The elimination of a minority.
The events of 1955 were the barbaric means with which the
Turkish government aimed for the elimination and Ethnic Cleansing of the Hellenic
community in Turkey.
The cost to the community was momentous. Out of the half million
Hellenes that lived in Constantinople in the 1920's, only some 3,000 mostly senior
citizens exist today.
The Ethnic Cleansing was accomplished by gradual political
prosecution, as well as pure mindless violence. On September 6th and 7th 1955, the goal of
the Turkish state became ever more evident. These are just a few of the horrors the
Hellenes of the city lived through:
| Destroyed Homes |
2,600 |
| Destroyed Businesses |
4,340 |
| Destroyed Hotels |
110 |
| Destroyed Pharmacies |
27 |
| Churches Burnt to Ground |
38 |
| Churches Destroyed |
35 |
| Destroyed Newspapers |
3 |
| Destroyed Athletic Organizations |
5 |
The above of course does not even include the
hundreds of murders, nor the more than 200 rapes. The extent of the animal barbarism of
the Turks does not even end there. With a crazed passion, they set to destroy everything
that was Hellenic. Tombs and thousand year-old temples and monuments were included on
their list of destruction.
The Turkish barbarism is still alive today, and growing ever larger
like a malevolent tumor. The barbarism against the Hellenes in 1955 was not an isolated
event. Genocide's and massacres of entire populations have been practiced by the Turks in
the entirety of this century.
The bitter taste of Turkish barbarism has been the experience of
Arabs, Armenians, Assyrians, Alewis, Hellenes of Asia Minor, Hellenes of Constantinople,
Hellenes of Cyprus, Hellenes of Imbros and Tenedos, Pontian Hellenes, Kurds, and a large
number of smaller minorities, all within this, the 20th century. |
