More than seventy years after the black night of September 6-7, 1955 , the destruction of the Hellenism of Constantinople returns to the center of an important international debate.
The East Mediterranean Business Culture Alliance (EMBCA) is organizing an online event on Sunday, September 6th, on the theme “Before and After the Istanbul Pogrom of September 6-7, 1955: The Destruction of the Greek (Roman) Community of Turkey” , attempting not only to shed light on the dramatic events of those days, but also to examine the long course of persecution that led to the almost complete uprooting of the historical Romani community from the city.
The event will take place at 2 p.m. EDT / 9 p.m. Athens time (EEST) , with EMBCA President Lou Katso introducing and moderating the discussion.
The panel includes distinguished academics and researchers, as well as people with a personal connection to the events. Among them are Dr. Alexandros K. Kyrou , Professor of History and Director of the East European and Russian Studies Program at Salem State University, Dr. Konstantinos Tsitselikis , Professor of Human Rights and International Organizations at the University of Macedonia, Dr. Elizabeth H. Prodromou , Professor in the International Studies Program at Boston College, and Dr. Johannes Niehoff-Panagiotidis of Freie Universität Berlin.
Of particular importance is the presence of Dr. Harry G. Dimopoulos, a survivor of the 1955 Pogrom , who brings to the discussion not only historical knowledge but also the lived memory of a community that saw its centuries-old presence shrink dramatically in a few decades. The panel also includes Stelios Taketzis , producer and former executive director of “Cosmos FM”.
The numbers capture in the harshest way the magnitude of the historical upheaval. At the time of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 , approximately 100,000 Greeks still lived in Constantinople, constituting approximately 12%-15% of its population. Today, in a metropolis of almost 16 million people, it is estimated that only 1,500 to 2,500 members of the historic Roman Community remain.
This decline did not occur overnight. It was the result of a long sequence of discrimination, economic pressures, confiscations, restrictions, violent attacks and forced migration , which gradually made it increasingly difficult for Greeks to remain in their ancestral land.
This is why EMBCA’s discussion is not limited to the events of September 1955. The Pogrom is examined within the broader historical context that includes the 1942 Property Tax (Varlık Vergisi) , legislation that affected minorities, restrictions on community and religious institutions, property confiscations, and, later, the deportations of 1964 .
At the epicenter, of course, remain the nights of September 6th and 7th, 1955 , which remained engraved in the collective memory of the Hellenism of Constantinople.
The pretext for the outbreak of violence was the news of a bomb attack on the Turkish Consulate in Thessaloniki, on the site of the house where Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was born. The news was used to ignite a wave of anger against the Greek minority. The attack that followed was not limited to spontaneous acts of violence, but took on enormous and destructive dimensions , with Greek neighborhoods, businesses and religious institutions being targeted.
The devastation was staggering. Some 4,214 Greek homes, 1,004 businesses, 73 churches, two monasteries and 26 Greek schools were damaged or destroyed. Sacred sites were desecrated, cemeteries were looted and family fortunes built up over generations were lost in a matter of hours.
There were also human casualties. Greeks lost their lives, including Orthodox clergy , while the violence was not limited exclusively to the Roman Community, as Armenian and Jewish property was also targeted.
But the true dimension of the Pogrom is not only reflected in the numbers of destroyed houses and shops. The deeper trauma was that thousands of people realized that their very presence in the city of their ancestors had become precarious . Fear, insecurity and the feeling that there was no longer adequate protection accelerated the exodus of a community with a centuries-old history.
Constantinople did not just lose thousands of Greek residents. It lost a part of its historical, social and cultural identity . Churches, schools, communities, commercial enterprises, families and traditions that were an integral part of the life of the City began to fade or shrink.
The online discussion will also focus on the Treaty of Lausanne , which provided specific guarantees for the protection of non-Muslim minorities. Speakers will examine how these guarantees were implemented in practice and how, in the decades that followed, the reality for the Roman Community dramatically deviated from the spirit of the intended protective provisions.
The event, however, does not aspire to be just a retrospective of one of the darkest pages in the history of Hellenism in Constantinople. The discussion extends to issues of human and minority rights, religious freedom, protection of cultural heritage, International Law, historical memory, reparation and justice .
Because the 1955 Pogrom is not just about the past. It is also a constant reminder of what can happen when minority targeting, nationalism, misinformation, and tolerance of violence gain ground in a society.
And perhaps this is the most important message of the event: that historical memory is not an act of revenge, but an obligation towards the truth . The Romani community of Constantinople may today number only a few thousand people, but its history, its cultural heritage and its presence for centuries in the city cannot be erased.
September 6th and 7th, 1955 remain an open wound of the Greek people and a historical event that cannot be allowed to be forgotten.
