DEM Party commemorates 1955 September 6-7 pogroms in Turkey

The DEM Party has issued a statement commemorating the anniversary of the September 6-7, 1955 pogroms in Turkey. The party described the events as one of the country’s “unresolved heaviest shames,” noting that the attacks targeted the homes, businesses, and places of worship of Greek, Armenian, and Jewish citizens.

The statement highlighted that the violence resulted in deaths, injuries, and the forced displacement of many individuals from their ancestral lands. The party emphasized that facing the past requires a responsibility to prevent similar hatred from being organized in the future, calling for a democratic society where everyone can live freely regardless of identity, language, or belief.

Historical accounts of the 1955 events detail how a report of a bomb attack on Atatürk’s birthplace in Thessaloniki was used to incite crowds. These groups, reportedly coordinated by organizations such as the Cyprus is Turkish Society and the Istanbul High School Students Union, engaged in widespread looting and destruction of non-Muslim properties across Istanbul, including the İstiklal Avenue area.