Byzantine Studies and Istanbul’s Greek-Speaking Community: The 1950s and the Tenth International Congress of Byzantine Studies

Year 2024, Volume: 6, 133 - 145, 31.12.2024

Koray Durak

https://doi.org/10.53979/yillik.2024.11

Abstract

Ari Çokona, a teacher at Zografeion High School and a well-known translator of modern Greek literature into Turkish, recently shared with me the following about the Greek Orthodox community’s schools in Istanbul: “Okullarımızda Rum öğretmenlerin tarih hakkında konuşması pek desteklenen bir şey değil [It is generally discouraged for Greek teachers to discuss history in our schools].” This discouragement, or rather imposed erasure, has deep roots. The renowned English Byzantinist Sir Steven Runciman, who taught at Istanbul University between 1942 and 1945, recalls that Turkish authorities discouraged “members of minority races – Greeks, Armenians and Jews – from participating in history classes,” although these same authorities, Runciman notes, had no objections to “minority races” studying art and archaeology.

Keywords

MECLİS, Turkish Republic, Istanbul, Tenth International Congress of Byzantine Studies, Theological School of Chalke

Thanks

I would like the thank the following individuals and institutions for their contributions to my research: the Orthodox Patriarchate of Istanbul (especially His All Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew, Metropolitan Bishop Stefanos Dinides, Father Alexander, and Antonios Hacopoulos), Sismanoglio Megaro (especially Evangelia Achlade), Akilas Millas, Antonis Parisianos, Artemis Papatheodorou, Charalampos Theodorelis-Rigas, and Nike Stravrides.

References

• Steven Runciman, A Traveller’s Alphabet: Partial Memoirs. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1991.