Istanbul's Greek, Jewish, and Armenian minorities are the target of a government-sponsored pogrom; dozens are killed in ensuing riots.
The Istanbul pogrom, also known as the Istanbul riots or the September events (Greek: , romanized: Septemvriana, lit.'Events of September'; Turkish: 67 Eyll Olaylar, lit.'Events of 67 September'), were a series of government-sponsored anti-Greek mob attacks directed primarily at Istanbul's Greek minority on 67 September 1955. Occasionally described as a genocide, the pogrom was mostly condoned by the governing Democrat Party. Its main perpetrator is the Turkish Cyprus Association, which defended Turkish ownership of Cyprus and promoted Turkish nationalistic ideas via newspapers and magazines. It was orchestrated by various security organizations associated with Operation Gladio (Tactical Mobilisation Group, Counter-Guerrilla and National Security Service). The events were triggered by a fake news story which stated that the day before, Greeks had bombed the Turkish consulate in Thessaloniki, Macedonia the house where Mustafa Kemal Atatrk was born in 1881. A bomb which was planted by a Turkish usher at the consulate, who was later arrested and confessed, incited the events. The Turkish press was silent about the arrest, instead, it insinuated that Greeks had set off the bomb.A Turkish mob, most of whose members were trucked into the city in advance, assaulted Istanbul's Greek community for nine hours. Although the mob did not explicitly call for the killing of Greeks, over a dozen people died during or after the attacks as a result of beatings and arson. Armenians and Jews were also harmed. The police were mostly ineffective, and the violence continued until the government declared martial law in Istanbul, called in the army and ordered it to put down the riots. The material damage was estimated at US$500 million, including the burning of churches and the devastation of shops and private homes.The pogrom greatly accelerated emigration of ethnic Greeks from Turkey, in particular the Greeks of Istanbul. The Greek population of Turkey declined from 119,822 in 1927, to about 7,000 in 1978. In Istanbul alone, the Greek-speaking population decreased from 65,108 to 49,081 between 1955 and 1960. The 2008 figures released by the Turkish Foreign Ministry placed the number of Turkish citizens of Greek descent at 3,0004,000; while according to the Human Rights Watch (2006) their number was estimated to be 2,500.The attacks have been described as a continuation of a process of Turkification that started with the decline of the Ottoman Empire, as roughly 40% of the properties attacked belonged to other minorities. The pogrom has been compared in some media to the Kristallnacht, the 1938 pogrom against Jews throughout Nazi Germany.In 2009, Turkish then-Prime Minister Erdogan said that Turkey has committed mistakes, and that; "Those minorities with different ethnic identities were expelled from our country in the past. It was result of facist mindset. Did we win?"
Istanbul ( IST-an-BUUL, US also IST-an-buul; Turkish: İstanbul [isˈtanbuɫ] (listen)), formerly known as Constantinople, is the largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, cultural and historic hub. The city straddles the Bosporus strait, lying in both Europe and Asia, and has a population of over 15 million residents, comprising 19% of the population of Turkey. Istanbul is the most populous European city, and the world's 15th-largest city.
The city was founded as Byzantium (Byzantion) in the 7th century BC by Greek settlers from Megara. In 330 CE, the Roman emperor Constantine the Great made it his imperial capital, renaming it first as New Rome (Nova Roma) and then as Constantinople (Constantinopolis) after himself. The city grew in size and influence, eventually becoming a beacon of the Silk Road and one of the most important cities in history.
The city served as an imperial capital for almost 1600 years: during the Roman/Byzantine (330–1204), Latin (1204–1261), late Byzantine (1261–1453), and Ottoman (1453–1922) empires. The city played a key role in the advancement of Christianity during Roman/Byzantine times, hosting four (including Chalcedon (Kadıköy) on the Asian side) of the first seven ecumenical councils (all of which were in present-day Turkey) before its transformation to an Islamic stronghold following the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 CE—especially after becoming the seat of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1517.In 1923, after the Turkish War of Independence, Ankara replaced the city as the capital of the newly formed Republic of Turkey. In 1930, the city's name was officially changed to Istanbul, the Turkish rendering of the appellation Greek speakers used since the eleventh century to colloquially refer to the city.Over 13.4 million foreign visitors came to Istanbul in 2018, eight years after it was named a European Capital of Culture, making it the world's eighth most visited city. Istanbul is home to several UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and hosts the headquarters of numerous Turkish companies, accounting for more than thirty percent of the country's economy.