With less than ten days to go, Greeks will have to make up their minds whom they want to send to the European Parliament. In theory, on May 26th Greeks will have to elect 21 members for the Greek delegation of the European Parliament. In practice, though, next Sunday is expected to be a last rehearsal for the country’s general elections, which are due any time until October this year.
The words Byzantium or “Byzantine”- although never used by the actual inhabitants of the Eastern Roman Empire - have survived until our days and are used in most contemporary languages. They refer to anything which is too complex to understand, opaque, secretive, confusing and never instantly transparent.
“They killed the horses! There are no animals in the Caracas Zoo; they even killed the lions to eat them! The people are starving! Maduro is a dictator and you are supporters of dictators!”
It is not the first time that world politicians use old symbols to convince their audience of their democratic credentials.
Few would argue that the huge poster covering most of the left side of Şişmanoğlu Cultural Center on İstiklal Avenue in the neighborhood of Beyoğlu (Pera) was a sight that they had seen before.
Istanbulites are soon to be told who their next mayor will be, while Athenians are just entering a period of political debate about whom they will choose as their own.
What is interesting is that on the last leg of the race toward the elections for the European Parliament, the political parties in Greece are using all available ammunition to increase their popularity.
The much-publicized military hyper-drill with the meaningful code-name “Blue Homeland” (“Mavi Vatan” in Turkish) has come to an end.
The recent visit of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to Turkey is now behind us. And we are all looking forward to a de-escalation period as both President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Tsipras promised us. The atmosphere in the first face-to-face encounter of the defense ministers of both countries in Brussels last week was cordial. This, however, did not stop some pessimists claiming that the only visible difference in the Hulusi Akar-Evangelos Apostolakis meeting was that “both men had shelved their uniforms in their cupboards.” So, no Turkey-Greece war for the moment.
