ABOARD "KYRENIA II"
Perhaps the most exciting human dream is a return to the past, a journey in time. Keeping track of "Kyrenia II" one sees the realization of this dream.
The Aegean seascape has not changed at all since the 4th century B.C or even earlier. It's not like the land to which we add, often entirely unsuitable buildings, aerials and colours. The wave always has the same colour, the same movement and conjures up the same feelings of awe and admiration for the indescribable masterpiece, the greatest edifice we call Nature. The waters are two and a half kilometres deep and on the surface there is the light dancing of dolphins while gulls touch down with carefree familiarity.'.Amongst them sails "Kyrenia II", a ship of the 4th centúry B.C. If this is not a return in time, if this is not eternity, then what is it?
At the end of Ledra street, where the British divided in order to rule, by drawing green lines, the Turks have written on the side of the mountain which Digenis carved with his fingers, the words, "I'm proud to be a Turk". On the bulwarks of "Evgenides", "Swallow" and "Aegean", the ships that escorted "Kyrenia II", I imagine sitting next to me the Turk who conceived and concluded this act: My, dear Turkish friend and fellow-citizen, you are proud of having occupied, raped, displaced and looted. Look at this ship, look at the line of its stern and the grace of its bow as it rises and falls gently, almost tenderly, brushing away the wave in order to sail along. Look at the symmetry of this ship which is as if it were given birth by the sea, look carefully at this eternity and you will understand the pride of the Greek who has no need to engrave it with plastered boulders on the sides of plundered mountains.
I don't know how much this man, who indulges in misappropriation and looting, can understand this but he does not show up at all. Though we expect that sooner or later he will come to harass us with warships in his usual way, he keeps away from "Kyrenia II". Maybe he has a premonition and a suspicion that this small wooden ship, this "wooden wall", is our real invincible power. He may at times have the upper hand by taking advantage of our failures and frivolities. However, before small ships like this one, which are loaded with Memories, Tradition and History, he begins to doubt whether his superiority in troops and arms will hold sway. He thinks it's prudent to keep his distance from such mysterious wooden structures that are built by our own souls. It's not like one cannon that is threatened by ten cannons or a tank which he can confront with twenty others; it is the soul of a people in complete harmony with the place it has inhabited for thousands of years. How can he understand something like this, entrenched as he is between East and West? How can he destroy something he cannot perceive? That's why he keeps away from it.
And the ship of Kyrenia continues its journey, the journey of the Great Return, which will eventually fuse it with its soul that remains mute, with infinite fortitude in the enslaved castle of Kyrenia.
Note by ANDIS RODITIS, who filmed "Kyrenia II's" entire trip.
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Monday, May 27, 1996 11:59:56 PM