This photograph was taken on the Burgazada coast in 1955, before the 6-7 September incidents, while Leonidas Mikropoulos (rest in peace) was riding his sister's bike. In the background, a uniformed police, guard or other officer appears. It is not possible for me to know who he is, but it is enough to remind us of the heroes who carried out the Burgaz Island Resistance and the events that destroyed the world of this innocent child during the 6-7 September. I quote the rest of the defense story from the book Those who left their mark on the Istanbul Islands.
Halit, the watchman, put 20 people at strategic points in Captain Hüseyin's boat. Hunting guns were placed at the front, near and sides of the boat. He also found places for young boys ready to fire stones from slingshots. Vessels that did not ''Halt'' on command would be fired upon with stones while the guns fired towards the sea. It was absolutely forbidden to fire on people...In the morning of Tuesday, September 6, 1955, Istanbul workplaces and houses belonging to people from other religions were attacked and looted. People were wounded, murdered and raped. It was expected that looterss would attack the islands on ferries and motor boats. In fact, gunfire had been heard on Heybeliada and flames were leaping to the sky. Burgazada Governor Zühtü nad Commissars Remzi and Ahmet organised the islanders. Those from other religions were sheltered in the homes of Muslims, and at the boats' landing sites, islanders waited, some armed with guns, and those without guns were armed with sticks and stones. The people of Burgazada held out to the end. The attackers were driven back, two fleeting boats collided, eventually sinking one of them, but no one was shot and no one died...