MINORITIES EXPRESS HOPE DESPITE PAINS OF THE PAST
Hurriyet
Sept 7 2011
Turkey
On the 56th anniversary of the Sept 6-7 trauma, which resulted in
pogroms throughout Istanbul against the minorities, leaders of the
communities say they still remember the days, but note new positive
developments
This file photo shows the attacks on minority owned businesses and
houses on Sept. 6-7, 1955. Thousands of people were reported to have
fled Turkey afterwards.
The trauma of the Sept. 6-7, 1955, pogroms against minorities remains
deep, yet there is hope for the future with a recent Turkish government
decision to return properties seized from the country’s non-Muslim
groups, according to leaders of the communities.
“The Sept. 6-7 [events] were definitely a traumatic time for Turkey
and many people still remember that day but the government’s recent
decisions regarding the return of properties and help for minority
newspapers are good signs,” Ä°vo Molinas, the editor-in-chief of
the Å~^alom, a weekly publication of Turkey’s Jewish community,
said Tuesday on the 56th anniversary of the events.
“After September 6-7, we started looking at each other with different
eyes. We learned what revenge meant,” said Mihail Vasiliadis, the
operator of daily Apoyevmatini, a four-page Greek newspaper printed
in Istanbul.
“The government’s recent step to return the minority properties is a
good sign. First they took our properties from us and now they return
it. But who is going to own those? There is no one left,” he said.
There are now only 2,500 Greeks left in Turkey, Vasiliadis said,
adding that more were leaving every day.
The 1955 events were triggered by reports that the house where modern
Turkey’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, was born in present-day
Thessaloniki, Greece, had been bombed the previous day. The news,
which was later proven to be fabricated, resulted in pogroms throughout
Istanbul against the city’s Jewish, Greek and Armenian residents.
Thousands of people fled Turkey afterwards, especially the Greek
minority in Istanbul. Before the pogroms, there had been 119,822
Greeks in Turkey; by 1978, however, there were just 7,000.
Jewish immigration to Israel
Speaking about the increasing numbers of Turkish Jews migrating to
Israel, Molinas said many from the community were leaving the country
for the Jewish state, but added that the reasons were primarily
economic.
“There are about 300 people that immigrate to Israel every year and
in a community of 20,000, that is perhaps a big number. Still, the
reasons are purely economic, not ideological,” he said.
When it comes to the tension between Israel and Turkey, Molinas said
it was the last thing he wanted to see as a Jewish person living
in Turkey.
“What is happening is quite said and both parties should be criticized
for this,” he said. “We are very sad to see what is happening.”