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.