Charis Karderinis

Ladies and gentlemen,

My name is Charitos Nikolaou Karderinis. I was born in 1933 in Istanbul. In 1951 I graduated from the scientific department of Zografion Lyceum and after completing my military service I dealt in medicine trade. I settled in Athens in 1971 continuing to work in Athens as an executive in major foreign pharmaceutical companies.

First of all , I would like to thank Mr. Nikos Mitroyiannopoulos, who showed great interest in joining these little films together to create this historical document. Kostas  Koutelas , who shot these films from 1951 to 1975 , is closely related to us and first cousin to my father Nikolaos Karderinis.

Today, I’ll try to inform you about what you are going to watch without getting weary. To begin with , I inform you that I come from Pringipos as well.

Pringipos is the biggest of the nine islands scattered in the sea of Marmaras and they are called Pringiponissa (Princes’ islands). They got their name from the young princes of Byzantium exiled there for punishment by the kings.

Sailing off the Istanbul port we meet the first inhabited island Proti (“First”). In Turkish it’s called Kinali Ada, meaning the island with red soil. It’s 9 sea miles far from Istanbul. Most inhabitants were Armenian and Greek as were the holidaymakers there.

Behind Proti, and 10-11 sea miles diagonally from Istanbul, are the uninhabited islands Oxia( “Beech”) and Plati(“Back”).

The second inhabited island is Antigone ( in Turkish Burgaz Ada) which is the third in size island. Many Greek people used to live there and many Jewish people had their summer holidays there.

Just across Antigone  in 300 metres distance is the little island Koutala (“Ladle”) , in Turkish Kasik Adasi, which is now inhabited only by its owner.

The third inhabited island is Chalki (Heybeli Ada, meaning haversack because the island consists of two hills and on the map it looks like a haversack), which is the second –in-size island. On the one hill there is the building of the Commercial School, later named Marine School and on the other hill is the building of the Faculty of Theology which now has closed down. The majority of the inhabitants were Muslims, the rest minorities (Greeks, Armenians and Jews).

The fourth inhabited island is Pringipos. It is the biggest of the nine islands, that’s why in Turkish it’s called Buyuk Ada, that is “big island”. Pringipos is 12 sea miles away from Istanbul. In winter there used to be 2000 to 3000 inhabitants whereas in summer there were 12000 to 15000 people. There are three monasteries : St. Nicholas in the plain of Mantemi, St. George of Koudounas on the higher hill and Saviour Christ on the second higher hill. On anniversaries there were big fairs and festivities where occasionally even The Ecumenical Patriarch Athinagoras was present. There is also a spring of miraculous holy water of Saints Constantine and Helen in the area of Glossa with fresh water right by the sea and a very small church with a hand-made marble icon perhaps since the Byzantine era. There are also two churches , the Dormition of Virgin Mary , which you see  just as you disembark and walk for about 200 metres from the pier and St. Demetrius in the area of Platanos, which is the Metropolitan Church of Pringiponissia.

By the way , I would like to inform you that cars are banned on the islands, with the exception of vehicles of the Fire Brigade and Ambulances. For this reason small horse-drawn coaches are used for transport.

Behind the hill of Christ, on another lower hill, there is our Orphanage, donated by E. Zaimi. It is a wooden structure, a gem of architecture, which unfortunately today is uninhabited and totally abandoned.

Pringipos has two beaches, Milos and Georgoulis. There were five hotels and a club, “Anatoli” (“East”), which the wealthiest Muslims as well as minority members had joined. Extravagantly luxurious receptions were held in the garden of the club in the summer.

Opposite and sideward of Pringipos there is the island Antirovythos ( Sedef Adasi in Turkish). It’s 500 metres far from Pringipos . It was uninhabited 40 years ago but recently several construction companies have started building blocks of flats and now it’s inhabited mainly by Muslims.

Behind Pringipos , in a distance of one sea mile , is located the last island Niandros. It’s an uninhabited island where we would go fishing in motorboats . We would find sea breams, flying fish and especially in autumn we would catch chub mackerels and scads that we gave to the whole neighbourhood.

The period that these films were shot the sea of Marmaras was teeming with all kinds of fish. It also had lots of lobsters and big crabs that we gathered at night too with the special fish lamp, the most delicious prawns , swallowfish, bonito, comberfish and mussels as big as the palm of our hand. That’s why fishing is our hobby. Unfortunately , as I have heard , the factories that have been built along the East Side of Istanbul have polluted the sea of Marmaras and now there are only a few shallow-water fish left.

The islands Antigone, Chalki and Pringipos are the greenest because of the lovely pine trees growing from the hills to the seaside.

Our family consists of many members but we are close no matter what the degree of kinship is , whether it is 1^st or 4^th. We would celebrate all anniversaries, birthdays , name days we had in summer with all our relatives and friends in the country restaurants of Christos and St. George. I still remember the joy and pleasure the women had as they prepared all the titbits and appetizers and food that vanished as soon as they reached the festive board. After the meal we started to dance the traditional “Kalamatiano” and “Chassapiko” dances and we would listen to Nikos Gounaris records on the record player. The feast ended with games of backgammon between the men.

In the film you will see the yacht “Ipar” named after its owner , actually a shipowner, which our family rented for outings to the islands and the sea of Marmaras.

My father and my uncle were florists with shops in Istanbul(my father) and in Ankara (my uncle). My uncle undertook to make the wreaths that foreign leaders and diplomats laid at the War Memorial of Taxim in Istanbul and Kemal Ataturk’s Mausoleum in Ankara.

In the end you are going to watch the graduation ceremony of reserve officers of 1952 in Ankara , which I take part in as an officer.

It would give me great pleasure if these descriptions offered you better understanding of the images you are going to watch in this film.

Thank you for your attention.
Charis Karderinis