Minnet av 6-7 septemberhändelserna - istanbulbornas minne av upploppet mot den grekiska minoriteten

The memory of expulsions among the expelling groups has been fairly studied, and has potential to create new conflicts. This qualitative study uses in-depth interviews to describe the memory of the 6-7 September events and the Greek minority in Istanbul among a group of Turkish descent people living in Beyoglu, Istanbul. Further the study compares the memory with the written history and explains why the memories of the past are shaped according to the present. The Greek minority of Istanbul are remembered in words of friendship and neighbourliness, but these memories are rather a nostalgia of the past for present needs than an image of the past itself. The memories of the events among the studied group are dominated by the general destruction occasioned by the riots but tend to contradict the violence towards the Greek minority. There exists a discrepancy between the memory and the written history concerning the acts of violence during the riots, the underlying causes of the riots and the period after the events. This article explains the reconstructed memory as a product of strategies for avoiding the experience of collective guilt