Vic Socotra

28 October 2009

Just Say No

(Oxi, 2009)

I was turning off Virginia Route 29 the other day to investigate something, liberated from the relentless focus on making the next gree light three miles down the road toward Remington. There is a great story there, and I was going to get to that this morning, when I got a note that stopped me in my tracks.

Actually, I was stopped in my tracks anyway. I was sitting on my butt at the laptop in the breakfast nook that doubles as my dining table in Tunnel Eight. I am going to have to get to the battle of the houses on Fleetwood Hill, the mischance at Kelly’s Ford and the jolly Prussian Giant tomorrow.

It is plain distraction, that is all. I The two most beautiful Cousins in the world are on the loose in the Eastern Med. They celebrated Oxi Day along with all of Greece, and wondered why.

I had to take a break from my breakfast of flaming goat cheese and Ouzo to do a quick response.

I could have been with them. They enjoyed a beautiful dinner last night at their hotel under the lights of the Acropolis. It was a little too cool to sit outside, but the glass windows brought everything in. The food was good, they said, very nouveau Greek cuisine, which is another way of saying ‘small portions with prissy recipes.’

My older cousin and long-time partner in crime was writing from an internet café on the island of Hydra, about 2 hours away from the Port of Piraeus by ferry. She said it was a huge public holiday today and all of Greece is shut down. The locals gave explanations that were lost in translation, but the commemoration begins with a church service, and has something to do with Italy and WWII.

She noted that Hydra is an island without motor vehicles of any kind. Kind of like Mackinac Island, but with donkeys instead of bicycles, tied up everywhere, awaiting their owners. She said it was very sweet and has a laid-back, summer vacation feel. Cats of all sizes and shapes overrun the island, and not a one of them seems underdfed or hungry. She speculated that perhaps the fishermen throw them the leftovers from the days catch.

There was a time when the cats, and the locals did not do so well. Accordingly, I had to write back, as I’m sure you will understand..

“Oxi” is the Greek word for “NO,” I wrote. On October 28th 1940 strongman General Ioannis Metaxas' issued a short statement in response to a request from Italian strongman Benito Mussilini to permit his troops to pass through Greek territory.

“Oxi!” said Metaxas, and the resident Greeks (and those around the world) celebrated his opposition to fascism by taking to the streets. Of course the Italians invaded anyway, though they were eventually driven back into Albania.

This is the signal triumph of Greek arms in modern history, since the Ottomans roared through, headed north for the gates of Vienna.

I’m sure you have heard the old truism that the problem with the Greeks and the Turks is about the Greek capital, which is not Athens, but Constantinople.

Anyway, this chapter of the story The began in 1935, when King George II was restored to the Greek throne by a rigged plebiscite, where he made the right-wing general Ioannis Metaxas as prime minister. Nine months later, Metaxas assumed dictatorial powers with the king’s consent under the pretext of preventing a communist-inspired republican coup, a continuing theme is Greek history.

The defeat of the Italians is the real reason the day is celebrated, since the rest of the war went badly for the Greeks.

The Occupation" (Katochi, in Greek) began in April 1941 after the Germans took charge of the comic opera Italian war with their avaricious Bugarian allies and lasted with significant brutality until the German withdrawal from the mainland in October 1944. In some cases however, such as in Crete and other islands, Nazi garrisons remained in control until May and June 1945.

Everything is linked. The defeat of the Italians forced Germany to shift its military focus from the preparation of "Operation Barbarossa" to an intervention on its ally's behalf in the southern Balkans. The delay may have been factor that stopped the war machine at the outer subway stations to the west of Moscow.

A rapid German Blitzkrieg campaign followed in April 1941, and by the middle of May, Greece was under joint occupation by three Axis powers: Germany, Italy and Bulgaria. A collaborationist Greek government was established immediately after the country fell.

The occupation brought about terrible hardships for the Greek civilian population. Over 300,000 civilians died from starvation, thousands more through reprisals, and the country's economy was ruined. At the same time, the Greek Resistance, with many progressive and Communist elements became one of the most effective resistance movements in Occupied Europe.

These resistance groups launched guerrilla attacks against the occupying powers and set up large espionage networks, but by late 1943 began to fight amongst themselves. When liberation came in October 1944, Greece was in a state of crisis, which soon led to the outbreak of civil war.

The unpleasantness continued after peace supposedly broke out, and the sometimes uneasy relationship with NATO, and the periodic military coups and shooting of American attaches.

So you can understand why the thing that is celebrated is the victory over Mussolini, not the scourge of the Germans. I’m not surprised that my cousin could not get a decent explanation about the significance of the day, since as in all things Greek, the matter is open to endless contemplation and revision.

Since 2000, the “No!” Day holiday has been a political football just as emotional as the immigration debate here- though given where the Italians came from and where they went, you can undersand why it is a hot-button.

Every Oxi Day, public schools organize a parade where the best student of the school carries the Greek flag. Given the recent tidal wave of immigration into Greece from the distressed Balkans (some of it Islamic), and the outward flow of Greeks to North America and elsewhere in the 20th century, there is the real feeling that something is being lost. The nationality of the “best student” became an issue nine years ago, when an Albanian student named Odysseus Cenaj was selected by his school to carry the flag.

There was a vigorous debate (not all of it civil) in the media about the meaning of being “Greek,” and in the end Cenaj declined to carry the flag in order not to create massive dissent in the local and wider Greek community. Even the President of Greece had to weigh in, from what I am told. Parliament passed new legislation was passed making it clear that non-Greek pupils who had been enrolled in public schools for at least two years may carry the flag in parades if they have the highest marks in their class.

All politics are local, you know? And in Greece, local politics has some grudges that go back three thousand years.

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