Tag #123830 - Interview #97983 (Janet Arguete)

I was already in Istanbul during 6-7 September events [7].  I had come to Istanbul in 1946.  There was a Greek grocer under the home of my mother-in-law, Lucy Arguete in Dereboyu [Main street of Ortakoy.  Greeks, Jews and Muslims lived alongside each other on this street.  A river ran through the middle of this street, and crossing from one sidewalk across to the other was by bridges.  Ortakoy is one of the first places in Istanbul that the Jews who ran away from Spain settled in when the Ottoman Empire accepted them.  It is situated on the shores of the Bosphorus in Istanbul].  Looters entered the house and cut up my mother-in-law’s rugs.  My mother-in-law escaped with her nightgown and came to us.  When I went out the next day, my heart ached.  There were refrigerators, washing machines, rolls of fabric, sacks of all kinds of produce dragging through the streets.  It looked more like a war zone than a looting zone.