KARŞI SANAT GALLERY
Karşı Sanat used to be located on the third floor of the Elhamra Passage/ Arcade, repaired and used as a theater and entertainment space after being partially burned down in the Great Beyoğlu Fire of 1831 and later renovated in the “national architectural” style after being bought by Arapzade Said Bey in 1920. Many critical exhibitions and events regarding various contemporary political and social issues were held in this space set up by Feyyaz Yaman in 2000.
The exhibition titled “From the Archives of Rear Admiral Fahri Çoker: the Events of September 6-7 on their Fiftieth Anniversary” (“Tümamiral Fahri Çoker’in Arşivinden: Ellinci Yılında 6-7 Eylül Olayları”) opening on the 6th of September 2005 was one of these. Deliberately made to coincide with the anniversary of the 6-7 September incidents of 1955, the exhibit brought together a series of previously unreleased photographs and historic documents demonstrating that high-level state administrators and organizations they supported had been involved in instigating these events. The photographs were from Retired Rear Admiral Fahri Çoker’s private archive, which he had donated to the History Foundation (Tarih Vakfı) so as to be published, but only after his death. Çoker had served as presiding jugde in the Beyoğlu District Martial Law Court, one of those established immediately after the events of 6-7 September. With their originals in black-and-white print, these photographs were enlarged and reprinted by Karşı Sanat Works. The exhibition also featured facts and witness accounts quoted from historian Dilek Güven’s academic study titled The Events of September 6-7 in the Context of Minority Policies of the Republican Era (Cumhuriyet Dönemi Azınlık Politikaları Bağlamında 6-7 Eylül Olayları).
I was standing guard in front of a Greek friend’s shop, holding a Turkish flag. They came with a list in their hands. I told them this shop belonged to a Turk. One of them said this was impossible, since the name was on the list. I responded saying, ‘Well, there’s a mistake in the list then’. The lists in their hands had all the street names and door numbers. They kept giving instructions to each other: ‘This house belongs to a Greek, that one over there is an Armenian’s, loot this shop, break into that apartment’ etc.
I couldn’t believe what I saw in my yaya’s (Greek for ‘grandmother’) house. The doors and windows were no more. The fridge, wardrobes, mirrors were in pieces, their contents heaped in front of the house. Mattresses and quilts had been cut up, and wool scattered everywhere. The clothes, shoes, covers, cloths and carpets had been shredded, dishes were smashed into a thousand pieces. The bed base had been broken apart, chandeliers, glass cases, tables, chairs and sofas had been axed. There were pools of wood, coal, gas, salt, sugar, oil and eggs on the ground. The stove too had been vandalized. Even the stuff in some suitcases had been destroyed beyond use, being cut with scissors.
On the day it was opened, the exhibit was attacked by a mob of 20-30 people. Despite the fact that 200 police officers had been stationed outside and plainclothes police inside the gallery in case of any such attack, this group of nationalists were able to start handing out flyers and hurling eggs at the photographs yelling, “Turkey belongs to Turks and will remain that way,” “death to traitors”, “love it or leave it”, “why are you putting up these instead of photographs of Cyprus”, and “don’t dare try to defend those who burnt down Ataturk’s house”. The police finally intervened and dispersed the group when they started ripping up photographs and throwing them out the window. The reaction against this attack was strong, and the exhibition received wide media coverage. Many people came to see the exhibit and expressed their gratitude in the visitors’ book. Yet the attack went unpunished: two of those referred to court were released immediately, and the other after paying a fine.
In some ways, this attack is reminiscent of the incidents that took place 50 years ago, since the exhibition space itself is located on İstiklal Avenue, where most of the photographs on display were originally shot – it being among the sites that suffered the greatest destruction. Even the view out of the windows of Karşı Sanat was the same as that in the photograph of tanks passing along looted shops on İstiklal Avenue around the time of 6-7 September: with people amidst piles of wares looted from shops cast in front of the Church of St. Anthony of Padua (St. Antuan) located across the Elhamra Passage, two tanks, officers, and a woman and child gazing out on this scene most probably from a balcony on Elhamra.
