Byzantinist Speros Vryonis who documented 1955 state-planned Istanbul pogrom dies at 90

By George Gilson

What those who met him remember best about Speros Vryonis, one of the most beloved and respected members of the Greek-American community who died on  11 March at age 90,  is the kindness and gentleness of character of one of the top Byzantinists of his generation whose scholarly activity and publications covered a dazzling array of subjects.

These include Seljuk and Ottoman history, Balkan history, the Arab world, Byzantium's relations with Islam, the spiritual tradition of mediaeval Hellenism in the Slavic and Islamic world, the decline of mediaeval civilization in Asia Minor and the process of Islamification, continuity and change in the Balkans, Islam and cultural change in the Middle Ages, and Islam's understanding of itself.

In brief Vryonis' academic work touched on nearly all aspects of Hellenism and the cultures that interacted with it throughout history.

One of Vryonis' most important works was his monumental study on the September, 1955 pogrom against the then flourishing and illustrious Greek minority of Istanbul.

The Mechanism of Catastrophe: The Turkish Pogrom of September 6 - 7, 1955, And The Destruction Of The Greek Community Of Istanbul , the product of many years of research and access to Turkish state archives that touched on the issue (Vryonis was fluent in Turkish), was the first treatment of the events that led to the expulsion of the Greeks of Istanbul that  proved with incontrovertible historical documentation that the pogrom that destroyed the Greek minority was a state-designed and executed plan with the active participation of Turkish Prime Minister Adnan Menderes and his Demokrat Parti.

What follows is this writer's presentation of that seminal work that was published in...