Turkish Forum

Tag: Greeks

  • IT CAN NOT HAPPEN TO ME. CHAPTER 14

    IT CAN NOT HAPPEN TO ME. CHAPTER 14

    IT WILL NOT HAPPEN TO ME. GUESS WHAT?  IT WILL!!

    Chapter 14

    Pity the Greek Citizens – Not the Politicians

    What you see and hear about Greece will slowly come our way. Socialism is a great deal for the politicians as long as they can provide openhanded gifts to the populace. As long as they could borrow money and put off the consequences until they could leave office – fine.

    Once when no one will submit bids for their debt the game is really over. They better have an escape route to Argentina ready.

    Once they joined the European Union, they lost their freedom to default for they are now tied to everyone else. A simple solution would be debt holders to forgive interest and go for the principal only. This would cause severe pain among the bankers whose salary is paid. Right now they are still in control, but slowly losing it as citizens start to revolt.

    Now dear reader, this is how it will happen to you. Hospitals that depend upon government assistance will start to run out of supplies because they can not pay. Try blood bags, plastic gloves used to stop the spread of diseases’ from staff and patients.  Unable to pay staff and nurses, and to matters worse all medical plans must be p[aid in full first.

    Utilities can not pay for gas from Russia’s Gazprom. Italians stop supplying for the same reason and also their need locally overrides the Greeks need.

    Greeks import some 40% of their food supplies. All of its oil and gas is imported, and almost all of its drugs and elixirs.

    Its main industries are tourism and shipping. With high unemployment and a rising crime rate their outlook is more than bleak.

    There is not easy way out for the Greeks, and all the solutions would be long term. Necessity will force changes in life styles. It will not come easily either. What they need is a Pericles and or a Spartan Police force.

    Meanwhile Portugal and Spain are not far behind. Then there are the Italians and then France. Eagan Jones has just reduced their rating of Germany to AA, they are a private rating agency that is a step above the rest in my humble opinion.

    Another long term solutions is to have term limits for all politicians. This makes it harder for them to con the public. It is more interesting watching a newly elected official trying to win votes knowing that he has a short time to prove his worth to the electorate.

    One thing is certain, the world wide economy will be slowing down as countries and their corporations prove their credit worthiness. This era is a “game changer” and we will need new rules and safeguards to protect us from the robber barons of yesteryear.

  • Greeks of Istanbul Celebration Held at European Parliament

    Greeks of Istanbul Celebration Held at European Parliament

    A celebration dedicated to the Greeks of Istanbul will take place next Wednesday at the European Parliament. The initiative was organized by Marilena Koppa of Panellinio Sosialistiko Kinima and George Koumoutsakos of Nea Dimokratia; both members of the European Parliament. Professors N. Alevizatos, G. Ktistakis and M. Athanasiadou, P. Markaris, writers and several representatives of Unions of Constantinopolitans are invited to speak at the event.

    The event coincides with the presentation of the plan of Turkey’s progress report, carried out by Ria Oomen.  Oomen is a member of the European Parliament and this marks the 5th anniversary of the start of Turkey’s EU negotiations. Every year a little bit of progress is achieved, yet the problem concerning minorities’ rights has not be resolved; the Copenhagen Agreement can not be established yet.

    via Greeks of Istanbul Celebration Held at European Parliament | Greek Reporter Europe.

  • Greek Patriarchate reclaims Istanbul orphanage

    Greek Patriarchate reclaims Istanbul orphanage

    ISTANBUL – Daily News with wires

    The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate reclaimed the 19th-century orphanage on Büyükada. DAILY NEWS photo, Hasan ALTINIŞIK

    The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate reclaimed the 19th-century orphanage on Büyükada. DAILY NEWS photo, Hasan ALTINIŞIK
    The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate reclaimed the 19th-century orphanage on Büyükada. DAILY NEWS photo, Hasan ALTINIŞIK

    The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate reclaimed the 19th-century orphanage on Büyükada, the largest of the Prince’s Islands at Marmara Sea, on Monday after it was granted back to the community by the European Court of Human Rights.

    Turkey took control of the building in 1997, many years after it was abandoned, on the grounds that it belonged to another foundation.

    The European court, however, ruled in June that the land was registered to the Patriarchate, giving it de facto legal status to the building. Turkey was also ordered to pay 6,000 euros in compensation and 20,000 euros in court fees.

    The Patriarchate’s lawyer, Cem Sofuoğlu, received the land title after paying a fee of 150 Turkish Liras to the Princes’ Islands Land Registry Office to deliver it to the patriarch.

    The Justice Ministry issued an official statement on the transfer, saying, “There is no alternative but to register the orphanage to the Fener Greek Patriarchate’s records.”

    Noting that both the Foreign Ministry and the Justice Ministry played a significant role in securing the outcome, Sofuoğlu said Turkey had stood by its signed commitment in the European Court of Human Rights and carried out the court’s decision in a period of three months.

  • Lausanne Treaty Negatively Affect Istanbul’s Greek School Enrollment

    Lausanne Treaty Negatively Affect Istanbul’s Greek School Enrollment

    Posted on 16 November 2010 by Apostolos Papapostolou

    Valendi MihailidisIf 10-year-old Valendi Mihailidis (photo) forgets his pen or notebook at home, there is no one at his school he can borrow one from. The fourth grader is the only student at the Kadıköy Greek Primary School in Istanbul, one of 22 schools in the city serving just 214 pupils.

    When asked if he ever gets bored without other students around, Valendi told daily Radikal: “I want to have friends too, but there are also good sides of being alone.”

    According tο the Ηurriyet Daily News on Monday, the number of students in the city’s Greek schools is decreasing day by day. With a total population of Greeks in Turkey around 3,000, just 10 of Istanbul’s Greek schools have students enrolled.

    Under the terms of the Lausanne Treaty signed in 1923, only Greeks with Turkish citizenship also known as Rums, can attend Turkey’s Greek schools.  This makes it extremely difficult for enrollment increasement. The children of Greek citizens living in Turkey are not allowed to attend. Draft legislation was prepared four years ago to allow foreign students to enroll in the schools but it faced challenges by the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, and was not adopted into law.

    As a result, the Greek Primary School in Istanbul’s Bakırköy district has had no students for the last six years. The Maraşlı Greek Primary School in the Fener neighborhood has just six students. The most crowded Greek school in the city is the Zapyon School with 120 students. The Fener Greek Middle and High School has 60 students, while the 117-year-old Zoğrafyon School in the Taksim area has 41 students in its sixth, seventh, eight grades and high school classes.

    “Do not let the curtain close. Let those schools be open to anyone who wants to learn Greek,” said Yani Demircioğlu, principal at Zoğrafyon School.  October 29th marks the Republic Day holiday.  The windows of only one classroom at the Kadıköy Greek Primary School were decorated with flags. It is in that room that the school’s sole student receives his lessons. During break times, Valendi is alone as well. Sometimes he plays football with a teacher or he reads a book or paints.

    The other classrooms have been abandoned and the lunch hall is used for storage. Within the last five years, the 139-year-old school has only had two or three students at a time. Two teachers currently work there and provide Valendi’s education.  Hristo Peştemalcioğlu has been at the school for 18 years and is also the principal. With one secretary and one cleaning worker, the school’s total population is five people.

    When Peştemalcioğlu, 46, started to work as a teacher at the Zoğrafyon School there were 32 students. “[Now there are] no kids’ voices, no sounds of games, no competition between students…But our student is very good; he is hard-working and never upsets us.”

    via Lausanne Treaty Negatively Affect Istanbul’s Greek School Enrollment | Greek Reporter Europe.

  • Assyrian Genocide Recognition Creates Political Crisis in Sweden

    Assyrian Genocide Recognition Creates Political Crisis in Sweden

    3-13-2010

    Sweden (AINA) — The historical decision by the Swedish parliament recognizing Seyfo as a de facto genocide on Assyrians, Greeks and Armenians is creating a considerable political crisis in Swedish politics. The issue has dominated the headlines in Swedish media for several days.

    The Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, in a taped interview with Afram Barryakoub for Hujådå, the magazine of the Assyrian federation in Sweden, said he recognized the genocide one week before winning the national elections in Sweden in 2006. This fact is set to create problems between Reinfeldt and his foreign minister, Carl Bildt, one of the most pro-Turkish European foreign ministers.

    Bildt has said he will not consider the decision of the parliament but will do everything he can to avoid it becoming official Swedish foreign policy (AINA 3-13-2010). The response to his remarks have come from Hans Linde, the foreign policy spokesman of the Left Party, who said his party will consider pressing charges against Carl Bildt with the national constitution committee.

    Assyrian International News Agency