Wars & Conflicts
The 1955 Istanbul Pogrom
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An organized two day pogrom against the Greek Orthodox community of Istanbul on September 6 and 7, 1955, also known as the Septemvriana or the Istanbul riots, triggered by the false report, later shown to have been planted, that Greek nationalists had bombed the Turkish consulate and Ataturk's birth house in Thessaloniki the day before. Mobs mobilized with lists of Greek-owned properties, drawn up in advance, attacked Greek Orthodox churches, cemeteries, schools, homes and businesses across the city, along with Armenian and Jewish minority properties caught in the same violence, over two nights before martial law halted it.
Facts
The Event
When It Happened Principal PartiesMobs mobilized in Istanbul with the organizational involvement of the ruling Demokrat Parti and government-aligned trade unions, per Speros Vryonis's reconstruction, against the city's Greek Orthodox community and, in the same violence, its Armenian and Jewish minorities; the Turkish army eventually restored order under martial law. 1 Victim GroupIstanbul's Greek Orthodox community principally, its churches, cemeteries, schools, homes and businesses attacked across the city, with Armenian and Jewish minority properties also damaged in the same two nights of violence. 1 Perpetrator RegimeVryonis documents direct organizational involvement by the ruling Demokrat Parti under Prime Minister Adnan Menderes and by government-aligned trade unions in mobilizing and transporting the rioters, using property lists prepared in advance; the violence unfolded against the backdrop of the Cyprus dispute between Greece and Turkey. 1 Consequences
What It SettledMartial law halted the violence after two nights. Dozens of Greek Orthodox churches and thousands of Greek, Armenian and Jewish owned properties were destroyed or looted. The pogrom is widely treated as the decisive event that emptied Istanbul's ancient Greek Orthodox Rum community over the following decades, alongside later Cyprus-linked expulsions, reducing a population of roughly one hundred thousand to a small remnant. 1 Religious DimensionAttacks fell specifically on Greek Orthodox churches, cemeteries, clergy and religious institutions alongside residential and commercial property, and Vryonis reads the violence as deliberately targeting the community's religious and cultural infrastructure rather than as incidental damage in a general riot; the proximate trigger was the Cyprus dispute rather than doctrinal conflict. 1 Status
Official RecognitionNot formally recognized by any body 1 Recognition BasisNo international body has made a genocide or crimes against humanity determination for the 1955 Istanbul pogrom. A small number of low-level participants were tried in Turkey, but Vryonis documents that organizers within the ruling party and allied unions were never held accountable. 1 Disputed
Death TollEarly official Turkish tallies and some contemporary press accounts recorded as few as thirteen deaths; later scholarship treats this figure as an undercount produced amid the chaos of the two nights, when many casualties went unrecorded. Death TollLater reconstructions, including Vryonis's study, converge on a toll of roughly thirty six to thirty seven dead, now the more widely accepted figure; no reliable count exists for the wounded or for the sexual violence contemporary accounts also document. Learn More
The 1955 Istanbul Pogrom, a False Report and Two Nights of Violence
This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
An organized two day pogrom struck the Greek Orthodox community of Istanbul on September 6 and 7, 1955, also known as the Septemvriana or the Istanbul riots, triggered by the false report, later shown to have been planted, that Greek nationalists had bombed the Turkish consulate and Ataturk's birth house in Thessaloniki the day before. Mobs mobilized with lists of Greek-owned properties, drawn up in advance, attacked Greek Orthodox churches, cemeteries, schools, homes and businesses across the city, along with Armenian and Jewish minority properties caught in the same violence, over two nights before martial law finally halted it and restored order to the city's streets.
Dozens of Greek Orthodox churches and thousands of Greek, Armenian and Jewish owned properties were destroyed or looted. The pogrom is widely treated as the decisive event that emptied Istanbul's ancient Greek Orthodox Rum community over the following decades, alongside later Cyprus-linked expulsions, reducing a population of roughly one hundred thousand to a small remnant.
Organizers of the 1955 Istanbul Pogrom Never Held Accountable
This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
Speros Vryonis's reconstruction documents direct organizational involvement by the ruling Demokrat Parti under Prime Minister Adnan Menderes and by government-aligned trade unions in mobilizing and transporting the rioters, using property lists prepared well before the violence began. The unrest unfolded against the backdrop of the Cyprus dispute between Greece and Turkey, and Vryonis reads the attacks on churches, cemeteries and clergy as deliberately targeting the community's religious and cultural infrastructure rather than as incidental damage in a general riot.
A small number of low-level participants were tried in Turkey afterward, but Vryonis documents that organizers within the ruling party and allied unions were never held accountable, so the two nights of coordinated destruction closed without the political responsibility his own reconstruction assigns to it ever being formally acted on. No international body has made a genocide or crimes against humanity determination for the pogrom, leaving Vryonis's scholarly reconstruction as the closest thing to a formal accounting the episode has received.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Istanbul's Greek Orthodox community and its churches, cemeteries and clergy were the pogrom's principal target, attacked across the city over two nights.
Belongs to Tradition
Islam, Religions The mobs mobilized on September 6 and 7 were overwhelmingly Turkish Muslim, organized through the ruling party and government-aligned unions, but Vryonis reads the pogrom's proximate cause as the Cyprus dispute and nationalist mobilization rather than Islamic doctrine; this edge connects that shared communal identity to the violence without asserting it as Islam's own position.
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