“From the first day we came here, we raised the Greek flag. Nobody had flags here, only our “hut” says Artemis Papakostidou, who was honored by the Greek army
“The Evros Delta is not part of my life, it is my life…I cannot live far from here even if it is a 30 square meter hut…When there is a storm the water goes under the hut and we cannot let’s go out, it’s hard. They will say to me “what did you go and sit there?”. It’s not like this. All these years, my husband and I have made our living from here. From here we raised our children, from here we educated them, married them, from here we did everything. With our boat, with our hands, with our nets but also the Evros Delta. In a hut, okay, but I don’t mind…”
With a voice that testifies to the emotion and the truth of admitting her love for the place that has been her life for four decades, Artemis Papakostidou, the “Lady of the Delta”, as the “Kalyvieri” fishermen first called her her colleagues, outlines her own Evros River Delta.
She describes the unique and special dynamics of her earthly paradise with references to the colorful and changing images at every step of the countless species of birds that live and breed in the Delta wetlands and the local fishermen who daily slide their trawls between the reeds.
“…I deprived myself of my children, my family, my good time, all that… halal for the flag”
After her marriage to captain Nikos, 73 years old today and a fisherman since he was 16, she settled in Loutra Traianoupoli and the Evros Delta. Parents of two daughters and grandparents of three grandchildren, they built their “hut” 41 years ago, one of about 180 that are in the Delta to protect themselves from the weather. “From the first day we came here, we raised the Greek flag. No one had flags here, only our “hut”.
Later, in 2011, the border guards came, after a few years the army also came and so the Delta was filled with Greek flags two kilometers opposite Turkey… Our first job was to put the flag and that’s why the army with celebrated on November 21, the day of celebration of the Armed Forces and gave me the Greek flag and the emblem of the 12th Division as a gift. I was very emotional. It’s these moments that make you proud, that make you say I stayed, I was deprived of my children, my family, my good time because here I don’t have any conveniences, I was deprived of all that but halal for this flag that I took and held on to my hug. For the homeland, for our Greece, for our Evros, which others do not know at all…”
This was the second event in recognition of her contribution, as it was preceded by that of the “Ainisio Delta” Association, of her “kalyvieri” colleagues for whom she is “the breakwater of the Hellenism of the borders”. She is the only female professional fisherman who remains in the Delta, the one who will welcome them, who will open her door to make them coffee and sometimes no bream, she says characteristically. She remembers that when she first came to Delta there were other women and “huts” with families. Some fished and then returned to their homes. “But I, because this is my job, together with my husband, Captain Nikos, my rock as I call him, without whom I would not be here, we have decided together to walk through life and from here (s.s.) . the Delta) until the end…’.
“Whoever didn’t come to Delta loses”
Everyday life, as he says, is difficult and starts at 4.30 in the morning to be at the sea at 5.00 and cast the nets. If there is weather, storms like the previous days, the nets are lost, what remains are collected with great difficulty and without fish. These days “we are tired and at our age it is not for us to be so tired”, the “Delta Lady” explains to APE-MPE. The difficulty of the daily wage is the reason why he estimates that “after us there are no new fishermen. When we came here it was heaven. You easily earned the daily wage and did not say what I will do tomorrow…”. The fact that the fish have dwindled and the high cost of the necessary equipment, which he says reaches 50,000, act as a deterrent for young people to choose the profession of fisherman. Regarding the fact that he works and lives within walking distance of the border with Turkey, he says that he has always felt very safe, a feeling that has been strengthened by the presence of the border guards and the army in the last decade.
“…All this would not have happened if it were not for the husband who loves the sea very much. I came and stayed here with him and loved her too. I loved the Delta, every bit of land, its canals, its beauties, its colors, its birds. When you see flamingos flying, that color enchants you. When I gaze at the vastness of the sea, when I see the sun rising in the morning with its colors, the boats that everyone goes to their jobs. It is a magical place and the State should promote it. It could be a tourist place and many people live from tourism. The Hebrews love our country and if we go somewhere we will return to our country. Anyone who didn’t come to Delta loses. They must visit it, it must become a pole of attraction, they must build roads to visit the Delta, one of the best, not to say the most beautiful region in Europe.”
RES-EMP
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