THE GREEKS OF ISTANBUL

Paper presented on the OSCE – ODIHR Meeting on Human Dimensions in

          Warsaw on October 24th, 2000

 (Session 10: National Minorities)

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Under the terms of the Treaty of Lausanne which brought the Greco-Turkish War to an end, 120,000 Greeks stayed on in Turkey after 1923; this figure was offset by the 86,000 Muslims who remained in Greek Thrace. The number of Muslims in Greek Thrace today exceeds 100,000, while the Greek Community in Turkey , oppressed by a systematic orgy of persecutions, has dwindled to just 2,000 people.

Turkish diplomacy has been lying to all the international organizations for decades, claiming that the Greek minority which stayed on in Turkey after 1923 has shrunk for economic reasons and that Greeks fled Turkey en masse of their own free will in search of a better life, just like economic refugees the world over.

On behalf of a large Society whose members have been subjected to the hardships and cruelty of the Turkish persecutions, I should like, within the limited time at my disposal, to list just some of the actions carried out by the Turkish State over the past 70 years; I shall explain how even today Turkish justice is literally snatching properties of immense value from the hands of their rightful owners, the Greeks in Turkey.

·       In 1928, the large district of Tatavla in Constantinople , 90% of whose residents were Greek, was burned to the ground.

·       In 1941, as soon as Turkey had signed the “friendship and cooperation” agreement with Nazi Germany, it selectively mobilized young men of Greek, Armenian and Jewish descent between the ages of  25 and 40. These “conscripts”, many of whom suffered a tragic death, were sent to forced labour camps in the depths of Turkey ’s eastern provinces.

·       In 1942, secure in the neutral position it maintained throughout the Second World War, Turkey devised the emergency property tax (Varlik Vergisi - No. 4305/12.11.1942). This tax, paid almost exclusively by Greeks, Jews and Armenians, was imposed in an unprecedented and totally arbitrary manner on the fixed assets belonging to Turkey ’s non-Muslim inhabitants. Those who were unable to pay the enormous sum demanded for this sudden tax within the time-limit of 30 days were arrested and removed to forced labour camps, where many of them died.

·       On the night of 6th September, 1955 the Turkish government organized a staggering pogrom against the Christians living in Constantinople . Within the space of six hours, groups of demonstrators organized and directed by agents of the Turkish State burned, destroyed and looted 4,340 Greek shops, 2,600 Christian homes, 73 churches, 26 Greek schools, 110 Greek restaurants, 21 factories, 27 pharmacies and the premises of all the Greek newspapers published in Turkey. At least 20 people died and 200 women or girls were raped during that terrible night, which I also lived through as a child.

·       In 1963 and 1964, the Turkish government launched a wave of expulsions of the Christians of Greek nationality who were living in Turkey ; as a result, approximately 48,000 Christians were forced to leave Turkey within just a few months. The expulsions were carried out on such a massive scale that the lists of refugees who had to leave Turkey for reasons of “public safety” included the names of hundreds of elderly people, four who were mentally ill, two handicapped individuals, one who was deaf and dumb and six who were dead!

·       Almost simultaneously with the expulsions, the Turkish government put into effect Secret Decree 6/3801, issued on 2nd November 1964, which prohibited transfer of the ownership of property and other titles belonging to all individuals of Greek nationality and blocked, without exception, all the accounts held by these people at Turkish credit institutions and banks. This Secret Decree was rigorously implemented in Turkey for more than two decades until it was finally abolished - officially, at least - in 1987.

·       In 1971, in violation of any notion of international obligation, the Turkish government decided to close the famous Theological School at Halki which it still keeps closed today, despite the enormous international outcry.

·       Now, after the forced abolition of Secret Decree 6/3901 - an unprecedented piece of legislation for a so-called democratic country - Turkish justice has found another resourceful way to plunder the fixed assets of Greeks: it does not permit the sale or purchase of property belonging to the Greeks in Turkey, arguing “reciprocity” in the handling of their respective minorities which Greece and Turkey had agreed under Article 45 of the Treaty of Lausanne. Turkey considers that the Greek Law 1892/1990 imposing certain restrictions on the sale or purchase of property in all border regions of Greece , for reasons of national security, “prevents” the Muslims of Turkish nationality from buying and selling property in Greece ! In other words, Turkey is invoking the very treaty that it itself has systematically violated, debased and contravened by reducing the number of Greeks in Turkey from 120,000 in 1923 to the present 2,000, with the aim of seizing their properties! The “reciprocity” invoked by Turkish courts today is an unbelievable provocation by any reasoning, since this “reciprocity” refers to Greece’s right to reduce the number of Muslims in Thrace to the same number as the Turkish Republic reduced the Greeks in Turkey and is not, of course, a weapon for the pillaging of Greek properties! At this very moment, trials are taking place relating to vast properties that belong to Greeks, while Turkey - sometimes on the pretext of this so-called “reciprocity” and at others on the basis of a decision (which would be considered unprecedented in any civilized country) that the Greeks in Turkey have no rights of inheritance - has been expropriating as many Greek properties as it can.

·       In addition to confiscating privately-owned properties, however, the Turkish Republic is today operating a wide variety of ingenious schemes aimed at gaining possession of the title deeds of properties belonging to the Greek Community in Turkey , which are of immense value. One such stratagem concerns the “discovery” by the Turkish courts in the course of the last few years that gifts made to Community institutions in Turkey by Greek benefactors after 1936 are invalid and that these properties belong to the Turkish State !

Ladies and Gentlemen,

After this brief summary of some of the actions carried out by the Turkish State you will understand why there are strong reservations regarding both the will and the ability of the Turkish Republic to conform to the European idea of a Just State, and why we must make a concerted effort to put a stop, even at this late stage, to the flagrant disregard for any kind of human right and for all the obligations which the Turkish Republic undertook within the context of the Treaty of Lausanne.

Thank you for your attention.