Days in Autumn

140 × 210 SPINE: 8.7 FLAPS: 90

Read also...

The Istanbul Pogrom of 6–7 September 1955 in the Light of International Law Alfred de Zayas- Geneva School of Diplomacy The Istanbul pogrom (sometimes referred to as Septemvriana) was a government instigated series of riots against the Greek minority of Istanbul in September 1955. It can be characterized as a ‘‘crime against humanity,’’ comparable in scope to the November 1938 Kristallnacht in Germany, perpetrated by the Nazi authorities against Jewish civilians.

D

NOVEL

Days in Autumn

I went out to buy something. It was about five o’clock in the afternoon. Near Taksim Square I saw a large crowd of furious Turks screaming slogans like “Cyprus is Turkish, down with the infidels” and more. I was very scared and I decided to go back home quickly and report it to Mr. Theophilos. He was very upset when he heard. He tried to reach Christos or Vassilis in Athens on the phone, but he could not get a connection. In the meantime there were very loud screams and a sound of people running and screaming near our house. Mr. Theophilos became even more excited, he was trembling all over; I have never seen him like that before. Suddenly he turned to me and told me to hide in the attic. Pull up the stairs and do not come out, he told me. At that moment there were loud beatings and wild voices at the front door. Mr. Theophilos went to the living room, stumbled and suddenly fell to the ground. I went to him immediately and tried to help him, but he was dead, his heart couldn’t stand it. The beatings and the screams became louder. I climbed up into the attic and pulled up the ladder, as Mr. Theophilos had told me to do. Then I heard voices and wild screams in the house and I realised that they had broken down the door and that they were inside. It was awful, some of them came upstairs. I heard one saying they should hurry, because there was a dead man downstairs. It sounded like they didn’t want to have anything to do with the dead person, so I prayed to God not to find me [...]

DIMITRIS KOTZIAS

ISBN 978-960-564-291-4 14x21 | 348 p. | 2015

[...]

ISBN 978-960-564-669-1

ISBN 978-960-564-097-2 14x21 | 236 p. | 2013

e-mail: dkotzias10@gmail.com

Vatatzi 55, 114 73 Athen ΤEL.

: +30210 6431108

E-MAIL:

0_cover_september_ENG.indd 1

o celotos

ocelotos@ ocelotos .gr

www.ocelotos.gr

imitris Kotzias was born in Athens in 1946. He studied chemistry at the University of Bonn where he did his doctoral dissertation. He worked at the Institute of Ecological Chemistry at the Helmholtz Centre for Environment and Health in Munich and then at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy, initially at the Institute of the Environment and later at the Institute for Health and Consumer Protection. Founding member and for many years President of the Mediterranean Scientific Association of Environmental Protection (MESAEP).

He has published about 250 papers and reports in scientific journals.

In the last four years Dimitris Kotzias has written three novels: The Ideal Candidate (2015, in Greek), Days left, Days to come (2013, in Greek), which has been translated into German (2016) under the title Gestern und Morgen. His latest novel Days in September (in Greek) was published in 2017. All his works are published by Ocelotos Editions (Athens).

9 789605 646691

PUBLISHING

8/20/2018 4:33:13 PM

Title Days in Autumn Translation From The Greek Edition Μέρες του Σεπτέμβρη Author Dimitris Kotzias Translation Correction Jacqueline Ryder Layout - Design Myrtilo, Lena Pantopoulou Copyright© 2018 Δημήτρης Κοτζιάς First Edition Athens, August 2018 ISBN 978-960-564-669-1

Vatatzi 55, 114 73 Athens ΤEL.: +30210 6431108 E-MAIL: ocelotos@ocelotos.gr www.ocelotos.gr

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of the author and of Ocelotos Publications.

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DIMITRIS KOTZIAS

Days in Autumn

ATHENS 2018

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To my hero

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... Και χτύπα, χτύπα θά τόν πά μακρά νά τόν πετάξη, πίσω στήν Κόκκινη Μηλιά, και πίσ’ από τόν ήλιο, πού πιά νά μή γυρίση! Γ. ΒΙΖΥΗΝΌΣ , Ο τελευταίος Παλαιολόγος

... And strike, strike, hurl them far away, back to the Red Apple tree, beyond the sun, from whence they will not return!

G. VIZYINOS , The last Palaiologos

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PART 1

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DI M I T R I S KO T Z I A S

10

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1

T

hemis Kesisoglou leant back in his chair and clasped his hands behind his head. His eyes dwelt for a few seconds on his father’s photo on the wall. His father looked back at him as if to say, “Themis, now you’re the boss; you have full responsibility for the business now”.

Themis let his gaze wander from corner to corner, through the glass wall that separated the office from the main area of the store, its shelves full of all sorts of textile rolls and a large table standing in the middle of the large hall.

Business was going quite well. He had many orders not only from the Istanbul region but also from Izmir and Bursa. A few days before, a merchant from Trabzon had called him to order ten rolls of English cashmere.

His father, Aristotle (they called him Aristos) Kesisoglou, had a far reaching reputation. He had been a textiles wholesaler for decades, and he had created a good large clientele because of his professionalism, his gentle nature and, above all, his honesty. One year ago, when Aristos Kesisoglou turned sixty eight, he had decided to retire and leave the business to his son Themis. He and his wife, Eugenia, went to live in their house in Therapia, a small town on the Bos 11

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DI M I T R I S KO T Z I A S

phorus almost an hour away from Istanbul. Although he was in good health, and despite all his love and dedication for the business, Aristos did not hesitate to make a decision that many of his relatives and friends could not understand.

“The time has come for Themis to take over the business.

I have worked enough, under difficult conditions for most of these years. Now it’s time for me to spend the rest of my life with Eugenia in peace. Besides, Themis knows the job, he and I have worked together in recent years and he knows about people and things. I’ll be there to help him if needed, but I have full confidence in his abilities”, Aristos said to anyone who inquired about his decision, and thus put an end to the discussions.

AMA Themis slowly collected the papers scattered on the desk and put them in the drawer. He got up to leave. He had told his wife Evridiki that he would stay in the shop until late in the evening. “I have some things to do with the new goods that arrived recently”, he told her.

Themis glanced at his watch. It was already past ten o’clock. He turned off the lights and, before leaving the store, took one last look back into the dark hall. He yanked the heavy shutters down to close them. The shop was on the ground floor of a three-storey building in a good area, in a side street off Istiklal avenue, one of the most famous and central streets of Istanbul, the former Great Road of Per-

12

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DAY S I N AU T U M N

an. Aristos had bought it at the beginning of the fifties for a good price from a Greek family from Istanbul.

It was mid-July, and the temperature was pretty high. It reached thirty six degrees during the day, dropping to twenty or twenty four degrees in the evening and at night. But the air was stuffy because of the high humidity day and night, which was not unusual for Istanbul. Themis approached the Istiklal with quick steps. Despite the heat and the late hour, the street was still full of people. He walked for about a hundred meters and then turned right into an alley that led directly to his house, about two hundred meters from the Pera Palace hotel. Many thoughts wandered through his mind during the few minutes walk between the shop and home.

Normally, he would be satisfied. Business was good, there were no family problems, his parents were in good health and happy to see that their son was running the business successfully. And yet there were moments, especially over the last weeks, that greatly worried him. Firstly, his friend Lakis Manteas, who had a small business and a shoe store on Taksim Square, occasionally told him strange things concerning Cyprus, about the confrontation and struggle of the Greek Cypriots against the British colonialists, about the resumption of the subject by the British Government and the Turkish Government’s involvement. Then, at every meeting for a coffee or a drink with his friend and neighbour Ahmed Kiziroglou, who worked as an engineer in the municipality of Istanbul, Ahmed would try to draw his attention to the political and financial difficulties that had developed in Turkey over the last few years. Some changes are

  13

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DI M I T R I S KO T Z I A S

to be expected from the new Kemalist / Democratic government, Ahmed often said, speaking in vague terms without giving any details. Themis asked his father, but Aristos didn’t seem to give any importance to all these discussions.

“There’s a lot of talk, son. Times are difficult and everyone sees problems everywhere”. Aristos tried to calm Themis, although from his personal experience he knew very well that nothing is safe in Turkey for a long time, especially for the minorities.

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2

A

ristos had bought the house in Peran from Mr. Theophilos at the beginning of the thirties, when Themis was thirteen years old. Like Aristos, Mr. Theophilos was a textile wholesaler based in the area of Taksim square. He was a very successful trader and had accrued great wealth. Because of his advanced age and because his two children were in Greece and wanted to stay there, Mr Theophilos was thinking of transferring some of his properties back “home”, meaning Greece, of course, although both his parents and himself were born in Istanbul and had spent their whole lives in Turkey.

The house in Peran was in a good location; it was a corner house overlooking the Golden Horn. Some changes were needed, but that did not bother Aristos at all. He liked the house and the area very much, and his wife, Eugenia, felt the same way, so the decision to buy it was made very quickly. The house extended over two floors, the first floor located a bit higher than the ground, like almost all the houses in the area. The view from the balconies reached the Haghia Sophia on the other side of the Golden Horn, which aroused sad memories in Aristos from times gone by, and made him shudder. A beautifully made stone staircase be 15

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140 × 210 SPINE: 8.7 FLAPS: 90

Read also...

The Istanbul Pogrom of 6–7 September 1955 in the Light of International Law Alfred de Zayas- Geneva School of Diplomacy The Istanbul pogrom (sometimes referred to as Septemvriana) was a government instigated series of riots against the Greek minority of Istanbul in September 1955. It can be characterized as a ‘‘crime against humanity,’’ comparable in scope to the November 1938 Kristallnacht in Germany, perpetrated by the Nazi authorities against Jewish civilians.

D

NOVEL

Days in Autumn

I went out to buy something. It was about five o’clock in the afternoon. Near Taksim Square I saw a large crowd of furious Turks screaming slogans like “Cyprus is Turkish, down with the infidels” and more. I was very scared and I decided to go back home quickly and report it to Mr. Theophilos. He was very upset when he heard. He tried to reach Christos or Vassilis in Athens on the phone, but he could not get a connection. In the meantime there were very loud screams and a sound of people running and screaming near our house. Mr. Theophilos became even more excited, he was trembling all over; I have never seen him like that before. Suddenly he turned to me and told me to hide in the attic. Pull up the stairs and do not come out, he told me. At that moment there were loud beatings and wild voices at the front door. Mr. Theophilos went to the living room, stumbled and suddenly fell to the ground. I went to him immediately and tried to help him, but he was dead, his heart couldn’t stand it. The beatings and the screams became louder. I climbed up into the attic and pulled up the ladder, as Mr. Theophilos had told me to do. Then I heard voices and wild screams in the house and I realised that they had broken down the door and that they were inside. It was awful, some of them came upstairs. I heard one saying they should hurry, because there was a dead man downstairs. It sounded like they didn’t want to have anything to do with the dead person, so I prayed to God not to find me [...]

DIMITRIS KOTZIAS

ISBN 978-960-564-291-4 14x21 | 348 p. | 2015

[...]

ISBN 978-960-564-669-1

ISBN 978-960-564-097-2 14x21 | 236 p. | 2013

e-mail: dkotzias10@gmail.com

Vatatzi 55, 114 73 Athen ΤEL.

: +30210 6431108

E-MAIL:

0_cover_september_ENG.indd 1

o celotos

ocelotos@ ocelotos .gr

www.ocelotos.gr

imitris Kotzias was born in Athens in 1946. He studied chemistry at the University of Bonn where he did his doctoral dissertation. He worked at the Institute of Ecological Chemistry at the Helmholtz Centre for Environment and Health in Munich and then at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy, initially at the Institute of the Environment and later at the Institute for Health and Consumer Protection. Founding member and for many years President of the Mediterranean Scientific Association of Environmental Protection (MESAEP).

He has published about 250 papers and reports in scientific journals.

In the last four years Dimitris Kotzias has written three novels: The Ideal Candidate (2015, in Greek), Days left, Days to come (2013, in Greek), which has been translated into German (2016) under the title Gestern und Morgen. His latest novel Days in September (in Greek) was published in 2017. All his works are published by Ocelotos Editions (Athens).

9 789605 646691

PUBLISHING

8/20/2018 4:33:13 PM