Tag: Turkey

According to the tradition, on May 29th 1453, a monk of Baloukli Abbey in Constantinople was frying fish beside the holy water gushing at the foundation of the monastery, when someone informed him that the city was conquered. "Only if the fish jump out of the frying pan and get into the Holy Water shall I believe you", the monk answered. He hadn't finished his word when the half-fried fish jumped into the water. That is how the Zoodohou Pigi's monastery took the name Baloukli, coming from the Turkish word "balik", which means fish.

"I've learned to distinguish the Yunan (Greeks) in all the years I travel this route. Worshipers from Yunnanistan (Greece) never stop visiting Halki Theological School. They come all year round", said an old man, sitting beside us on the boat, on our way to Halki.

Once the lights are switched on, Constantinople looks like something out of a fairytale. Its position between sea and land, its mosques and churches, the densely populated neighborhoods, the bazaars and expressive people, everything seems beautiful and exotic.

In modern Istanbul, skyscrapers keep popping up; however, so do the minarets of the mosques. In the streets one can see more women with Islamic dressing walking, making the conservative turn of society obvious enough. Western tourists, being much less than they used to be, are replaced by visitors from Arab countries. Mosques are lighted in a more sophisticated and massive way, while this year’s Ramadan was celebrated in a bigger glory than the past ones. New layers of society are coming to the surface and are slowly switching the city’s nature. Its beauty, though, remains remarkable.

 The soldiers who defended Constantinople just before the Fall were hopelessly few, because the city's population was small and many young men betook to monasteries in order to avoid the recruitment. When Constantine Palaeologus asked to know about the last general recruitment’s results before the final confrontation with the Ottomans, his close partner Frantzis told him that only 4,937 out of 30,000 men were finally conscripted because the rest of them weren't able to carry arms. The king then sighed and asked him to keep the number secret.

Zografeion Greek High School, which is in the historical district of Peran, was built in 1893. It was mainly funded by the benefactor Christakis Zografos and the lead architect was Pericles Photiades. Today it has only 49 students, many of whom live far from the school and even have a boat ride in front of them in order to get there. They uncomplainingly wake up very early in the morning, under hard weather conditions and cross long distances, not only to obtain Greek education but also to meet with other Greeks and keep their school and their nation alive.

Eighty six years have passed since the Greek daily newspaper "Evening Post" was first released in Constantinople. Along with the Turkish Cumhuriyet, they are both Turkey's oldest newspapers. The Evening Post used to sell 30,000 papers, which was more than the Turkish newspapers used to sell, as the Greeks were numerous and they used to read a lot, due to their high educational level. Nowadays it sells 600 papers, 90% of which are being sold in Constantinople and the rest of them in Greece. As the number of the Greek-speaking families in Constantinople is equal to the Evening Post's circulation, this newspaper could be easily included in the Guinness Book, since it's being read by the 99,9% of its potential readers.

Greece had a very successful entry at the international theatre festival of the Black Sea in Trabzon, Turkey, May 2012. Greece entered the competition with the play “Ichneftes” by Sophocles, directed by Dimos Avdeliodis. The play was sponsored by the non-profit culture organization "Anagnosis". It was the first time that a Greek play took part in the festival of Trabzon, and it has since evolved into a prestigious competition.

In February of 1451 sultan Murad died and he was succeeded by his son Muhammad, who was barely twenty years old. Constantine Palaeologos seemed to be happy when the young sultan promised to maintain the peaceful coexistence of Greeks and Turks in Byzantium, and continuing his father's policy.

The Greek hospital Baloukli in Constantinople was founded in 1753 and has 800 beds distributed in 17 buildings spread over 42,000 square metres. Its financial resources come from the exploitation of real estate and Greek family's manors, and from patients' medical expenses. The indigent Greek patients are treated free of charge and the hospital is reasonably priced for the rest of Turkish and Greek patients.

Baloukli's Greek nursing home is situated beside the Greek hospital of Constantinople. Its financial resources come from the exploitation of real estate and Greek family's manors while it only houses Orthodox Greeks, free of charge. Today more than 110 elderly live there.

Vasilis Lamprianides is lives at the Baloukli Greek nursing home in Constantinople. His room is clean as a whistle and filled with books and Greek dictionaries. He went to Greece in 1977 and returned to Constantinople in 2005 to spend the rest of his life there. He is not abandoned in the nursing home, on the contrary; he lives in a decent, well-staffed environment with the Greek hospital's doctors just a door away in case of emergency.

"We can see that Hellenism is fading out but we won't leave. It's hard to leave behind something that works for you and rebuild your life from scratch. Besides, even though we were spoilt as children, we are also taught how to stand on our feet during hardships. We are not only 'fair weather' children".

“The old stories, the ones about past glories and Emperor Constantine Paleologos, we’ve heard them all being narrated in conferences in Greece and we’ve understood them well. The issue is what we are going to do from now on in order not to become extinct. The Greeks of Constantinople who permanently returned to Greece ask us why we haven’t left too. We don’t like this question. Did we ever ask them why they left? We justified them, we understood them, we felt their pain, but let us not be judged in the end”.

"I was born the year the Turks invaded Cyprus. It was all black back then. I grew up in my father's grocery store on Imvros, among spices, dried red peppers and okras threaded on small ropes. I kept my Greek nationality". Musician Stelios Berberis came to Greece in order to study economics and learn traditional music under Domna Samiou. When he finished his studies he came back to Constantinople.

"I don't go round, the world revolves around me. I feel ecstasy; I don't care about anything, like there is no one around. This activity helps me become more ethical. Just like the old dervish song says, the world is a sea of fire. And love is to fall in it".

"From the first time we met they were very friendly to me, as if they had known me for years. Zorsare and Mirali study computer science at the University of Constantinople and Kismet studies economics. The latter impressed me with his kindness. We had an appointment yesterday morning outside Dolma Bahce, but I was about half an hour late and he was still waiting patiently for me under the heavy snowfall. We then went to his place, where he played the guitar and sang for me. He has his own rock band and they play many gigs. He lives alone, away from his parents, because he wants to be independent. The decoration in his house is very simple and his interests are not much different from mine".