History goes in cycles and while this is one of its most charming features if you’re a scholar, it is not so pleasant when you’re actually experiencing it.
A few days ago I was in Istanbul to attend an event held in memory of the late Turkish journalist Mehmet Ali Birand. I remembered the expression on his face when he first visited Athens around 1998. He was impressed by the wealth, the dynamism and the air of Europe that was evident everywhere.
“Wow, you guys have really progressed. You’ve left us far behind,” he told me after a long walk through central Athens. Had Birand been alive today, I may very well have uttered the same words to him about Istanbul.
Turkey today is a country that exudes confidence and has made marked leaps forward.
Let’s start with the trip. The airplane was full of Greek Americans heading home, as Ataturk International Airport has become a hub for travel to the United States, Asia and Africa. Here in Greece, we used to brag about our overly expensive new airport, but we never succeeded it turning it into a real crossroads.
On the streets of Istanbul, there is ample evidence of construction activity as new residential complexes spring up near the banks of the Bosporus and new private universities go into operation, making Greek universities seem like poor relatives in comparison.
Turkey has made so many leaps forward because it has found in Recep Tayyip Erdogan its own Andreas Papandreou. But there is a difference between the two. The Turkish prime minister has modernized his country and unleashed its creative forces, while at the same time assimilating into the system the masses of Anatolians who voted for him. He tore down outdated institutions and built new ones in their place.
On the other hand, while Turkey may be in its prime right now, it is also showing cracks that have many observers very concerned. Its overambitious foreign policy opened fronts that have no strategic advantages; its economy is at risk if the real estate bubble bursts and drags banks down with it; and democracy is being sorely tested, if the experiences of non-establishment journalists are anything to go by.
Given this uncertainty, we should not draw any conclusions about where Greece or Turkey will be in 20-30 years. Sure, Greece is at a very low point right now, but that is nothing new if viewed from a historical perspective. Turkey likewise has known growth before, but has also gone through long periods of decline.
We mustn’t forget that history is never predictable, dull and linear.
via ekathimerini.com | From Athens in 1998 to Istanbul in 2013.
Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Konstantinos Tsiaras said two countries had not signed any agreements during a bilateral meeting in Doha, Qatar, late last month on the construction of a mosque.
World Bulletin/News Desk
A senior Greek diplomat has said his country had no concluded deal with Turkey over the construction of a mosque in Athens, the only European Union capital without an Islamic prayer house, adding that the Greek government would use its own financial resources to build one.
Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Konstantinos Tsiaras said Friday Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan had not signed any agreements during a bilateral meeting in Doha, Qatar, late last month on the construction of a mosque.
In the January 20 meeting in Doha, Erdogan told his the Greek counterpart that the Turkish government might cover costs of a mosque in Athens – if the Greek government sanctioned it.
“The two prime minister did not sign any agreement on any issue in the Doha meeting,” Tsiaras said in response to a parliamentary question submitted by far-right Golden Dawn lawmakers.
“There is no such topic on the agenda of the Turkish-Greek relations. And Athens has no intention of engaging in a debate with Turkey over this specific issue or any similar ones.”
An estimated 500,000 Muslims live in Greece, with about 40 percent of them in the capital. Athens has around 100 makeshift mosques and the Greek government has long delayed plans to build an official one.
The country has not allowed construction of a mosque since 1883, the year when the Ottomans evacuated the city.
via Greece says no deal with Turkey over planned Athens mosque | Diplomacy | World Bulletin.
It was already evening in Yerevan when I boarded a bus bound for Istanbul. My round-trip ticket cost $70, it was January of 1998, and I was 22 years old. When I reached Istanbul the following day, I had planned I would spend a few days touring the city before taking another bus to meet my dearest college friend, Cathy, in the Plaka in Athens.
Kristi Rendahl: You may expect this story to have an unfortunate ending, but I can assure you that it was as brilliant in practice as it was in theory.
The closed border between Armenia and Turkey made it impossible to take a direct route between the two cities. The bus would travel north through Armenia, and west across much of Georgia and all of Turkey, adding at least an extra 100 miles to the journey.
I got a lot for my money. There were only seven people on a charter-sized bus, so I had plenty of personal space. But it didn’t have a bathroom. No matter, I thought, surely I’m not the only person who will need to stop for one.
A few hours later, we had only reached a northern province of Armenia and nature called, but I was too embarrassed to request a stop so soon. Ever the Girl Scout, I knew that I could manage a solution. My scheme, inspired in part by years of going behind bushes when necessary, was to drink the juice I’d brought with me, then open the box and pee in it. (That’s entirely too much information for readers, but it is the absolute truth.)
You may expect this story to have an unfortunate ending, but I can assure you that it was as brilliant in practice as it was in theory. Privacy was not an issue, since there were so few passengers. Fitting between the seats, aiming into the mini-box, and stopping the flow when it was full were all tricky maneuvers, to be sure, but well worth the effort. I left enough room at the top to fold down the carton, then I placed it standing up in the trash can attached to the bench in the aisle. And so the journey continued.
When we reached the Georgian border, we encountered no significant issues until we tried to cross border control on the Georgian side. The process, if one can call it that, took hours. I fell into a very peaceful sleep, as I am able to do yet today in most any place or position. I slept until another passenger, an older woman, woke me to say that they wanted $5 from each of us, that otherwise they wouldn’t let us cross the border. Fair enough, I thought, as long as they’ll let me go back to sleep, and I groggily handed over the cash.
At one point during the hours that it took to actually cross both borders, I was at the front of the bus with the other passengers who were from various countries in the region. The bus was lit with a black light. I remember because it brought to attention the detergent that glowed in my jeans from poorly executed hand washing. I saw the other women notice the offensive blotches. “She can’t even wash her own clothes,” they thought, “These Americans can’t do anything.” Shame.
It was daylight when we stopped to eat in a rest area of sorts. The others immediately began cleaning the bus, sweeping the floor, and clearing our trash. I did my part and carried out my box with no one any the wiser.
There were mandarines on the trees and shit all over the floor of the bathroom facility. Quite a juxtaposition. We all opted to line up outside as we had behind a building on the border. “Are you done yet?” an older Armenian woman asked me as she stood up. “No,” I said. Performance anxiety, I thought. “Go ahead without me.”
Everyone shared their food with the others, so there was plenty to eat. It seemed a microcosm of what the world ought to be doing.
When we reached the Georgia-Turkey border, I was told that I could not cross, that I needed a Turkish visa. The border agent, who happened to be Armenian, and I had been living in Armenia for seven months at that point, instructed me to go to Batumi. What is that, I wondered, some kind of governmental ministry? Not intending to visit the Republic of Georgia, I hadn’t done enough research to learn that Batumi was in fact a city in Georgia. I stood there forlorn, while my travel companions got back onto the bus.
Already 11 p.m., the border personnel told me I could wait there until morning when a bus would be coming through en route to Batumi. They offered me a white plastic chair for the night.
Dreading a nine-hour overnight sit in now-slovenly clothes with border guards and my stuffed backpack, I assumed a genuinely pathetic look and asked if there were a hotel nearby. Bewildered by how I’d gotten myself into this mess, two-parts impatient and one-part taking pity on my high-maintenance request, they directed me to a man who was going to Batumi that night.
Now clear that Batumi was a town where I could get a Turkish visa, I got in his car and silently hoped that the stuffed animal hanging from his rearview mirror was indicative of a man with children. And a conscience.
Just 10 miles or so back into Georgia, he took me to the front desk of a hotel and explained my curious predicament. He told me, or them (it’s hard to recall), what I needed to do in the morning. Not a smile crossed this man’s face, but he’d gone out of his way for me. Lingering a bit before leaving, perhaps wondering if his kindness would reap rewards of some kind or another, I closed the evening with a handshake and a grateful smile.
The next morning I saw that I was on the shores of the Black Sea. I’m told it’s much more beautiful now, but I thought it was more than fine then. It was big and beautiful and still. The Turkish consulate didn’t open for several hours, so I sat on the rocky beach and watched the cargo ships. For a different reason this time, I drank another juice box.
I showed up at the consulate on time, but there was already a line of people. Mostly Georgians who were curious about an American’s presence, they insisted that I go to the front of the line. They brought over a Georgian girl who spoke English and who, in effect, asked me what on earth I was doing there. They were incredulous about the American girl who lives in Armenia, but is traveling through Georgia en route to Turkey on her way to Greece.
But they were happy to help, and so showed me to the afternoon shuttle traveling to Trabzon in eastern Turkey. The driver of the shuttle, a lively chap, sat me in the front seat and became quite animated about taking the damsel in distress closer to her destination. He remained so until we reached the border, my second time in two days, and I was turned away once again.
The border agent was not Armenian this time. It was a repeat of my first border crossing attempt, but this time I was missing Georgian paperwork. Unlike the first driver, this one looked truly remorseful to leave me behind.
The border employees connected me with yet another person driving to Batumi, this time displaying only pity, and I wondered if I would ever be allowed to leave this country.
The man, George, knew some 100 words in English, which is surprisingly adequate for communication. When we reached Batumi, he asked, “Friend, Turkish consulate, friend?” The irony that he didn’t understand or didn’t acknowledge was that Armenians and Turks are not the best of friends, despite their shared border and similar customs, and I was coming directly from Armenia.
I shrugged to say, “I don’t know,” tears silently falling down my face. He gently mocked my crying before getting out of the car to see if anyone at the Turkish consulate could help. His insensitivity was quite like the grin-and-bear-it kind of upbringing I’d had in a Scandinavian family in the Mid-West. I immediately felt better.
When he returned to the car, he told me that someone was going to help. That someone had remembered me from earlier in the day and was apparently some kind of high-level police officer in town. He regretted my situation because it could have been avoided if he’d noticed I was missing the Georgian visa, which I had been told was not an issue when you have an Armenian residency card.
Remarkably, the officer invited me to stay with his family. He did so with the translation assistance of an Armenian grandmother from the neighborhood. “They’re a good family, jan,” she assured me in Armenian. And so I went to their third-floor apartment across the street from the Turkish consulate. His wife greeted me warmly, even if confused by my sudden and rather unannounced appearance. They invited over the English teacher from the high school to have tea and discuss my situation. With this kind of graciousness, it was obvious at this point that my problems would be solved, though I didn’t know exactly how.
The family had a wonderful pink bathtub with hot running water, which was most welcome after another day on the road and the prior seven months without either. She made a delicious khatchapouri in the morning and he sent over two police officers to guide me through my day. God knows I needed a guide at that point.
Our first stop was to take visa photos, which they kindly paid for. Then we went directly to the Georgian consulate across town, where they began processing my application and told me to return later that day. As we left the consulate, to my great surprise, we ran into two Americans I knew, Hannah and Ritchie, also Peace Corps volunteers in Armenia at the time. They were encountering the same problems and were accompanied by another man named George, a paper salesman, who had gotten out of the bus to help them at the border.
Now veterans of paperwork hassles, the police officers expedited their processes, so that we could all make the 4 o’clock shuttle to Trabzon, a religiously conservative town in eastern Turkey. While the consulates did their work, we went out for a joyful lunch with Georgian wine—me, the police officers, George the paper salesman, Hannah, and Ritchie. George was a gifted artist and entertained us all by sketching images of our situation, complete with tears that were shed on the border.
The days of kindness had filled my heart and it was sad to leave for Trabzon that afternoon. A gypsy child pretended to cry while begging for money just as our shuttle was to pull away. I pretended to cry, too, and a smile splayed across his face. I was confident that I’d get out of the country this time, so I gave him all of my Georgian lari.
At the border, there were friendly smiles all around as we successfully crossed into Turkey. A Georgian woman who was on her way to sell her pottery in Turkey gave each of us a beautiful vase she’d crafted. The vase still sits on my piano.
George the paper salesman, who was bound for Istanbul, was also in the shuttle and he checked us into a hotel once we arrived. One room for the girls, one room for the boys.
Hannah and Ritchie stayed to tour the area, but I was running low on time before I needed to be in Athens. George and I made plans to take a domestic flight to Istanbul the following morning. No more buses. The flight was at 4 a.m. and he bought my $50 ticket. “Why are you being so generous?” I asked him. “The next time you see someone who needs help, what are you going to do?” he asked in response. Point taken.
He already had a hotel selected in Istanbul, so he got me my own room there, too. That day was Orthodox Christmas and he’d arranged to see friends for dinner that evening. We gathered for the festivities in the hotel’s restaurant in the basement, where we ate and drank for hours.
I rested easy that night knowing that George had already researched the station from where I could take a bus to Greece. He’d also given me a first-rate tour of the city’s main tourist sites and insisted that I call my father from his cell phone to tell him of my whereabouts. My father sounded suspicious about such a charitable stranger. “Are you sure he doesn’t want something in return?” he asked. After nearly three days together, it was clear that his expectations were as pure as a father could hope for.
He took me to the bus station the next morning and I got my ticket for Athens. We gave each other parting kisses on the cheek, a hug, and I was on my way. I’m only sorry to say that we haven’t kept in touch.
On the ride to Athens, I was talking with a Chinese tourist and it came up that I was living in Armenia. A guy about my age sitting across from me was listening to our conversation and finally asked me why I kept mentioning Armenia. He was Greek-Armenian, he told me in English, and so we switched to speaking Armenian. We talked until we reached his hometown of Alexandroupoli, a port city in northeastern Greece.
At his stop, we said goodbye, but he came back a few minutes later with a bag of treats for the journey and gave me a fast peck on the lips. I heard a loud disapproving tsk from the man seated in front of me, but I thought it was terribly sweet and oh-so Armenian. I’d told him where I’d be staying in Athens, so he called to say hello a few times over the next two weeks, but we were never to meet again.
The two weeks with Cathy in Greece were full of other stories, but the time finally came to return to Armenia. I’d intended to return by bus, but I would have had the same problems, so I bought an airline ticket with the credit card my parents gave me for emergencies. At just over $400, it cost the equivalent of nearly four months of my stipend as a Peace Corps volunteer.
But no credit card in the world could have bought that trip from Yerevan to Athens.
Unions are angry at the ongoing austerity measures
ATHENS, Greece (AP) – Young demonstrators hurled rocks and fire bombs at riot police as clashes broke out Wednesday in Athens during a mass rally against austerity measures, part of a general strike that crippled services and public transportation around the country.
Police fired tear gas and flash grenades at protesters, blanketing parts of the city center in choking smoke. Thousands of peaceful demonstrators ran to side streets to take cover. A police officer was attacked and his uniform caught fire in the city’s main Syntagma Square, and his motorcycle was burned.
At least two people were injured and another three arrested. One group of rioting youths smashed paving stones in front of the central Bank of Greece, but there were no immediate reports of any serious damage.
More than 30,000 protesters attended the Athens rally, which had been calm before the clashes. Protesters chanting “Don’t obey the rich — Fight back!” marched to parliament as the city center was heavily policed. A brass band, tractors and cyclists joined the rally.
The rally was part of Greece’s first major labor protest this year as Prime Minister George Papandreou’s Socialist government faces international pressure to make more lasting cuts after the nation’s debt-crippled economy was rescued from bankruptcy by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
The 24-hour strike halted trains, ferries and most public transport across the country, and led to the cancellation of more than 100 flights at Athens International Airport. The strike also the closed the Acropolis and other major tourist sites.
State hospital doctors, ambulance drivers, pharmacists, lawyers and tax collectors joined school teachers, journalists and thousands of small businesses as more middle-class groups took part in the protest than have in the past. Athens’ main shopping district was mostly empty, as many small business owners shuttered their stores.
Unions are angry at the ongoing austerity measures put in place by the Socialist government in exchange for a euro110 billion ($150 billion) bailout loan package from European countries and the IMF.
Stathis Anestis, deputy leader of Greece’s largest union, the GSEE, said workers should not be asked to make more sacrifices during a third straight year of recession.
“The measures forced on us by the agreement with our lenders are harsh and unfair. … We are facing long-term austerity with high unemployment and destabilizing our social structure,” Anestis told The Associated Press. “What is increasing is the level of anger and desperation … If these harsh policies continue, so will we.”
Elsewhere, about 15,000 people rallied and minor scuffles broke out in Greece’s second largest city, Thessaloniki, while Anestis said around 60 demonstrations were being planned in cities and towns across Greece. He said the GSEE was in talks with European labor unions to try and coordinate future strikes with other EU countries.
Earlier this month, international debt monitors said Greece needed a “significant acceleration” of long-term reforms to avoid missing its economic targets. It also urged the Socialist government to embark on a euro50 billion ($68 billion) privatization program to pay for some of its mounting national debt that is set to exceed 150 percent of the GDP this year.
The IMF has said some of the frequent demonstrations against the Greek government’s reforms were being carried out by groups angry at losing their “unfair advantages and privileges.”
Greek police clash with students in Athens as thousands march on anniversary of death of Alexandros Grigoropoulos
Police fired teargas at rioters who threw rocks and firecrackers in central Athens as thousands gathered to mark the first anniversary of the police shooting of a teenager.
Clashes broke out as about 3,000 people, mostly students, anarchists and leftists, began a march to parliament. More protests were expected tomorrow. An evening memorial service was planned in the Exarchia district, where 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos was shot dead.
Violence also broke out in Thessaloniki, Greece‘s second-largest city, where demonstrators threw petrol bombs at police and smashed the front of a Starbucks cafe.
More than 6,000 police were deployed across greater Athens amid fears that the demonstrations under way in the capital and other Greek cities would turn increasingly violent. Concern was heightened by reports that far-left groups and anarchists from other European countries have travelled to Greece for the protests.
Grigoropoulos was shot by a policeman on the evening of 6 December 2008, in Exarchia, a central Athens neighbourhood of bars and cafes popular with anarchist groups. Within a few hours of his death, riots spread from the capital to several cities, taking the government by surprise. An embattled police force took a passive approach as rioters looted and burned shops in violence that lasted two weeks.
The new socialist government, which has faced a spate of attacks by far-left and anarchist groups, since coming to power in October, has vowed not to tolerate any violence during today’s anniversary.
Police yesterday detained about 160 youths and raided what they described as a firebomb-making hideout in the district of Keratsini, near the port of Piraeus. A memorial gathering last night at the spot where Grigoropoulos was killed began peacefully, although clashes broke out in the area later between rock-throwers and riot police. Police arrested 14 people, including five Italians and three Albanians.
Dozens of police, some in riot gear and others on motorbikes, stood guard throughout the district on Saturday night. Apart from the brief clash, the area was quiet, with heavy rain helping keep people off the streets.
Greece’s civil protection minister, Michalis Chrisochoidis, who is also in charge of the police, said earlier this week that people had been right to demonstrate against the teenager’s death, but further riots would not be tolerated.
“Without doubt (Grigoropoulos’s death) was an act of extreme police violence and misconduct that has scarred our collective memory,” Chrisochoidis said. “Young people were right to take to the streets to express their outrage. But we will not tolerate a repeat of the violence and terror in the centre of Athens and other cities. We will not surrender Athens to vandals.”
ATHENS, June 17 (Reuters) – Greek carrier Aegean Airlines (AGNr.AT) said on Wednesday it will start a daily service to Istanbul, Turkey from Sept. 9, expanding its international routes.
Aegean, Greece’s largest airline by passenger numbers in 2008, competes with recently privatised Olympic Airlines.
The airline has been steadily expanding its routes outside Greece, adding seven destinations since late 2008, including Brussels, Berlin, Barcelona, Venice and Paphos in Cyprus.
It will fly Airbus A320 aircraft on the Istanbul route.
“After five years of efforts Aegean can now link Athens with a city symbolising so much for Hellenism,” chief executive Dimitris Gerogiannis said in a statement.
Last month, Aegean clinched a deal to join Star Alliance, which includes UAL Corp’s United (UAUA.O), German Lufthansa (LHAG.DE), Air Canada ACa.TO., and Continental (CAL.N), eyeing access to many markets across the globe with large communities of Greek descendants. (Reporting by George Georgiopoulos; Editing by Dan Lalor)