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Everybody is different Everybody is equal
GREECE
Greece’s position is truly tragic; on the shoulders of every modern Greek it places a duty at once dangerous and extremely difficult to carry out. We bear an extremely heavy responsibility. New forces are rising from the East, new forces are rising from the West, and Greece, caught as always between the two colliding impulses, once more becomes a whirlpool…Greece is at the world’s geographical and spiritual crossroads. Once again its duty is to reconcile these two monstrous impulses by finding a synthesis. Will it succeed?
Extract from the book “Report to Greco” by Nikos Kazantzakis
There have been many times in the long history of Greece that it had to reconcile opposite forces, welcome refugees on the one hand and send its own “children” abroad on the other. One of those cases was the exchange of population , as ordered by the Treaty of Lausanne, after the so called Disaster in Asia Minor in 1922. After that, the Greek community that lived in Asia Minor was forced to leave their homes and property and move to the mainland of Greece.
Extract from the book “Report to Greco” by Nikos Kazantzakis
There have been many times in the long history of Greece that it had to reconcile opposite forces, welcome refugees on the one hand and send its own “children” abroad on the other. One of those cases was the exchange of population , as ordered by the Treaty of Lausanne, after the so called Disaster in Asia Minor in 1922. After that, the Greek community that lived in Asia Minor was forced to leave their homes and property and move to the mainland of Greece.
Let us now tell you the story of the Tsingos family, who abandoned their home and land in Asia Minor and after long sufferings, material and human losses, settled in Agios Nikolaos at first, and later in Kritsa, a village located a few kilometres from our school. The little son of the family, named Kostis, who experienced all this, narrated the story to his daughter Maria and she willingly shared it with us.
“My father was born in a beautiful, picturesque village with whitewashed courtyards, lush green mulberries and beautiful flowers, Alatsata. There was a big, fertile valley lying around the village and for that reason most residents were mainly occupied with farming and stockbreeding. They lived a happy, peaceful and industrious life, with respect for their land that sustained them amply, until everything was turned upside down on a sad morning in 1922, when the Turks attacked the village.
My grandfather instructed his wife to get the children ready without worrying them. They had to go and leave everything behind, otherwise their life would be in great danger….
He lifted his little son Kostis on his shoulders and asked him to take two small pouches full of gold sovereigns which was hidden in a top cupboard. This was all their savings. He gave them to his wife to hide in her bosom.
Then, the father took his little son Kostis aside, looked at him straight in the eye and explained to him his “duty”.
-If anything happens to me, YOU are going to be the father for your sisters and the protector of your mother.
My grandfather instructed his wife to get the children ready without worrying them. They had to go and leave everything behind, otherwise their life would be in great danger….
He lifted his little son Kostis on his shoulders and asked him to take two small pouches full of gold sovereigns which was hidden in a top cupboard. This was all their savings. He gave them to his wife to hide in her bosom.
Then, the father took his little son Kostis aside, looked at him straight in the eye and explained to him his “duty”.
-If anything happens to me, YOU are going to be the father for your sisters and the protector of your mother.
These words stuck to the eight-year-old’s mind and he never let his father’s hand go. The whole family cross themselves and set off without knowing where they are heading for.
Houses and properties around them were being looted and their own house was consumed by flames, but they kept walking. Besides, there was no time for emotionalism. They had to get to the dock of Smirni ( Izmir), so as to stand a chance of being saved. They all walked hastily together; parents, children, neighbours. Kostis held his father’s hand tightly until a Turkish officer left it hanging, when he snatched his father away from his family.-Carry on! He shouted. I will find you!...Just go!! Kostis, remember what I told you!!
The mother pulled the boy and the rest of her children closer to her, stifled her tears and carried on. They reached the dock, without their father. They got on a small, old boat and lay next to their mother, constantly crying for the father and the homeland they were leaving behind. Literally stacked one above the other, they arrived in Thessaloniki. They reached to a refugee shelter where they were wet, with dirty clothes, hit by the strong wind. They spent the first night in their new land. They were refugees and they sought acceptance…What they were asking wasn’t so simple…
Houses and properties around them were being looted and their own house was consumed by flames, but they kept walking. Besides, there was no time for emotionalism. They had to get to the dock of Smirni ( Izmir), so as to stand a chance of being saved. They all walked hastily together; parents, children, neighbours. Kostis held his father’s hand tightly until a Turkish officer left it hanging, when he snatched his father away from his family.-Carry on! He shouted. I will find you!...Just go!! Kostis, remember what I told you!!
The mother pulled the boy and the rest of her children closer to her, stifled her tears and carried on. They reached the dock, without their father. They got on a small, old boat and lay next to their mother, constantly crying for the father and the homeland they were leaving behind. Literally stacked one above the other, they arrived in Thessaloniki. They reached to a refugee shelter where they were wet, with dirty clothes, hit by the strong wind. They spent the first night in their new land. They were refugees and they sought acceptance…What they were asking wasn’t so simple…