Istanbul pogrom

By George Gilson

The Turkish pogrom against the Greeks of Istanbul which began on 6 September is one of the darkest pages in recent Turkish history and one of the deepest wounds in the collective memory of the Greek nation.

As in the case of the Armenian Genocide, the Turkish state in the ensuing decades never acknowledged the pogrom against the Greek minority. It denied it.

A group of representatives from several minority advocate groups gathered on Istanbul's ?stiklal Avenue to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Istanbul pogrom, anti-Greek riots in Sept. 6 and 7 in 1955 that left 15 people dead, many others injured and a large number of Greek homes and buildings looted.

The Istanbul pogrom, known in Greece as Septembriana, took place on September 6-7, 1955. Anti-Greek riots were orchestrated by the Tactical Mobilization Group, the Counter-Guerrilla and the National Secuρity Service.

Commemorating his 100th birthday, a new exhibit at Tütün Deposu in Istanbul's Tophane brings together written and visual materials from legendary Turkish figure Aziz Nesin's vast archive, in order to show this extremely prolific figure in terms of his literature, humor, life views, political attitude and his legacy for the future.