I AM LISTENING TO ISTANBUL by Cem Ozdemir

"I can't quite recall how I arrive at the subject. But somehow I wonder about my mother's recollection of the events of 6-7 September 1955, the date of the pogrom-like riots against the Greeks, who at the time still lived in Istanbul in large numbers. My mother grew up in Istanbul and later always spoke Greek with her Greek female colleagues in Germany. But she didn't talk about the atrocities for a long time.

When, finally, she did, she told me how   during the night of 5-6 September, Greek residences were marked out by   putting Turkish flags in front of Turkish houses. Greeks who were their   friends and neighbours, with whom they celebrated Easter and Ramadan,   became victims. My mother spoke of Greeks who banged on the doors of   their Turkish neighbours, desperately looking for help. She recalled   that some Turks protected their neighbours from harm or offered them   shelter until the terror stopped.

Later she learned that the incident that allegedly triggered off the events, the alleged desecration of the house where Kemal Atatürk was born in Thessaloniki (Greece), was in fact an invention of the Turkish secret services. The riots did not, after all, originate from popular resentment of Greeks. Criminals and ultra-nationalists bussed to Istanbul turned the proud Istiklal Caddesi, the famous shopping street in the Beyoğlu neighbourhood, into a heap of rubble. Huge bundles of fabric were left lying in the street by the plunderers. When I found out that my mother's grandmother was herself Greek, and that she had married a Turk out of love, I understood the long silence. You did not talk about things like that."

Read the whole thing here.

Comments

[kossy]

Yes that baffon stands for mutual peaceful coexistence between Greeks and Turks, and with his colleague Chatzimarkakis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorgo_Chatzimarkakis )he pushes his agenda everytime he has the opportunity.

If that fool would stop those public relations gags, and wants to get serious he should propose a compensation for all those Greeks who lost their houses and businesses 1955 (those compensations would go into the hundreds of millions).

[Hermes]

Well said Kossy. This Cem character is a joke and he is sponsored by an odious organisation.

The latest post by Dean Kalimniou (a fellow Northern Epirote Stavros) is very good. Although it focuses on Australia, it is applicable to all Diaspora communities. Read on....

http://diatribe-column.blogspot.com/

[Stavros]

OK, so he's a member of the Green Party in Germany. Not exactly an organization that I have much in common with as both of you know by now. As a matter of fact I daresay the two of you are much closer to him politically than I but I won't belabor the point because I will probably feel the full force of your wrath.

I came across the article, liked it's candid tone, and felt a similar emotional tie to the city where both of us were born.

As for Diatribe, thanks for turning me on to it. I look forward to perusing its contents and feel good that there are increasing numbers of like minded voices in the blogosphere finally speaking to the millions of English speaking diasporan Greeks.

BTW, I am rather surprised by your silence on the events in Greece.

[Hermes]

Stavros, there is no wrath.

I will admit his descriptions of the City are evocative. Likewise, try and read Orhan Pamuk's Istanbul describing his youthful memories of the City and his descriptions of the Greeks, Armenians and Assyrians. I do not disagree with you in finding these articles interesting. I have travelled to the City too. However, Cem is sponsored by the Open Democracy organisation (which in turn has close associations with the US State Department, EU, and Greek One Worldists) which has tried rather successfully to put its fingers into Greek and Cypriot internal affairs. I am really getting tired of extra-territorial organisations usually sponsored by a phalanx of Left and Right leaning liberal and business elites attempting to subvert the national order in the name of the false gods of democracy, freedom and free markets.

What about the democratic rights of a nation to do as it pleases?

We as Greeks should be wary of these organisations and other ones with similar nation destroying aims like Evangelicals, Saudi sponsored Wahhabis and Zionists. They can assist us in improving the livelihood of the Patriarch and Greek minorities; however, they are also co-opted by Turks wanting to create problems with pseudo-Turkish Muslims in Thrace. To their credit the Russians have dealt with them correctly and they are now scurrying away from that country with a nice kick in the butt from the troika of the Kremlin, the secret service and His Holiness Patriarch Alexei II, may God give him strength to continue his work in destroying the parasites that engulfed his flock and re-evangelising the Mongols and Turks on the borderlands. http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/dettaglio.jsp?id=6929&eng=y. By the way I have read some interesting news of the Cossacks in the Caucasus. They tightly control alcohol in the villages, the men keep fit by participating in fighting sports and families are having 8-10 children. Putin has also created new special Cossack units in the army.

Again, if I had a blog I would also post Cem's article but I would provide a strong health warning for Hellenes.

Apart from their concern for ecology (which is important for every thinking person as nature nourishes the soul) I have nothing in common with Green Parties anywhere. I definitely do not agree with their other policies like gay marriage and other vlakies.

Dean is an intelligent writer and his site is worth close reading. As yet I have not found anything that is ideologically disagreeable i.e. a self loathing Greek attitude. Generally, his criticisms are sensible without spilling over into hyperbole and comical Messianic Apocalyptic visions of the Last Days.

The fires are a catastrophe for the families who have lost loved ones and their livelehoods. Also, greivance should be given to the natural environment. Fortunately, the ieros topos of Olympia was spared. However, natural catastrophes come and go and most Greek people are hardy and will bounce back. Some of the politicians have made some unedifying comments in order to gain mileage but this is to be expected. But I am impressed by everyday Greeks. And the comments on many excellent Greek blogs and electronic magazines are impressive. However, maybe some of these Greeks should have 4-5 babies (with a Greek partner) before spending their time writing blogs.

[kossy]

An interesting conversation with Sypros Vryonis on ERT3 can be found here (via Hellenic Nationalist):

http://hellenicnationalist.blogspot.com/2007/09/vryonisgreek-genocides-by-turkey.html

[Hermes]

Well done Kossy. We should never tire of highlighting Turkish crimes against humanity. You what amazes me about this people this their lack of any intellectual achievements. Any people that came into contact with the Greeks translated their scrolls and texts trying to glean some Hellenic knowledge. The Syrians, Egyptians, Latins, Russians and Arabs. Some Greek Americans denigrate Arabic culture (driven by Neo-Con and Zionist propaganda) for being barbaric. Admittedly, the Arabs are going through a slump. However, at a certain point in history their intellectuals were enamoured with Hellenism and they even made some advances. Amazingly, the Turks did nothing. It is utterly astonishing that they lived side by side with the Greeks for over 1000 years and they made absoloutely no effort. I am not fond of racial theories but this lack of any intellectual curiosity makes one very suspect.

Note how Spyros mentions the role of Donmeh. There is speculation that the Donmeh role was much more significant than what is known through the mainstream historical record.

Maybe the "Donmeh" are doing the same thing to the United States. Taki seems to think so.

http://www.takimag.com/site/article/cut_out_the_middleman/

[kossy]

Yes, that's right the cultural component for success is lacking with the Turks (and this translates into the lack of potential for economic growth as Edmund Phelps would say). However, I will mention two things:

1. Many Turks are genetically Greeks. They were forced to assimilate and you can distiguish them from the Mongrol Turks. Certainly the grow up in another cultural environment, and this might affect their upbringing.

2. I don't think many Greeks were allowed to flourish intellectually under Ottoman rule. Many of them left Byzantium prior to the fall of Constantinople, hence the beginning of the Renaissance in the Western world, and the people who stayed faced everyday problems.