The Pringiponisa case

I remember him quite well. During the campaign for local elections in the spring of 2009 he had visited our island – Burgazada, or Antigoni to use its old Greek name. He was part of the group accompanying the candidate for the position of mayor, Mustafa Farsakoğlu, supported by the main opposition Republican Peoples’ Party, or CHP. Farsakoğlu, in order to promote his team, told us proudly: “Look, for the first time we have an Armenian in our group. We want to support all religions. These islands are special etc, etc.”

For the microcosm of Antigoni – which numbers fewer than 1000 people during winter, politics in the municipality of the Princes’ Islands is like another world. Although only just a couple miles away, Buyukada, or Prinkipo Island, the administrative headquarters of the Princes’ Islands, feels as remote to us as the city of Istanbul which we see on the other end of our horizon.

But these are the days of multicultural and multi-religious discourse in Turkey, or so the politicians are trying to promote. And it is catching across the main political spectrum. “Both Agop and Rojin are ours,” cried the leader of the CHP, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, in his keynote speech last Saturday during his party conference.

Back to the local election campaign of 2009, the Armenian promoted by the mayoral candidate was Raffi Hermon, of Armenian but also Italian origin, born on Prinkipo Island, who lived in France for 25 years working on the promotion of Turkish-Armenian ties and then returned to Istanbul. A few days after his visit to our island, Hermon was elected under the CHP ticket. Obviously, his status as a member of the Armenian minority had an important impact on the mixed population of the Princes’ Islands, of which Armenians are perhaps the biggest minority.

Since his election, Hermon has become very active in local, mainly cultural, initiatives that have coincided with Istanbul’s celebrating its status as one of 2010’s European Capitals of Culture. In a recent interview in this newspaper he said he dreams of bringing all the religions together on the Princes’ Islands, that he is trying to “plant a positive understanding” among people and hence he attends “prayers at the mosque, wears a kippah when entering the synagogue and takes the holy Eucharist at church."

However, two years after the Justice and Development Party, or AKP’s, win in the local elections and the emergence of a CHP supported local leadership on the Princes’ Islands, things do not look as rosy for the few thousand permanent inhabitants of this cultural oddity still surviving opposite the rapidly growing modern monster of the city of Istanbul.

Yes, the Princes’ Islands still resist modern amenities such as automobiles and motorbikes. Yes, there are still mosques, synagogues and churches conducting their services in a spirit of peaceful coexistence. And it is here where you will hear Greek, Ladino, French, German, Italian and a variety of other languages spoken by groups of people positively accepting the religion and culture of the other. This is not so much the problem.

Dr. Fevzi, a general practitioner posted on the island of Antigoni more than 10 years ago, used to take the boat from Bostanci port on the Asian side of the city to cross the Marmara Sea in order to come to his small office in Antigoni. He would stay there all day, waiting for his patients, checking them, writing their prescriptions or sending them to the hospital on Prinikipo. For the permanent residents of the island – which include many children – but also for the large number of summer residents and visitors, he was a safety valve for all emergencies.

Dr. Fevzi fell victim of the new government regulations which do not provide the facility of a doctor in places of under one thousand inhabitants. Now if you need medical services you have to take the boat to Prinkipo or to Heybeliada (Chalki Island).

Take a boat? The beginning of this winter coincided with a drastic depletion of transportation facilities provided for the islands. The characteristic big boats that used to pick up and deliver passengers from the “iskeles” (wharves) of Kabatas and Bostanci to the islands were drastically reduced. The transportation from Bostanci’s iskele is now mainly done by a highly erratic service of smallish motorboats that cannot live up to an occasion of a day with a strong “lodos” wind. Island residents are very angry and frustrated, but they know that for their fate the decision lies with Ankara – not with the municipality.

“But they should have tried, they should have given a fight,” said my Catholic friend in Burgaz who left his house in Cihangir and now lives all year round on the island with his wife and sick father-in-law.

The problem with people who have dealt with the Princes’ Islands from positions of authority has been that they refuse to see these islands as pieces of Turkey’s reality. They are treated as an “ex-cosmopolitan oasis of old Istanbul,” a “multi-cultural heaven” where people find a refuge escaping from the destruction of the old city of Istanbul. This nostalgic approach and the over emphasis on the cultural and historical aspect of the islands has sometimes made local authorities bypass the real needs of the place.

“When I returned from Paris after 25 years, I noticed the islands had lost all their cosmopolitan texture, which broke my heart. To return Istanbul to its original cultural identity, we need to start on the Princes’ Islands,” said the deputy Mayor.

I agree with him. But first you have to attend to more pressing needs like regular sea transportation and medical care.

Of course politics is also centrally involved. In spite of assurances from the central government that the Princes’ Islands are a unique cultural and historical treasure that need to be protected, few islanders miss the point that the election of a CHP local leadership is partly the reason for their recent neglect.

And in that respect I do not fully agree with his statement that “In local elections, there is not as much room for ideology, as is the case at the national level.”

Christmas is around the corner and many Greek Orthodox visitors will come to Istanbul to attend the service in the Patriarchal Church of St George, in the district of Fener. A large number of them will want to visit the Princes’ Islands which, for some, were their family’s birthplaces. I hope they can.
Arianna Ferntinou
Hurriyet Daily News