On May 25 I posted a link to Alyssa A. Lappen’s superb article, “Turkey’s Forgotten Islamist Pogrom,” which notes:
Published this month by Greekworks.com, the work subtitled The Turkish Pogrom of September 6-7, 1955, and the Destruction of the Greek Community of Istanbul shows that riots which destroyed 4,500 Greek homes, 3,500 businesses, 90 religious institutions and 36 schools in 45 distinct communities, resulted not only from “fervid chauvinism, or even [from] the economic resentment of many impoverished rioters, but [from] the profound religious fanaticism in many segments of Turkish society.”
Now, from ekathimerini.com (thanks to Sparta) comes an important sidelight to this story:
Within a few hours, 45 Greek communities were looted and destroyed on that September night in 1955, when a protest in Istanbul veered out of control.
Greeks and Armenians were savagely beaten and there were gang rapes.
Turkish writer Aziz Nessin says that any male passer-by the Turks considered a Greek was forced to show if he had been circumcised.
In some cases, Nessin says, Turks carried out “circumcisions” on the spot with knives.
Vryonis shakes his head sadly when these incidents are mentioned to him. He says most of the victims of this atrocity were Greek priests.