Lale Alatli fell in love with Greece thanks to the rebetikas. She listened to them with her Greek classmates while they were studying in Italy. He copied CDs and cassettes and, while studying the lyrics, began to learn Greek. But in Turkey, where he comes from, at that time he could not find anything Greek. “There was like an invisible wall between the two countries,” he recalls. In 1999 he returned to Istanbul with two self-study books (Italian to Greek) which he read for hours every day. Her parents, open-minded people, saw her and became worried. “What are you going to do with my Greek girls?” they asked her. But she came to Thessaloniki for a vacation and already felt a strong familiarity with this place. “At first I was attracted by the language, its musicality. But I also liked the nature, the sea, which is not in Halkidiki, and mostly the people. They had the good qualities of the Turks, warm, but they were more civilized. I felt more like myself here,” he tells K. In 2010 he moved to Thessaloniki. She continued to make translations that were sent to her from Turkey, but timidly began taking private lessons as well. Initially, he had only two students, one in Kozani and one in Ptolemais. Gasoline cost her more, but she had to start somewhere. When Turkish series started, she became in demand. Today he mainly translates (also into Greek) and writes poetry (also in Greek).

Dora Hisco, on the other hand, eventually fell in love with Greece. She came from Albania in 2001 at the age of eighteen to spend the summer with her brother, who lived there while their parents were visiting her sister in Germany. She, unlike her brothers, did not survive the difficult years after the fall of Hoxha. He intended to return to Tirana to study. But she fell in love with her future husband – also from Albania – and they decided to live in Athens. And she, like Lale, began to learn Greek from songs, “especially the pains of Plutarch” and on television. He marked words and looked them up in a dictionary. When they decided to start a family, he began intensive courses. She wanted to be able to help her children when they started school. At the same time, he worked a lot. In the bakery, then the saleswoman, then the waitress. In recent years, she has decided to work fewer hours in order to be at home more with her daughter. “Teresa is 14 today, she is an excellent student. Three times he was the standard-bearer at the parade, ”he proudly tells“ K ”.

These two women, Lale from Turkey and Dora from Albania, one in Thessaloniki and the other in Athens, most likely would never have met. However, they have been in constant contact for several months. What united them was their desire to become Greek women and, in fact, the difficulties that the Greek state set for this.

They both applied for Greek citizenship in 2017. The main reason was that they felt that this was their home, their country. “I feel like I belong in this place. Especially since I come from a state that can revoke my passport at any moment, and I don’t want to live with anxiety about what might happen if something goes wrong between Greece and Turkey,” Lale explains. Dora wanted a Greek identity because she often felt she was treated differently when her Albanian passport was shown. Same with her daughter, who was born here.

Delays

Both women provided all the necessary supporting documents. They fulfilled all conditions. Of course, they knew that the process would take several years. When Lale asked when to expect a response, she was told that there was a volunteer committee that met twice a year and that at that time (in 2017) they were still considering applications from 2010. Along the way, the system changed and demanded that they also take exams. Lale, having meanwhile received a degree in Greek, refused. “Fortunately, because questions bothered me. I can know everything about rebetiko or poetry, but I don’t know who the Vughiuklaks used to play with or what day we bake fanuropita,” he says, laughing. Dora, who had to take an exam, would come home from work and, after taking care of her daughter and the house, would sit down and read. He passed the exam with 98%. But in the end, even this was not enough. In March 2022, they both learned that they had been cut.

When Dora found out, she fell from the clouds. She collected all supporting documents and went alone to the ministry, demanding an explanation. She did not hire a lawyer because she thought she had everything she needed and the cost of the application fee (€750) was already weighing on her financially. To her persistent questions, the employee’s response left her speechless: “And you now, why are you so obsessed with becoming a Greek woman?”

Lale, as a translator for the Hellenic Human Rights Union, had access to the Union’s lawyers, who explained to her what had happened. In 2020, the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs tried to introduce the criteria of “economic integration” into the law on citizenship. Specific provisions did not pass Parliament, they were withdrawn, but a year later they were “adopted again” in the form of a ministerial decision.

The circular required Lala to prove that she had an annual income of 6,500 euros or more in the five years prior to the application. Theoretically, he would have no problem with this limitation. She sold her apartment in Turkey and transferred 300,000 euros to a Greek bank account. With this money, she lived comfortably, even began to build her own house in Epanomi. The circular, however, also imposed another restriction: the income had to be exclusively from entrepreneurial activities. And only in Greece. When Lale first arrived, she ran a Turkish company. In 2016, he closed it and opened a Greek company, so he could not show the required income for all five years. “I was very disappointed. It was like someone was trying to stop me from becoming a Greek from the very beginning and in the end succeeded. I felt like a stranger. I thought about leaving, but where? This is my home,” he says. about treatment), but within six days she was rejected. The more the lawyers studied her case, the more they insisted that she go to court. They explained to her that the fact that this circular was retroactive was illegal and unconstitutional.” She thought about it, but didn’t know if she could psychologically endure the procedure, until one day he met Dora on Facebook.

Courts

The two women, first by text message and then by phone, shared their stories. But Dora was not going to go to court. Even when Lale’s lawyers offered to take her case for free. “I earn 450 a month. I don’t want to save 50 euros a year for legal fees,” he explained to her.

In early March, Lale appeared before the Thessaloniki Administrative Court of Appeal and appealed against the refusal. On her side, of course, were dozens of organizations in which she participated for years. From animal charities, the hospitals and shelters she visited with her dog, the environmental groups with which she cleaned the city and the beaches, PEN (an international organization of writers and translators) to the general meeting of an apartment building. Everyone sent letters of support. “They say that usually after death you hear good things about someone. I was lucky to hear them live,” he laughs. “I am also lucky to have financial comfort and the ability to do all these things that show my country. If I worked during the day, I couldn’t afford any of this, and I certainly couldn’t afford the cost of a lawsuit. Therefore, I feel that I am leading this fight for all those who have been unfairly rejected. As Dora told me, if I win, it will be like we all win.”

The court’s decision will be announced in a few months. Lale continues her life in Greece, she has recently moved into the house she built and is trying to understand what Greece is for her. “I want to forget about the rejection and the feeling it made me feel and focus on the support part,” he concludes.