By
Costas Onishenko, October 21, 2012
In
the village of Organi, in Rhodope, northern Greece, a Greek coffee cost just 50
cents but there are few places left where you can purchase one. Only 501
residents remain there, and according to the tax office’s latest figures, it is
the poorest village in the country. Organi is located some 40 kilometers from
the city of Komotini and the majority of its residents are Muslims, who prefer
to be called Greek Muslims rather than by their ethnic title, Pomaks. The road
to the village meanders through beautiful woods and small fields of tobacco,
which is the village’s main source of income. The only other source is
pensions, and in many cases entire families live off the pension of just one
person. Some money trickles in from abroad too, as a good many residents have
found jobs in the Netherlands and wire money back home to support their
families.
“I
make about 3,000 euros a year from tobacco and with the subsidies this amount
can reach about 5,000 euros,” 39-year-old Ismail Kulauz, a father of two, told
Kathimerini. “This is more or less all the money we have to live on each year.
How do we get by? First of all, most people here have a vegetable garden --
tomatoes, potatoes, beans. We spend very little money on food. But, after
paying social security benefits, fuel and other bills, there is very little
cash left over. However, we somehow survive. I don’t buy new toys for the
girls; we’ll borrow them from neighbors with older kids. You see, we all try to
help one another.”
The
men of the village who don’t work in the tobacco fields gather at the main
square. The local school is nearby and there is a minibus which is used to
bring in students from other villages. There is also an ambulance parked on the
square that is driven by a local volunteer in case of emergencies.
In
the past, Organi’s young men would try to get jobs as seasonal farm workers in
the Netherlands, but this option is no longer as easy as it once was.
“There
is no future here. Most of us want to stay because this is our homeland, but
the younger generation will be leaving en masse,” according to 20-year-old
Hadji Arif Sedat, who we met at a local cafe, which has a television for
screening soccer games and a foosball table. It costs 50 cents for an hour at
the foosball table and a bottle of beer costs 1.20 euros. Women do not visit
the establishment, as it is frowned upon by the local Muslim community.
Other
than this cafe, for entertainment, there are another three, as well as a
taverna and a sandwich shop.
“You
have to go to Komotini to have fun, but we can’t afford to pay for gas so we
just end up hanging out here,” said Sedat, who is a student at the University
of Istanbul.
The
reason he chose Turkey for his studies, he said, was that it was the cheaper
option. “I live in a dorm and the money I need there is a lot less than I would
need if I studied in Komotini.”
Unlike
the older men in the cafe, who have a more demure stance toward their
relationship with the state, one young man is more vehement.
“Things
are a little better today than they were in the past, when the Muslim
population was often discriminated against because of political reasons. The
things that we need today have to do with improving our quality of life. We
have been promised a dam or some kind of infrastructure to help irrigate the
fields because this is a dry area and that affects production. Before every
election, we have a parade of politicians, but afterward, it’s like they just
erase us from the map,” said Ahmet Hadjisarif as he offered us a hand-rolled
cigarette containing local tobacco. “Try it. It’s like this place: harsh but
something we can call our own.”
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