Istanbul Pogram Against Greek Minority

The Istanbul Pogrom, also known as the Istanbul Riots, or the Σεπτεμβριανά in Greek, was a pogrom directed primarily at Istanbul's 100,000-strong Greek minority on September 6 and 7, 1955. Jews and Armenians living in the city and their businesses were also targeted in the pogrom, which was orchestrated by the Demokrat Parti-government of Turkis Prime Minister Adnan Menderes. The events were triggered by the false news that the house in Thessaloniki, Greece, where Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was born, had been bombed the day before.

A Turkish mob, most of which was trucked into the city in advance, assaulted Istanbul’s Greek community for nine hours. Although the orchestrators of the pogrom did not explicitly call on Greeks to be killed, between 13 and 16 Greeks and at least one Armenian (including two Orthodox clerics) died during or after the pogrom as a result of beatings and arsons. According to the account of one eyewitness, a Greek dentist, the mob chanted "Massacre the Greek traitors", "Down with Europe" and "Onward to Athens and Thessaloniki" as they executed the pogrom.
Istanbul Pogrom against Greek minority of Turkey (Wiki)


Patriarch Athenagoras in the ruins of the church of Saint Constantine


Turkish mob attacking Greek property

In addition to commercial targets, the mob clearly targeted property owned or administered by the Greek Orthodox Church. 73 churches and 23 schools were vandalized, burned or destroyed, as were 8 asperses and 3 monasteries. This represented about 90 percent of the church property portfolio in the city.