Furthermore, after the invasion of Cyprus in 1974.these policies were reconceived to carry out the ethnic cleansing of the Greek Cypriot majority in the occupied north. This policy, intended to Turkify northern Cyprus, was attended by willful destruction that strongly resembled the acts perpetrated by the Menderes government against the Greeks of Istanbul. This ethnic cleansing was also applied later, with U.S. weapons, in the destruction of Kurdish villages of southeast Anatolia, which reduced the region to a semi-desolate landscape."
(pp 558-59)

Dr. Vryonis discusses the 198-page 1976 report of the Commission on Human Rights of the Council of Europe in which the commission found Turkey and its army guilty of repeated violations of the European Convention on Human Rights. He quotes the January 23, 1977 London Sunday Times statement on the report: "It amounts to a massive indictment of the Ankara government for the murder, rape and looting by its army in Cyprus during and after the Turkish invasion of summer 1974." The U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger aided and abetted Turkey's invasion of Cyprus.

Dr. Vryonis importantly points out that Turkish policy against the Greeks has added the Aegean. "In the last two decades, the policy of Turkish military aggrandizement has shifted to the Aegean Sea and the Greek islands there. The build-up of land, air and naval forces (including numerous landing craft) has been accompanied by various claims on Greek islands, demands for their demilitarization and increasing violation of Greek airspace, including civil-aviation corridors."

Dr. Vryonis concludes his study as follows:

"Although the pogrom of September 6-7, 1955, occurred half a century ago, its legacy is caught up, even today, in a larger web of regional and international interests. This web is, indeed, the key to understanding important parts of this ongoing history. The 'success' of the Turkish military behemoth during the last fifty years has, in fact, made the Turkish state a persistent violator, not only of the human and civil rights of its minorities, but also of those of its vast ethnic Turkish majority."

No book review can do justice to Dr. Vryonis' monumental study. It must be read in its entirety to obtain the full impact of the catastrophe that destroyed the Greek community of Istanbul and the lessons for today regarding Cyprus and the Aegean. Gene Rossides is President of the American Hellenic Institute and former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury

© 2005 Hellenic News of America, Inc. - All Rights Reserved

[Orphic_Hymn]

What 'Princess Island' looked like once upon a time:





And then.........








September 6, 1955: A Turkish collage of false news. The extra edition of the newspaper Istanbul Express gives the signal for the pogrom against native Hellines in Constantinoupoli.

The news reads: "Our father Atatürk's house was destroyed by a bomb". A lie to ignite the fanaticism in the Turkish rabble.

The BBC transmitted the news at 1 p. m., 5 whole hours before the bomb exploded!!!.


Photographs from the destruction of Hellinic houses after the circulation of Istanbul Express. Victor Hugo's saying came true again: "Turks have passed this way..."




















The organized mob in action during the night of September 6, 1955 - another "Night of St. Bartholomew"
























The tombs of the Orthodox Patriarchs smashed, destroyed and defiled the night of September 6, 1955, at the Hellinic Orthodox Cemetery of Balukli, Constantinoupoli

[Ptolemy]

SEPTEMBER 6th 1955, THE NIGHT OF TERROR IN CONSTANTINOPLE


Under the terms of the agreement regarding the exchange of populations in the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, the Greek population of Constantinople-a thriving community-and the muslim community residing in Western Thrace were exempted from the exchange process.

In the beginning of the 20th century there were over 300,000 Greeks residing in Constantinople. They had managed to survive there despite centuries of oppression and persecution under the Ottoman yoke. But the Turks were determined to expel all Greeks from their ancient home using all available means. Thus, the Turks systematically used the following measures in order to accomplish their objective :

In May 1941, large numbers of young men ranging in age from 18-38. were conscripted into the Turkish army from the Greek and Armenian communities The Turkish intention was to exterminate these young men through the well-known method of "forced-labour battalions". If this extermination plan was not successful it was due to protests from the Western allies and the defeat of the Germans in Stalingrad in December 1942. Seeing the tides of war shifting, the Turkish authorities permitted the discharge of these soldiers.

On 11 Noverriber 1942, the Turkish government passed a law regarding taxation of property of non-muslims, known as the VA RLIK VE RGISI. Through this !aw non-muslim citiizens had to submit, without the right to appeal, to the discretion and arbitrary judgment of the tax clerks. The tax clerks, in turn, were instructed to appraise property at amounts many times over the actual value of each property. Then, if the individual concerned was unable to make payments of the enormous tax share (quota), the property was seized and the unfortunate owners were exiled to ACKALE, in Anatolia. As a result (of the use) of these harsh and inhuman measures, by 1955 only 25,000 people were left, rather than the 450,000 that should have been their number given a normal rate of growth in 35 years.

On the night of the 6th September 1955, and using the Cyprus situation as a pretext, the Turks dealt the coupdegrace to the remaining inhabitants.

The whole story of this pogrom is as follows :

On Saturday the 3rd of September, 1955, the wife of the Turkish Consul in Thessaloniki asked for, and received, from a photographer in Thessaloniki supposedly for a keep-sake a series of photographs and films of the Turkish Consulate and the neighboring home where Kemal Ataturk was born. The very next day she and her family left for Turkey.

At ten past midnight on the 6th of September,1955, in the garden of the Consulate, between the two buildings, dynamite exploded resulting in broken windows in both buildings. The Greek authorities rushed immediately to the scene. They established that two more explosive devices had been positioned in the Consulate yard and that within the building there was only one Turkish guard. In the investigation that followed it was determined that the explosives were placed there by the guard and his accomplice, a Turkish student at the Law School of the University of Thessaloniki, Oktai Egin Faik, who had brought the dynamite from Turkey a few days earlier.

On the 6th of September, Turkish newspapers using forged versions of the photos of the Turkish consul's wife and even before the explosion took place in Greece, depicted Kemal's birthplace as totally destroyed. By the evening, newspapers all over Turkey knew of the alleged destruction of Kemal's home setting off waves of anger among the Turkish populace. The Turkish authorities then transported large groups of people in trains and military vehicles from Anatolia to Constantinople.

The attack by the angry mobs began at 5:50 P.M on the 6th of September 1955 and ended at 02:00 A.M on the 7th of September 1955. The police calmly assisted and even guided the mobs, in their relentless path of destruction.

At 00:20 A.M on the 7th of September 1955 martial law was finally declared, at 02:00 A.M curfew began and at 02 : 30 A.M the authorities had restored a semblance of order. Screaming slogans "Today your property, tomorrow your lives" the mobs had perpetrated terrible crimes. Those who guided them knew that by terrorizing the last Greek residents of Constantinople they would compel them to desert their homeland, once and for all. Simultaneously by destroying monuments which were proof of the glorious Greek past of Constantinople, they would eradicate even future reminders of the Greek presence.

The results of the vandalisms were :
the Theological School of Halki, the Marasleios School, The Monestary of Valoukli, the Zappeio School for Girls and many other sites, suffered great damage.
of the 83 Greek Orthodox churches in the <> 59 were burned and most others
suffered serious damage to the icons and ancient paintings of great value.
the tombs of Patriarchs were destroyed, Christian cemeteries and ossuaries were defiled ;
3,000 homes were looted and destroyed ;
4348 Greek stores were looted and destroyed ;
200 Greek women were raped ;
hundreds of Greeks were ill-treated or tortured, such as the old Bishop of Derkon Iakovos; the metropolitan of Ilioupolis Yennadios, whose beard was cut off and who was then dragged through the streets so that he would die shortly thereafter from ill-treatment; and Bishop Pamphilou Yennadios that was thrown into the burned ruins of Valoukli;
15 Greeks were murdered and among them a 90 year old monk at the Valoukli
Monastery, Chrys. Mantas, who was burned alive. Many others in the monastery were seriously wounded.

After the pogrom a great portion of the Greek population left Constantinople to save their lives.

On the 20th of September,1975, in a special 35 page Survey section of the influential English magazine, The Economist, it was written : "Turkish charges that the Moslem population in Western Thrace is harried by the Greek authorities are gross exaggerations. In 1923 there were 300,000 Greeks living in Constantinople and 110,000 Turks living in Thrace. Today, there are 15,000 Greeks living in Istanbul and 120,000 Turks in Thrace. The Greeks ask, with some justification, which country has been putting the pressure on which minority". (Survey-15).

It is important for us to realize that at the time tha this article was written (1982), only 4,000 Greeks still remain in Constantinople

[goldblood]

bastardoi!!

[akritas]

Some intresting Turkish posts as about the issue

N#1 POST
The shame of Sept. 6-7 is always with us

Wednesday, September 7, 2005

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/a...?enewsid=22723

Mehmet Ali BIRAND

I am one of the living witnesses of what happened in Istanbul 50 years ago. I was 14 years old. I did not know what it was all about. However, the passage of time made me understand the seriousness of the incidents, and I always carry the shame. Even though it was the only such incident in which the Turkish state officially admitted its culpability and tried to compensate its victims, it still continues to weigh on our conscience.

I can never forget.

I can still remember what I saw in Beyoğlu on the morning of Sept. 7, 1955.

I had to go to Galatasaray High School to register for their preliminary class. I reached Beyoğlu with great difficulty. When I went to Tunel from Karaköy, I just was flabbergasted.

The scene was shocking.

The huge street seemed like a war zone, with windows of the shops on both sides of the street shattered and all their goods strewn all over the street. Bunches of clothes, books, notebooks, chandeliers and much more. People were taking home whatever they could find. The scene was like judgment day.

I was a child, and I had no idea what had happened.

What I noticed immediately was that while some shops were plundered, others were not even touched. I had a look and saw that there was a Turkish flag hanging on the windows of the shops that were not looted. Those that were had Greek names.
People with long beards and those who were dressed very shabbily were walking around. I saw that some people who were dressed normally were hiding in the shops, looking outside.
The police and the soldiers seemed like they were saying: “Enough is enough. You did what you did, but now just leave.” They were both intervening and not intervening at the same time.

That scene has always remained with me.

Even though half a century has passed, I still shiver when I remember it.

When I read the newspapers a day later, I realized the extent of the matter.

Similar incidents had occurred also in Taksim and Şişli, where most of the citizens of Greek origin lived. Not only the shops, but also churches, even cemeteries were damaged and plundered. Jewish citizens also got their share of trouble, but the main targets were Greeks.
Newspapers were writing about people waving Turkish flags, pleading with the looters: “Please don't do it. I'm a Turk. I am a Turkish citizen.”
It was a disgusting, belittling and tragic affair.

My mother and other adults were criticizing what had happened, while officials were talking about “the placing of a bomb at the house in Thessaloniki where Atatürk was born, which had been turned into a museum, and the anger felt against what was happening in Cyprus,” explaining that the people had become enraged.

We were living on Ethem Efendi Street at the time. Our neighbors were mostly Greek. They were my best friends. All of a sudden, they shut themselves in their homes. They talked to no one. I can never forget Madam Eleni when she asked, “Can we seek refuge in your home if they attack us?
” The barbershop she managed with her husband was in ruins. They were in shock. My mother sent them food for a week. We let them live in one of our rooms.

I was too young to make sense of what had happened. Why should they attack Madam Eleni? What could they ask from them? Why were they different from me?

As I was seeking answers to these questions, the Greek families in our neighborhood started to move to other places or go to Greece. After 1963 none of them were left. They left Istanbul.

They took with them an important culture, a color and a different lifestyle.

They left us alone in Istanbul to live our colorless lives.

Later on we were full of regret, but by then it was too late.

Turkey admitted all culpability, accepted responsibility:
Much later, we learned the Sept. 6-7 incidents were the doing of the infamous “deep state.” It was planned with government approval in order to let diplomats say “The people are reacting” during the U.N. discussions on Cyprus. However, it later got out of control and turned into a shameful plunder. It became a crime that the deep state could not handle, and it shamed the Turkish nation.
What's interesting is that apart from a few injuries, no one was killed. It wasn't a massacre. It was a disgusting plunder aimed at frightening people.
What's even more interesting is the way Sept. 6-7 shamed us and hurt us and tainted us as a nation.
This was also recorded as the only such incident when the Republic of Turkey officially admitted its responsibility, apologized and compensated the victims.
At the Yassıada trials, after the May 21, 1960 military coup, the Sept. 6-7 incidents were investigated down to the smallest detail, and those held responsible were tried and punished.
As always, there was no mention as the deep state. It emerged entirely unscathed by the affair. A few thieves, civilians with no links to the planning or to the politicians, were punished.
In the later years, whenever the Sept. 6-7 incidents were mentioned, I felt an overwhelming shame and I always apologized to the victims I saw at international meetings.

During the Sept. 6-7 incidents our Turkishness was trampled underfoot. It was then I realized that if we don't criticize such incidents and apologize to the victims, we can never feel proud of ourselves.

Apologizing is enriching. It shows self-confidence.

Discriminating due to religion, language or culture or using force on the weak is belittling one's self.

I don't know you, but I apologize to our neighbor Madam Eleni from Erenköy.
_______________________________

Dear Mehmet Ali BIRAND

I can not speak for Madam Eleni. But I, on a person to person basis, I thank you, apologies are accepted. You are a god example to us all.

I wish you well.

Nikolas Ioannou

PS!

Regarding your comments of compesation and injuries, please note:

While the pogromists were not instructed to kill their targets, sections of the mob went much further than scaring or intimidating local Greeks. 30 Greeks and one Armenian (including two clerics) died as a result of the pogrom. 32 Greeks were severely wounded. 200 men and women were raped, and according to the account of the Turkish writer Aziz Nesin, men, mainly priests, were subjected to forced circumcision by frenzied members of the mob and an Armenian priest died after the procedure.

As private insurance did not exist in Turkey at the time, the only hope the pogrom’s victims had for compensation was from the Turkish state. Although Turkish President Mahmut Celal Bayar announced that "the victims of the destruction shall be compensated", there was little political will or financial means to carry out such a promise.

On September 13, 1955 the New York Times stated that "The amount of damage has been assessed unofficially at $300,000,000." U.S. Senator Homer Capehart, who was in Ankara at the time, said the riots were "ghastly and unbelievable." He estimated the damage at $500 million. Turkey said it would pay compensation to the victims. It paid very little to a limited number of victims over a drawn-out period of years.If you add interest at 5 percent compounded annually for the 50 years since 1955, the amount owed to the victims would be several billion dollars.

[akritas]

N#2 Turkish post

Past as present

Monday, September 12, 2005

Opinion by Doğu ERGİL


Dogu ERGIL

Humankind makes history. So, it is responsible for what has taken place in the past. These thoughts occupied my mind on the days when we sadly commemorated the destructive events that transpired in Istanbul exactly 50 years ago that is alluded to as the “Sept. 6-7 events.” What happened on those days half a century ago is of utmost importance for Turks to face their history and understand the ideological fabric of their political culture. There is enough data on hand to interpret the true nature of those events and sufficient liberties to discuss them.

An evening paper called Express, published in Istanbul, made two consecutive prints on Sept. 5, 1955, denouncing the sinister attack on the house where M.K. Atatürk was born in his hometown of Salonika, Greece. A newly created group called “Cyprus is Turkish” invited everyone to retaliate against the Greeks who wanted to annex the island and had not refrained from defiling Turkey's hero's sacred homestead.

Over the next two days and nights mobs raided the homes and workplaces of non-Muslim minorities in Istanbul and Izmir, leaving behind 16 dead and dozens of wounded citizens of Greek origin, 73 devastated Greek Orthodox churches and damaging one synagogue, eight chapels and two monasteries. Some 5,538 properties were sacked, burnt and destroyed, of which 3,584 belonged to Greek citizens of Turkey. Unfortunately, between 50-200 women (varying according to who has reported it) of the same extraction were physically violated. In Izmir, the Greek Consulate and the Greek pavilion at the Izmir International Fair were set on fire by arsonists; 14 homes and five shops were destroyed and ransacked. Some graves of Greek citizens were destroyed as well. The excuse was ready, “They started it and we paid them back.”

It took a few years to learn the truth concerning who had perpetrated a mock attempt to bomb Atatürk's home in Salonika. It was a Turkish student (Mr. Oktay Engin) who later served in the intelligence community and ended his official career as the governor of Nevşehir.

The whole thing was a fabricated provocation to prove that there was public support behind the government of the day (headed by Mr. Adnan Menderes, who was later hanged by a military-backed tribunal) whose Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Fatin Rüştü Zorlu was negotiating with Greece and Britain for a fair settlement on Cyprus in the post-British era. What went so wrong and got out of control where excited street demonstrations could serve the purpose of the government?

Two-and-a-half factors misled popular reaction.
1) What we call now the “deep state,” or covert organizations that see themselves as guardians of the country and protector of the nation, intervened and changed the course of events. One general (four-star Gen. Sabri Yirmibeşoğlu) admitted in an interview with Tempo magazine (24th edition, June 9-11, 1991) that “the events were the product of ‘special forces' and were an example of magnificent organization.” Indeed, the raging horde was not an ad hoc crowd that was spontaneously provoked. They were organized, equipped with thousands of clubs, axes, national flags and posters of Atatürk and were waiting for the news of the bombing to come out. They were also supplied with lists of names and addresses of non-Muslim minorities. Police just watched the devastation for two long days and did not help the victims, except a few personal exceptions.

2) The phenomenon was one of the concrete examples of a series of actions of the undeclared policy of weeding out non-Muslims and non-ethnic Turks from the nation and transferring capital from the minorities to the national (ethnically Turkish) bourgeoisie. The process had started during the last decade of the Ottoman Empire led by the Young Turks (or the government of the semi-clandestine organization of Union and Progress) and went on during the republican years, to be repeated in Thrace (European Turkey) by intimidating the Jews in 1934, creating and exacting an exorbitant income tax, called the Varlık Vergisi (Wealth Tax), from all non-Muslim minorities of the nation in 1942 and finally an orchestrated operation that squeezed away 12,000 Greek inhabitants from Istanbul. The combined result of these intimidations and deterrent policies has been departure of initially hundreds and later tens of thousands of non-Muslim citizens from the country.
2 ½) The 1950s were the last years when the last traces of Ottoman social and cultural heritage of Turkey had disappeared or were erased. The republican regime had chosen to legitimize itself as unique and matchless by denying its Ottoman past in all vestiges of life and built its educational system on this rift. What had remained of Turkey's multi-cultural social fabric was destroyed in the 1950s both by discouraging non-Muslim minorities to remain in the country and by massive migration from the countryside into towns, most of all into Istanbul. By 1955, new districts composed of ex-peasants had emerged like Taşlıtarla, Kağıthane and Alibeyköy. The rural inhabitants of these and other new districts were quite unfamiliar with the cosmopolitan atmosphere of urban life and had never experienced a lifestyle enriched by non-Muslim urban groups. They were hungry for power, respect and wealth. Provoked into doing something “good” for their nation, proving their worth as destroyers of “subversive elements” and enriching themselves through booty was a perfect combination to Turkify the nation. In other parts of the world such a deed may be called ethnic cleansing but such a term is unknown in our part of the world so no one is blamed for the act.
We Turks chose not to remember those unsavory days and suppress the assiduous nature of the political philosophy behind similar events. We did not dare to admit to ourselves that we have lost the multi-cultural richness of our society. We did not want to admit that the protection of the lives, properties and honor of the Ottoman peoples that we were a part of was the nobles oblige of the republic that we are also so proud of. We never admit that appropriation of the properties and wealth of the non-Muslim minorities has not made us any richer; on the contrary, their banishment depleted the entrepreneurial power of the nation and dwarfed economic development. Denial of pluralism and multi-culturalism has left us devoid of the culture of reconciliation and tolerance to differences. We are not more stable and peaceful within now that the non-Muslims are only a miniscule part of the national population. We are ready to hate anyone who may dare to say that our recent history may not be a good compass to show the way in the future that is in the making.

Ashamed of what he has read and seen, the military prosecutor at the time has saved the photos and documents of the Sept. 6-7 events to be shown to future generations as a mistake not to be repeated. He gave them to the Turkish Historical Association and demanded that they only be published 25 years after his death. That day has come and in sad commemoration of the events, the Turkish Historical Association has organized an exhibition of photos of those two fateful days.

The exhibition opened its doors to the public on the same day of the events. But what do we see? A bunch of thugs calling themselves “nationalists' raided the exhibition hall and destroyed some of the photos. It seems the scions of the original perpetrators are still alive and kicking. Or is it more than that? Is it an understanding that we have to get rid of if we do not want to be ashamed of similar deeds?

History is not a lot from which we can choose the best; it is a load we have to carry in whole whether we like it or not, for we have accumulated it.

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/a...?enewsid=23081

[pankration]

I am sorry to say that I was not familiar with this Turkish outrage. While reading the postings I could not help but compare them to a very similar event many years ago. Here's a short descriptor:

On the nights of November 9 and 10, gangs of Nazi youth roamed through Jewish neighborhoods breaking windows of Jewish businesses and homes, burning synagogues and looting. In all 101 synagogues were destroyed and almost 7,500 Jewish businesses were destroyed. 26,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps, Jews were physically attacked and beaten and 91 died (Snyder, Louis L. Encyclopedia of the Third Reich. New York: Paragon House, 1989:201).

The official German position on these events, which were clearly orchestrated by Goebbels, was that they were spontaneous outbursts. The Fuehrer, Goebbels reported to Party officials in Munich, "has decided that such demonstrations are not to be prepared or organized by the party, but so far as they originate spontaneously, they are not to be discouraged either." (Conot, Robert E. Justice at Nuremberg. New York: Harper & Row, 1983:165)

The above of course refers to the Night of Broken Glass or Kristallnacht. Although the Turks eventually assumed some sort of responsibility in effect they were as bad as the Nazis. They may not have gassed us but they gave us the boot from lands we had occupied peacefully for many centuries. As far as the English are concerned these imperialist bastards did to the middle east what they did to Africa and North America: basically screw the people over for "God and King". Please.

[akritas]

I just took the known book of Speros Vryonis (the mechanism of catastroph).

Here an intresting page of this work regarding the Turkish progrom against Greek community in Constantinople

[Telly]

Let's gather as much as possible Turkish sources:

Gül’s serious mistake - Turkish Daily News Feb 13, 2007

Gül’s serious mistake
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
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CÜNEYT ÜLSEVER

One of the goals of Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül's visit to the United States was to prevent, to whatever extent possible, the seemingly inevitable passing of the Armenian genocide bill by Congress.

The minister's efforts in this cause, even if they prove to be in vain, are both a consequence of his rights and his responsibility. The passing of this bill in Congress will deal the biggest blow in history to U.S.-Turkey relations. It is the minister's responsibility to warn against such a situation.

However, I think that one of his remarks was unfortunate and very open to misinterpretation and use as provocation.

�…Gül said that, in the case that the [Armenian] bill is accepted at the House of Representatives, there will be �a real shock in Turkey' and that the Turkish government could not contain the demands by the public to halt cooperation with the United States…� (Hürriyet Web site, Feb. 08).

This remark is truly unfortunate at a time when Turkish public opinion has been divided over the Hrant Dink murder, the concepts of good and evil have been mixed, the public is on edge, ethnic nationalism is gaining pace, and a general climate of pessimism prevails.

The bill will most probably pass in Congress, which will vote on it before Apr. 24. Around this date Turkey will be choosing its 11th president; perhaps preparing for Abdullah Gül's term as prime minister.



Remember the dark days of September:

I would like to remind Gül of the recent past: The events of Sept. 6-7, 1955. As Wikipedia reports, on Sept. 6, 1955, while officials of Foreign Ministry were conducting their meetings in London over the Cyprus issue, news was broadcast over Turkish radios that a bomb had exploded in Atatürk's house in Thessalonica. The news stories were false. However, during the subsequent events between 13 and 16 Greeks and one Armenian died and 32 Greeks were seriously injured. The material damage amounted to 4,348 shops and more than 1,000 homes owned by Greeks, 110 hotels, 27 pharmacies, 23 schools, 21 factories and 73 churches.

The economic damage was calculated at 69.5 million Turkish lira, according to the Turkish government; 100 million pounds, according to English diplomatic sources; $150 million, according to the World Church Association; and $500 million according to the Greek Government. The Democratic Party (DP) government paid 60 million Turkish lira in compensation to those who registered their losses. After the attack the Greek predominance in the Turkish economy started to dissolve and Turkish dominance in the capital accelerated. As a result of the emigration in the aftermath of these events the Greek minority in Turkey has dwindles to almost nothing. The number of Greeks in Istanbul was 200,000 in 1924 and 1,500 in 2005.

One of my readers informed me that, on Sept. 6, 1955, the then-Foreign Minister Fatin Rüştü Zorlu uttered in London similar words to Gül's.

The words Gül has pronounced only to alert the United States can be manipulated in an anti-American or anti-Armenian a provocation in the future, claiming they are �the orders of the minister.� The goal of this article is to prevent such a provocation with an �early warning� system and save the minister from such accusations.

I expect there to be all sorts of provocations in the time leading up to the presidential elections. I think that political figures in particular need to pay a lot of attention to their remarks.

I wrote this article thinking that the politicians' competition of late about �who is more nationalist?� is generating an environment and creating an excuse for these troubled times.