TURKEY’S opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has led tributes to those killed in the state-coordinated massacre of Greek, Armenian, Christian and Jewish people in the Istanbul pogrom 65 years ago.
It described the events of September 6 and 7 1955 as “one of the most painful and shameful pages in Turkey’s history.”
More than 1.2 million Greeks were expelled from Turkey in a so-called population exchange following the 1923 Lausanne Treaty after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
But the agreement did not cover Istanbul, which maintained a sizeable Greek population. The pogrom led to a mass exodus of Greeks from Turkey’s largest city.
Attacks on minorities also affected Izmir and other centres, with some commentators branding it a deliberate continuation of the brutal Turkification process.
The HDP said that 73 churches, eight holy springs, two monasteries and 5,500 houses and workplaces — 3,500 of which belonged to Greeks — were destroyed and plundered during the massacre. The damage was estimated at about £100 million.
“The attacks were planned and implemented by the National Security Service (NSS),” a party statement said.
The violent attacks, sometimes branded the Turkish Kristallnacht, were triggered by the false news that Greeks had planted a bomb in the Thessaloniki house where Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, had been born.
Although the Turkish press was aware that a Turkish citizen was responsible for the bombing — later found to have been ordered by the Turkish state — the media deliberately suppressed the news and implied that Greeks were behind the attack on the building, which housed Turkey’s consulate in Greece.
The Istanbul pogrom was planned with the full support of the authorities, which mobilised mobs of people to the city using about 4,000 taxis belonging to drivers’ associations.
Trucks were positioned all round Istanbul to distribute the shovels, pickaxes, crowbars and petrol used to carry out the attacks, and flags were prepared by the Textile Workers’ Union.
The violence started in Taksim Square and rioters headed down the busy Istiklal Street, targeting Greek shops and businesses, while people shouted slogans such as: “Massacre the Greek traitors.”
At least 30 people are known to have been killed, though many believe that the death toll is much higher.
As many as 400 women were assaulted and raped, and men were subjected to forced circumcision. An Armenian priest is thought to have died as a result.
Thousands were arrested in the aftermath of the pogroms. But evidence proving the involvement of the NSS, including the discovery of a list of non-Muslim citizens’ addresses, was dismissed by authorities.
Instead the government blamed Turkish Communists for the pogrom, arresting 45 party members including Aziz Nesin and Kemal Tahir.
The main perpetrator of the bombing, Oktay Engin, was rapidly promoted to become the deputy chief of police and governor of Nevsehir province in central Turkey.
Members of the HDP women’s group in Istanbul said that such state attacks continue with impunity, warning: “Unpunished racism and rape repeats and repeats.”
Source: Morning Star Online
