As you can see from the previous posts and comments, some friends and myself have been battling a couple of fascist Greeks lately and I had to abruptly bring their demise to a swift end. So, as I was going over the all our writings I couldn't help but think that I, personally, was diminishing the value of my actual Greek friends I grew up with in Germany. No matter how imbecilic those two were, it would be unfair to portray their image to the rest of the Greeks.
Hence, I would like to tell you about my Greek friends so that the better ones in this world can stick together and provide some better insight into Turkish-Greek relations outside of our respective homelands.
Growing up in Germany was pretty difficult at times but the more we, Turks, accepted our circumstances the easier it became for us all. Not wanting to let go of our traditions and heritage, as all minorities do in any country, we found ourselves bonding with everyone that could relate to our everyday miseries. Since the Greek immigrants, amongst others, were also working the same crappy jobs as Turks were and also not understanding the hatred of some Germans around us, our pride or nationalistic tendencies against each other were mediocre at best. Neo-Nazis and other xenophobic haters were, and still are, abound in Germany, and this is what actually brought the minorities closer together than anyone would expect.
We, the first generation foreign born kids, started playing in the same futbol teams, dancing to the same tunes, and partying until dawn. Don't get me wrong though, we still had our disagreements and plenty of them in fact. Our fights about whose food tasted better (Doner Kebab vs. Gyro), whose liquor was manlier (Raki vs. Ouzo), and whose national futbol team could win it all, seemed endless. And we even had the Greek fascist kids who would never even think twice to stab their own and others in the back.
I grew up with a sizable Greek minority in my neighborhood and even to this day I still hang out with some of them when I go visit. The few times we get together and talk about times past, way back in the days, we always remember the fun we had and none of the ugliness that surrounded us. In all the experiences I had with my Greek friends there is one incident though that reminds me, again and again, of the few good people around me back then.
One of my closest friends at the time was Vassilios. We were raised just two blocks from each other and played in the same teams throughout our youth. Despite the fact that we went to different schools in the city, we took the same bus in the mornings and afternoons. At my school we had these two Neo-Nazis who one day decided that it was about time "someone did something about those Auslander [foreigners]" and let me know that I was on their list to "be taken care of" acting as if somehow it had slipped my mind that they were racists. Later that same day, I was talking with Vassili in the bus explaining to him what I was told. I will never forget his answer, he said: "Well, if they want to fight you they will have to fight me too." And although I knew that he wouldn't actually be there if it happened, I really appreciated him standing with me without hesitating for a second. We were 15 at the time.
Now that, my friends, is what some other Greeks are like, but it is sad that the extremists somehow manage to take away the attention from the ones who are willing to sit down and talk. And every country has them; some more than others, but they're everywhere...
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