18th Nov. The good news is that I succeeded in getting through the 17th Nov without reading a Greek newspaper or watching Greek TV. For me the 17th is a horrible, depressing day. It is supposed to celebrate and commemorate the student uprising against the junta at Athens Polytechnic in November 1973. For an event that occurred in the late 20th century, it is surprisingly hard to separate fact from fiction. There is no doubt that many courageous students were killed, but there are more myths than facts.
The most egregious piece of fiction is that the rising brought down the junta. It didn’t, but it was the beginning of the end. Shortly after the Polytechnic, the junta was overthrown by another junta! This junta fell in July 1974 following its botched attempt to overthrow Makarios in Cyprus that month. The Turks invaded and have occupied and repopulated the north of the island since then.
The students who died deserve to be honoured with dignity and solemnity. Instead, the anniversary is usually marred with violence. Next year will be the 50th anniversary. God knows how it will be celebrated.
My latest Greek Word (28/2022) is σουρτούκω, which I got from a restaurant of that name on Katouni Street. There is another restaurant on Κατούνη called Το Καντούνι, a nice play on words but they are not connected. Το Καντούνι, meaning a narrow street, is aptly named as the restaurant is on the corner of two very narrow streets, and it set me wondering if there was someone called Κατούνης who had had a street named after him. There was.
Born in Galatista, Halkidiki, in 1794, Δημήτριος Κατούνης, made his money in shipping on Syros and returned to Thessaloniki when he was 50. At that time, The Jewish and Turkish communities outnumbered the Greeks. Katounis became a great benefactor to the Greeks and the Orthodox Church. His story is told here¨ https://parallaximag.gr/thessaloniki-news/dimitrios-katounis-kai-dromos-me-to-onoma-tou Strangely enough, there doesn’t seem to be a street named after him in Galatista.
On the subject of place names, I live in Nei Epivates, literally New Passengers, which is a strange name for a town or village. In Greece, if a district, village or town includes the word New, one can be sure that the original was in Asia Minor. The original Επιβάτες was a Greek town/suburb near Constantinople, whose population was expelled in 1923:
Σ’ εκείνη την τοποθεσία [today’s Nei Epivates], εγκαταστάθηκαν το 1923, μετά την ανταλλαγή των πληθυσμών, 159 προσφυγικές οικογένειες (631 άτομα), όλες προερχόμενες από την κωμόπολη Επιβάτες, που ήταν προάστιο της Κωνσταντινούπολης και έδωσαν και το όνομα Νέοι Επιβάτες. Αν και δεν έπαψε ποτέ να είναι σε χρήση και η δεύτερη ονομασία Μπαξέ Τσιφλίκι, τόσο από τους Επιβατιανούς όσο και από τους παλιούς Θεσσαλονικείς.
So, 159 refugee families totalling 631 people settled here in 1923 and gave the village its new name. However, even today people still refer to the village as Μπαξέ Τσιφλίκι or just Μπαξέ. Νέοι Επιβάτες is also the subject of serious academic study: Ένα Όνομα, Δύο Τόποι: Επιβάτες Ανατολικής Θράκης, Νέοι Επιβάτες Θεσσαλονίκης by Μαριάνθη Φ. Παλάζη = One Name, Two Places: Epivates of Eastern Thrace and New Passengers of Thessaloniki by Marianthi Palazi.
But who needs a book when you’ve got a song? The great Vasilis Tsitsanis wrote about the place. Visit any taverna where a duo with a guitar and bouzouki are playing, and you are almost sure to hear Μπαξέ Τσιφλίκι:
Here is a video clip with the lyrics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHzijITUVrI
And here in Μπαξέ we have a street called Tsitsani. And unlike Katounis, Tsitsanis has a street named after him in his birthplace.