Anti Greek Riots of 6 7 September 1955 and Their Effects in Istanbul s Kuzguncuk Quarter — Emircan Kürküt

Kuzguncuk is a small popular village in Istanbul near the Bosphorus According to most official and unofficial written andoral documents Kuzguncuk was a village of mostly Jews Greeks and Armenians rather than Muslim Turks up until the mid twentieth century In other words the neighborhood is usually describedby residents and in local and official discourses as a village of peace harmony and tolerance These narratives create the identity of Kuzguncuk as a happy peaceful and harmonic village Kuzguncuk s non Muslim population started to decrease following the Turkification and homogenization practices of the Turkish nation state such as Turkifying street names the 1930s the Capital Tax 1942 6 7 September Pogrom 1955 the de portation of Greeks 1964 and Cyprus military operation 1974 Most of the Greeks and Jews were forcibly or voluntarily migrated to Greece and Israel Specifically the events of 6 7 September directly damaged Kuzguncuk s non Muslims because looters attacked several non Muslim houses and shops Unfortunately recent statistics reveal that the current non Muslim population of Kuzguncuk is only 1 percent of the total population of the village Kuzguncuk lost its multicultural characteristic though Muslim Kuzguncuk residents hold up the multiethnic characteristic o f the village in their nostalgic discourses The general objective of this book is to unpack the historical facts of the Turkish Republic s homogenization and Turkification practices via an analysis of the case of Kuzguncuk In other words this study is a memory work of one of the well known villages of Istanbul