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Turkey’s non-Muslims demand apology from Ankara

On the 60th anniversary of the Istanbul pogroms, Turkey’s exiled minorities and their descendants are demanding acknowledgment and restitution from the Turkish state.
A general view shows St George church, the principal Greek Orthodox cathedral, during the Divine Liturgy on November 30, 2014 in Istanbul as part of the Pope Francis' three day visit in Turkey. Pope Francis held an ecumenical prayer, yesterday, in the Orthodox Church of St. George and a private meeting with Patriarch Bartholomew I, the "first among equals" of the world's estimated 300 million Orthodox believers. In a highly symbolic gesture, the pope asked Bartholomew to kiss his brow in a blessing and bowe
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Sept. 6-7 marked the 60th anniversary of pogroms against non-Muslims in Istanbul that forced thousands to emigrate from Turkey. For the first time, the city’s remaining non-Muslims, now a dwindling community, held a church service to honor the victims of the pogroms.

Riots erupted on Sept. 6, 1955, after a newspaper fabricated a report of a bomb attack on the house in which Ataturk was born in the Greek city of Thessaloniki. Turkish-Greek relations had soured at the time over the future of Cyprus. Turkish mobs that were clearly pre-organized took to the streets, attacking and plundering homes and shops owned by non-Muslims, mainly Greeks. Churches and cemeteries were vandalized. Several non-Muslims were killed and many injured.

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