Presidential mistakes

Most people know who the premier of Greece is: Yorgos Papandreou. But lots of people forget that Greece also has a president - Karolos Papoulias. Unlike Papandreou he does not appear that often in the news and I must admit I would not recognize him if I bumped into him in the street. And yet he is the first citizen of Greece. Last week the president of Armenia was on an official visit to Athens and naturally he had a meeting with the Greek president. One of the things Papoulias said to him was: ‘We (meaning Greeks and Armenians) were slaughtered by the same barbarians.’

This was of course a totally bad diplomatic move. By ‘barbarians’ he meant neighbouring Turkey, with whom Greece already has a fragile relationship and so there were angry reactions and threats to call a halt to the traffic of Turkish tourist boats visiting the Greek islands of the Aegean.

Nowadays more and more Turks visit the Aegean islands, amongst others Lesvos, to enjoy the peace and quiet, the sun and sea. They are very friendly people who spend quite a bit of money here and a boycott would I am sure be a sad loss of income.

This incident might also damage current plans to organize boat excursions between north Lesvos and Turkey. Trips would depart from Petra harbour and go over the strait to Assos the old ‘twin’ city of Molyvos, which faces our villages of Argenos and Sykaminia.

In summer season there’s are regular boats from Mytilini to Dikili or Ayvalik - cute little towns where you can go shopping. Because Lesvos has no market, the one in Ayvalik is especially popular and even though you are not supposed to bring back fresh produce the boats are always full of Lesviots who have found bargains in Turkey.

A trip to Assos means more than getting a taste of Turkish atmosphere or kebabs. It’s a beautiful little town rather like Molyvos and has plenty of archaeological sites including a Doric temple dedicated to Athena (from 530 BC). The town was founded long before that by the Aeolian people from Mythimna. For a short time it was goverened by a student of Plato - Hermias of Atarneus. He encouraged philosophers to visit Assos, including Aristotle who even married Hermias’ daughter. The Persians conquered the region, only to be chased out by Alexander the Great. For a short time the kings of Pergamum reigned until the Romans came. After the fall of the Roman Empire the region was ruled from Byzantium (Constantinople/Istanbul), until the Ottomans arrived and later the state of Turkey was created.

At the end of the nineteenth century archaeologists found the old temple of Athena and many other treasures which ended up in the Louvre in Paris. As well as the temple there is also a polygonal wall, graves, and an open air theatre.

So as well as a trip to Turkey an excursion to Assos would attract people interested in ancient Greek culture - something that on Lesvos has either disappeared or is buried under the ground.

Maybe this sea traffic would also encourage the Lesviot municipality to restore the old Turkish baths in Molyvos. Then the Turks who come here can see some of their own old culture. The plans for their restoration have been on the table for years, and there was money for it, but up to now these once beautiful baths are just a Turkish ruin.

Fortunately, lots of Turkish travel agents are against the proposed boycott, so let’s hope this diplomatic spat will be quickly forgotten and that next summer will see plenty of Turkish tourists visiting Lesvos again. With a little bit of luck they might even find a newly restored Turkish bath house, and, in the other direction, you might extend your trip to the north of the island with a visit to the remains of Greek culture in Turkey.

(with thanks to Tony Barrell)

@ Smitaki 2011

Neighbor fight

While in Athens peace still is not entirely restored and the government only reformed into a new coat, an old problem did resurrect: violation by Turkish jets of the Greek airspace and the fight over the territorial waters. According to Greece the Greek territorial waters are 12 kilometers into the sea, the Turkish only agree with 6 kilometers. So when Turkish jets fly over the non-acknowledged 6 miles, for Greece that is a violation of its airspace.

The incident last week started when a Greek plane helped on sea with a rescue of refugees, close to Samos and close to the Turkish border. Then Turkish jets came and harassed the rescue action. The next day Turkish and Greek jet planes went into dogfights, amongst others above Lesvos. Since that day relations between the countries have worsened.

The inhabitants of Lesvos however more and more try to forget the old feuds between Turkey and Greece and start visiting Turkey, the country where parents or grandparents from many Lesvorians come from. Some even still have a house at the other side and they venture out as far as Istanbul.

Turkey is a Walhalla for Greek shoppers because except for the fuel everything is far cheaper than on Lesvos. The business between both coasts therefore slowly grows.

Even protest groups are gathering together. Like last week there was a meeting between Greek and Turkish people to protest at the building of a new electricity plant in Aliagi, under the smoke of Izmir, just 50 kilometers away from Mytilini (from East Lesvos you can see its chimney). Between the already existing polluting petrol chemical industry the plant will be working on coal, what will bring more air, water and ground pollution. And they even do not intend using the good quality of Turkish coal, but want to import a more inexpensive but less qualitative coal from South Africa.

It is estimated that the plant will yearly need 2,8 million of tons of coal, the ash will be spread around in the region. They as well will need a daily 50.000 liter seawater to cool the engines, what means that that same amount, only hot water this time (35oC), will flow back into sea. I have nothing against a nice hot sea, but I can imagine that everything that lives in the sea will not like a warmed up sea. So for sure, this pollution in Turkey as well will bother Lesvos.

Another more invisible fight is about the goldmines in Turkey. First of all Lesvos has many (or maybe all) sources thanks to the mountains of Ida (the Kaz Dagi, named as well ‘The Magic Mountains’, that you see from the North of Lesvos: those high mountains towering in the background above all other mountains). Just imagine a pair of communicating barrels: one end in the Ida mountains, the other end in the mountains of Lesvos. Lesvos not only has that many sources, but as well its rivers thanks to Turkey, because underground water flows to the island. It is good that this is just nature and not a pipeline, otherwise, just like Russia, Turkey could shut off the water when having a fight with the Greeks.

The Canadian Global company got licenced to dig up gold at the bottom of the mountains of Kaz Dagi. Times are over when masses of people looking for gold came to spend years in little rivers to find the gold, like happened in America. To win gold these days you need cyanide: “In the so-called cyanide progress, finely ground high-grade ore is mixed with the cyanide; low-grade ores are stacked into heaps and sprayed with cyanide solution. The precious-metal cations are complexed by the cyanide anions to form soluble derivatives. The ‘pregnant liquor’ containing these ions is separated from the solids, which are discarded to a tailing pond or spent heap, the recoverable gold having been removed. The metal is recovered from the ‘pregnant solution’ by reduction with zinc dust or by absorption onto activated carbon” (from Wikipedia). So for sure this cyanide will enter the ground water and off course some of it will emerge in the waters of Lesvos.

Lesvos is proud of its undisturbed nature, but you see that this island as well can get a source of an international fight. The Greek government however has more important things that matter than these ‘trivial’ environment pollutions as long as this eternal fight about airspace violations and territorial borders will not be solved. As long as this fight will not grow bigger, the inhabitants of Lesvos do not bother and can better help the Turkish to fight against polluting industries for a clean Turkish as well as a clean Greek environment.

Copyright © Smitaki 2009

Aegean rumbling

Every morning I read the paper. Well, reading, I mostly surf the Dutch headlines on the internet and then I go to a site for Greek news in English. Although there are Lesvian papers online, I don't read them because my still poor knowledge of the Greek language doesn't permit me to take in all the local news. Maybe just as well, because otherwise I would give you the latest news about which roads are closed, local politics or which Lesvian have gone to heaven.

Some days ago, amongst the articles about national Greek politics, reports of some minor earthquakes, the heat and the wild fires, I read the headline: "Conflict between Persians and Greeks". I was perplexed reading about the growing tension between the Persians, led by their new King Xerxes who prepared to attack Greece, and the Athenians, also preparing for battle. The article finished by saying that no doubt a conflict would soon take place.

And there has been a conflict. At the battle of Salamis (near Athens) in 480 BC the mighty Persian army was defeated by the Greeks, which meant that the Persians would soon withdraw from Greece. A curious article for the summer of 2007...

Like many other Greek islands, Lesvos was at that time occupied by the Persians. They were treated so badly that they had no choice but to fight with 60 ships alongside Xerxes against the Athenians. However a year later, at the battle at Mycale between the Persians and the Greek city states, the Lesvians sided with the Athenians.

Occupation by the Athenians was also not nice, so the Lesvians were still suffering. In 440 BC the whole of the island, except for Molyvos, rose up against the Athenians. Later the island was conquered by Spartans, then the Athenians returned, and then again the Persians and so on. It used to be a rough time here on the island, with wars always going on and always new occupiers.

Nowadays it is a lot quieter on the island, but you still keep reading articles that make you worry about the enemy of Greece that consciously or not tries to shatter the stability. What I'm talking about is the continual harassment of Turkish jets flying into Greek air space. According to the Turkish Daily News this month Greek jets already harrassed Turkish F-16s 58 times. Sometimes they have so-called dog fights, sometimes they are just chasing each other. If you believe the papers, it looks like a kindergarten for the pilots above the coast of Turkey. The politicians try to stay as polite and diplomatic as possible, while the military leadership and the pilots make it seem like war.

When I look over the blue sea, beyond which the Turkish mountains climb to heaven, I can only see a lonely windsurfer, far away a freighter or a ferry and sometimes a majestic old sailing ship with many sails catching the wind. The jets, I hear regularly, but those things are so fast that I rarely see them, and I definitely will never see if they are Turkish or Greek.

In the time of the Persians they used to have huge warships, the triremes. They had three rows of rowers at each side and one big sail. Well, that would've been a nice sight, seeing them passing by. At the battle of Salamis there were 371 Greek ships and 1,207 Persian. If I'd seen such a fleet passing I definitely would have called the papers, telling them something was in the air.

But as long as I live here on Lesvos, I'm used to the rumbling sound of these jets. Just like I'm used to reading about the chases of other jets. Except that last year a Turkish and a Greek jet collided in the air, not far from Crete, and the pilot of the Greek jet did not survive the crash. Even then the politicians didn't make a big deal out of it and kept the fragile peace between Greece and Turkey.

Last weekend there was a totally different reason to quarrel: a concert by the famous Greek singer Giorgos Dalaras was cancelled at short notice by the Turkish government, without any reason. The concert was to take place on Saturday night at the Rumeli castle, on the European side of the Bosphorus in Istanbul. They say that they didn't want Dalaras to sing because he is outspoken about the occupation of North Cyprus by the Turkish. It's not sure how big the quarrel will get, but it's for sure that relations between Turkey and Greece will always rumble on.

When I hear the grumbling of jets far away, I rather think of a juicy thunderstorm with lots of rain. The heat wave is gone (a new one is approaching though), the days keep on being warm. The only effect of the strong winds that sometimes blow is making the danger of wild fires greater. The fires at Polychnitos and Agia Paraskevi were extinguished. The Persians are gone. That's all the news there is this week...

Copyright © Smitaki 2007

Frontiers

Not all tourists realise that Lesvos is geographically surrounded by Turkey. From the south, the east and the north, the island faces Turkey: the regions of Izmir, Balikesir and Canakkale. The small town of Ayvalik is opposite the North eastern part of Lesvos. This town, which used to be inhabited mainly by Greeks, until the Greek-Turkish war of 1919-1922, can be visited on a day trip from Lesvos. When you are in the north of the island and look to the left, it seems that Turkey ends there. But just around that corner lies the famous old city of Troy. The city of Izmir, also known as Smyrna, is further to the south, nearly at the same latitude as the neighbouring island of Chios.

According to a recent public opinion poll, 60% of Greeks think that parts of Turkey should belong to Greece: Anatolia, Izmir and Constantinople (Greece has never recognised the new name of Istanbul). If you did this poll on Lesvos, the outcome would probably be even higher, because many inhabitants of the island are from Turkey, or have parents or grandparents who come from the other side.

Centuries before Christ, Smyrna used to be an Aeolian city. Then it became an Ionian city. In 545 BC it was destroyed by the Persians, in 300 BC it was rebuilt by Alexander the Great. So much for its Greek history.

The Turkish conquered the city for the first time in 1076. In 1122 it was retaken by the Byzantines. Then the Ottomans and Genoese fought over it. In 1425 the city finally became definitely Ottoman. The Ottoman Empire ruled over many different peoples. In the 17th century there were Greeks, Turks, Jews and Armenians living in Smyrna, alongside powerful merchants from Holland, England, Italy and France. Izmir became an international trading city.

In Greece you learn that the Greeks especially were the greatest merchants in Smyrna. In many a book you will see pictures of proud Greeks in the once prosperous city. This idyllic international life came to an end with the Greek-Turkish war in 1922. When the Greeks lost, not only was the Greek army expelled from the Ottoman Empire, but also most of its Greek inhabitants. Izmir is known for the bloody slaughter when Greek people tried to flee from the harbour to the Greek islands. The city was burned to the ground and when a year later Kemal Atatürk founded the state of Turkey, not much was left of the once prosperous trading city.

There are 7 cities that claim that Homer was born within their borders: Salamis, Argos, Athens, Rhodes, Colophon, Chios and Izmir. As most people think that Homer was born in Ionia, this means that Homers birthplace must be Chios or Izmir. The most famous refugee to escaped from Izmir in 1922 was the wealthy shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. Also the parents of Haris Alexiou were refugees from Izmir. This very popular Greek singer visited the country of her grandparents for the fist time after the earthquakes of 1999. While in Greece she had been popular for nearly 40 years, she then conquered Turkey as well.

It is obvious that Turkey is part of many a Greek family history and therefore it is not surprising that some Greeks think that a part of Turkey should be Greek.

About two months ago the government of Lesvos surprised its inhabitants by saying it wished to buy the Turkish island of Garip, which is located in the Aegean not far from Izmir (see: www.garipisland.com). The island is best known for a battle in 406 BC, between Spartans and Athenians.

Now it is a private island of a Turkish family who wish to sell it for some 11 million euro. A little after it became known that the government of Lesvos was interested in the island, the Turkish state said that the island could not be sold to Greeks.

Well, it was too good to be true. Instead of making war, buying your property back. Although I always doubted that if Lesvos had managed to buy the island, the Greek flag would have been allowed to fly on Garip...

Copyright © Smitaki 2007