THE MIRACLE A True Story slowly and sadistically, by crucifixion, but they ran out of time. Martial law was declared at midnight and they were too afraid of the consequences to flout the law.    The Patriarchal tombs and relics of the great Greek benefactors, which had been kept in the wall of the monastery courtyard since 1850, were flattened and desecrated with an almost cannibalistic zeal. The graves of the Patriarchs were ripped open and their bones scattered everywhere.    Twenty-one Greek factories were completely demolished. Any that lay along the coastal road beside the Bosphorus had their machinery and equipment torn out and thrown into the sea.    A total of 110 Greek restaurants and hotels were plundered and then smashed or burned down, while all 27 Greek pharmacies in the city were stripped and demolished.    It is estimated that the number of cases of women raped that night, irrespective of their age, was well over 200. The total number of people who lost their lives that night exceeded 20, despite the orders that there were to be no killings. Of the hundreds of cases of rape reported, some incidents were particularly shocking to the Greek community. At Ortakoy a group of demonstrators seized a woman dressed in black who had the misfortune to find herself in their path. After each of them had "had his fun" with her, they abandoned the wretched woman where she lay, unconscious and bleeding. She was discovered the next day, still alive, and taken to hospital where doctors confirmed the experience had driven her insane.    At a house in Tatavla, two orphan girls were waiting anxiously for their father to come home. But instead of their father, who worked in the Bosphorus district and was unable to return before the disturbances started, a gang of rioters suddenly appeared, raped them both and left them lying in a pool of blood. When their poor father finally came home, the shock of what had happened to the two girls was too much for him and he hanged himself.    At Yenisehir, egged on by the shouts of the crowd, an 8-year-old girl was raped by a well-known porter nicknamed the Gorilla, so called because of his repulsive face, which was pocked with the marks of syphilis. The little girl survived the ordeal but was to carry the trauma of that night with her for the rest of her life.    Two women, Zinovia Charitonidou and Asimenia Parapandopoulou, died as a result of being raped that night.    The names of some of the others who died in the Turkish pogrom that September night were Olga Kimioglou, aged 80, who was trampled to death by the mob in the area of Golden Horn Bay; Giorgos Korpovas, Emmanuil Tzanetis, Avraam Anavas and Nikolaos Karamanoglou.    I still remember that appalling night as if it were yesterday; I remember being huddled in terror in a corner of the flat roof of our house, waiting frantically for our turn to come. And indeed, at around 11 o'clock the night sky, already thick with smoke and fire wherever you looked, was suddenly filled with fearful cries of "Death to the giavours! Death to the giavours!", "Yikin, kirin, giavourdur! Smash it, pull it down - it belongs to the giavours!"    The shouting was getting dangerously close. My mother crossed herself, whispering with trembling lips: "Jesus Christ wins and scatters all evils". Without being conscious of doing so, we all followed suit and crossed ourselves, repeating our mother's words.    The rabble was drawing nearer.    Our house was on a steep hill called Enli Yokus. At the 49 and 50 Leonidas Koumakis THE MIRACLE A True Story If you prefer a hard copy of the book, please send an email to HEC-Books@hec.greece.org Previous Page | Initial Page | Site Map | Next Page (51st of 204) © For Internet 2001 HEC and Leonidas Koumakis. Updated on 19 June 2001.