Tag #125500 - Interview #97881 (Lina Franko)

The events of September the 6th and the 7th  [17] suddenly shadowed these nice memories. We heard noises that night but didn’t pay much attention. My husband was shocked when he went to work the next morning and saw what had been done. At the time, we were living in Tukenmez Yuva, in Caddebostan. Eveyrwhere was looted. The refrigerators in the houses were lying in the streets. All the consumer goods had been thrown out onto the streets. They claimed that this was done by a few looters. The government said that they couldn’t stop these looters. I think being unable to stop them was also a failure. According to the rumors, this was done against the Greeks, and they say that even some Greek girls were raped. For them the term “non-muslim” meant, Jew, Armenian or Greek. The headman in Burgazada prevented the looters who came in barges from stepping onto the island and was able to protect the citizens living there. The damage both in Beyoglu and Buyukada was big. Our landlords kept us in their houses till morning. They tried to calm us down by saying “as long as we are here, they can’t harm you”. Of course, there were also some robberies, and a big financial damage occurred.