"In Turkey, a Clash of Nationalism and History
Exhibit Marking Anniversary of Istanbul Pogrom Breaks Taboos and Kindles Anger
By Karl Vick
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, September 30, 2005; Page A15
ISTANBUL -- The exhibit opened 50 years to the day after the mayhem it chronicled in the cobblestone street right outside the gallery.
Captured on black-and-white glossies was a modern-day pogrom, a massive, state-sponsored assault on a foreign community that awoke on the morning of Sept. 6, 1955, still feeling safe in Istanbul. By sunset a day later, a mob of perhaps 100,000 Turks had attacked foreigners' homes, schools and churches, and filled whole streets with the contents of the ruined shops that lined them. In the aftermath of the attack, a city for centuries renowned for its diversity steadily purged itself of almost everyone who could not claim to be Turkish."
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