Istanbul’s Galatasaray Square will host on Tuesday evening a commemoration march dedicated to the Armenian and Greek Christians killed during the pogroms on September 6-7, 1955.
Members of the two minority communities will gather together under the slogan “We Still Remember”.
Historical review
On September 6 1955, the Turkish newspaper Istanbul Express published an article entitled “Our Ancestor’s House Hit by Explosive”.
The author spoke of a bomb attack against the Turkish consulate in Thessaloniki, in northern Greece—the house where Mustafa Kemal Atatürk had been born in 1881.
The report, which later proved untrue, pushed the Turks in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir launch active raids against the local Greeks. Ethnic Armenians and Jews also suffered losses.
A total of 11 people were reported dead. According to the Armenian community’s estimates, the casualties were underreported.
The pogroms, becoming later known as “Events of September 6–7”, left many houses, as well as stores and factories owned by Christians, ravaged.
Lots of local Armenians and Greeks later emigrated from Turkey, finding shelter in other countries abroad.