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.

The service was held at the St. George Greek Orthodox Church, which was damaged in the riots. “The memories of the Greeks remain alive on the 60th anniversary of the deplorable Sept. 6-7 events,” read an announcement from the church in the Greek-language newspaper Apoyevmatini. Representatives of the Jewish, Armenian and Syriac communities also attended the service.

Jewish businessman Ralf Arditti, now 70, was a 10-year-old boy at the time of the pogroms. In an interview with Al-Monitor, he recounted his memories of Sept. 6, 1955: “We were in our house on Buyukada [one of Istanbul’s Princes’ Islands]. I was sleeping when suddenly the noise began. My father woke me up. He took us to the Anatolia Club, which was 50 meters down the street. The club was a state-owned place where parliament members stayed. So it was supposed to be safe and we took refuge there. A huge mob was coming on boats. They were not residents of the island. While rushing to the club, I saw men with sticks in the distance. We waited until the next morning for the unrest to abate. When we stepped out in the early hours of the morning, we saw that the seafront restaurants, sweet shops and offices owned by non-Muslims were destroyed. They were all plundered. My family agonized over whether to stay or leave Turkey. Eventually they decided to stay despite all the difficulties.”