GREEK PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBIT RECALLING 1955 RIOTS ATTACKED IN ISTANBUL
Agence France Presse — English
September 6, 2005 Tuesday 9:24 PM GMT
Ultra-nationalist 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 told AFP.
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.