On the occasion of the Corsica Conference

  A year has almost passed since the Corsica conference and I have been avoiding to write anything. Perhaps because when the experience is converted into words it becomes memories and for survival reasons I refuse to remember, so that I will not compare and won’t realize… The subject of the conference was “our Mediterranean” -"Mare nostrum". From our side, as the Greek participation, we presented a five minute video from the collection of Zinovios Kyriakidis: the journey of the Greek Union of Istanbul in the Cyclades in the early 50s. Black and white film, 16mm. After the projection a discussion followed, where a Corsican historian mentioned, with unexpected (for us) excitement and interest, the position and the problems of the Greeks of Istanbul at that time.

However, from the Corsica Conference, besides the great kindness and hospitality of the organizers towards us, what I would like to note is the amazing feeling of being the only Greek in the Rue General Leclerc , the absence of the birth place. Without expecting something from a homeland, neither that she needs you.

And one more thing: The first time I was at a conference abroad, in Paris, I think in 2001, some of the participants asked me whether “my country had been interested in something I have done”. Inexperienced as I was and at the beginning of this whole endeavour, I hesitated to answer. I must have remained silent for a while, until one representative of one French University said “leave the man alone, I have worked in Greece, I know very well what goes on and what he encounters.” Therefore, the second point worth adding in relation to our recent trip is that nobody asked again what goes on and how we are treated in our country. Greece can no longer hide or conceal, everyone knows, and for the representatives of the other European archives perhaps it was sufficient that we were Greeks in Corsica, that had to present some work. And that we managed to get there in defiance of the Greek crisis. Fortunately, culture still turns with our own expenses and we are proud of that. For as long as we endure. Have a good night.

Nikos Mitrogiannopoulos

PS. In that conference too, the presentation of the company was done in Greek.

PSS. This text does not express neither directly or indirectly, any kind of “complain”. However, with the way things have been, we cannot silence what happens. Some contacted us yesterday commenting “you say too little”…