Expulsion of Greeks from Istanbul

The Turkish government enacted a series of measures in 1964–1965 that resulted in a dramatic decrease in the number of Greeks in Istanbul, such as the "wealth" tax of 1942 and later the anti-Greek pogrom of September 1955.

The Greeks of Istanbul were initially excluded from the Greek–Turkish population exchange of 1923 and were allowed to remain in the city. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Greek minority was used as an apparatus of pressure for the Cyprus issue as part of the Greek–Turkish relations. The anti-Greek measures of 1964–1965 resulted in a drastic reduction in the number of Greeks in Istanbul. As such, from a population of about 80,000 only about 30,000 remained in 1965. The measures also resulted in the appropriation of minority-owned properties by the Turkish state and were accompanied by restrictions in the fields of religion and education. The expulsion during this period was part of the final phase of state measures aimed at the Turkification of the local economic, social, and cultural life.