greek photography exhibit recalling_13

Greek photography exhibit recalling 1955 riots attacked in Istanbul

Ahh, what a moderate and enlightened Muslim nation. We should let them

into the EU. Where is Jan Sobieski when you need him?

Greek photography exhibit recalling 1955 riots attacked in Istanbul

Ultranationalist Turkish militants attacked an exhibit in Istanbul of

rare photographs of violent anti-Greek incidents that occurred in the

city 50 years ago, ripping photos off the walls and throwing eggs at

the display. Shouting, "Turkey is Turkish and will stay that way", the

assailants burst into the exhibit on its opening night, scuffling with

the guests. Riot police arrived and roughly rounded up the militants,

arresting three of them, police said. "I'm merely defending my

country," one militant said. Serious riots that broke out in Istanbul

on the night of September 6, 1955, led to looting in Greek

neighborhoods and the destruction of many of the city's churches and

synagogues. More than 5,000 shops belonging to the Greek minority were

looted by an emotional crowd of several thousand people reacting to

rumors of a bomb attack at the birthplace of the founder of modern

Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, in Salonika, northern Greece. The army

had to intervene to quell the violence. Turkey is officially 99

percent Muslim. Its 45,000 Armenians, 35,000 Jews, 20,000 Syrians and

4,000 Greek Orthodox faithful live primarily in Istanbul. Known as

Constantinople under Greece's last great empire, Istanbul remains the

seat of the Eastern Orthodox patriarchate, the highest authority in

the Orthodox world.

Turkey: On-the-spot circumcisions

Published this month by Greekworks.com, the work subtitled The Turkish

Pogrom of September 6-7, 1955, and the Destruction of the Greek

Community of Istanbul shows that riots which destroyed 4,500 Greek

homes, 3,500 businesses, 90 religious institutions and 36 schools in

45 distinct communities, resulted not only from "fervid chauvinism, or

even [from] the economic resentment of many impoverished rioters, but

[from] the profound religious fanaticism in many segments of Turkish

society." Greeks and Armenians were savagely beaten and there were

gang rapes. Turkish writer Aziz Nessin says that any male passer-by

the Turks considered a Greek was forced to show if he had been

circumcised. In some cases, Nessin says, Turks carried out

"circumcisions" on the spot with knives.

Letter To the Hellenic Parliament: Do Not Deny Genocide

The Turkish state's elimination of its Armenian, Greek and Assyrian

populations was part and parcel of the same effort to obliterate

Turkey's Christian minorities. All were perpetrated during the same

time frame, by the same governments, and using the same methods -

namely, massacres, labor camps and death marches under the guise of

deportations.

Turkey Says 523,000 Were Killed by Armenians

Turkey flatly denies that there was any systematic effort at killing

or forcing the Armenians out of eastern Anatolia, where the Armenians

were trying to establish a separate state. with support from the

French, British and Russians. Turkey contends that, instead, hundreds

of thousands of Turks were killed by Armenians as they tried to