Friendship, old and new

On the eve of the grand opening of the Alexandria Library, Magda Shahin, Egyptian ambassador to Greece, and Demosthenes Konstantinou, Greek ambassador to Egypt, speak to Iason Athanasiadis
'Greece's place in our hearts is not enough; it should also be more in the eyes'
The Egyptian embassy in Athens commands a startlingly prominent position. Whereas the American embassy sprawls away from the city centre on the capital's main transport artery and the British embassy is situated in one of the commercial centre's traffic-choked streets, the Egyptian representation reclines in neo-classical grandeur opposite the Greek parliament, just beside the foreign ministry at No3, Boulevard Vasilissis Sofias.
The embassy's impressive location owes much to better relations between the two countries in the past. The spacious two-storey building, which originally belonged to Greece's King George II, was given as a gift to King Fouad and became the Egyptian royal residence in Athens. Farouk stayed there briefly in 1952 en route to Italy, following the revolution and his exile from Egypt. Subsequently, the building was nationalised by the Free Officers, and turned into the country's diplomatic representation.
Currently under total restoration, the palace is as distinguished from the inside as from the outside. A cool, marble-floored hall greets the visitor, and a grand staircase sweeps upwards, while four spacious reception chambers lead out to the house's two wings. The ambassador's office, decorated in baroque style, is split into two sections. The outer room contains the secretarial staff, and is decorated with large expanses of sombre wood panelling on the walls and dark, aged parquet. Imposing carved, wooden doors lead into the ambassador's study, which is dominated by a magnificent 1930s mahogany desk that once belonged to King Fouad.
"I think that it is a beautiful embassy and we're trying to renovate it in the most honest way possible to the original decor," muses Magda Shahin, Egypt's new ambassador to Athens. In her mid-40s, she is an energetic, trim woman, dressed in an understatedly elegant manner and positively brimming over with new plans and ideas. It took two years for her predecessor to get Cairo to agree to the palace's restoration, the tragedy of bureaucracy, as she puts it. Now, as the embassy receives its long-delayed makeover, Magda Shahin is preparing to overhaul the neglected state of relations between the two countries. And, just as the embassy is suffused by the ear-splitting whine of electric drills, Shahin is aware that the process of reviving relations may initially be painful.
Shahin believes that, together, Egypt and Greece can do great things in the region. She is no dreaming romantic, glorifying an idealised Greek-Egyptian past, blind to today's realities. A sharp-eyed economist, she has held the post of deputy assistant minister for international economic relations and is clearly concerned at recent statistics detailing a sharp 20 per cent reduction in bilateral trade. "We used to export oil to Greece but this has stopped. When Greeks carry out a project, it's very successful but there are too few of them right now," she complains, with the air of someone who knows that good opportunities are being wasted. Shahin's chief area of concern, trade between Greece and Egypt, has great potential. "Relations have drifted in the past few years, chiefly because Greece was preoccupied with its integration into Europe. Now that Greece is doing fine in this field, I would like to see the relationship between our two countries progressing, especially within the Mediterranean framework."
But Greece has also been unhappy with Egypt's emphasis on regional relations with Turkey, a far cry from the Nasser era and the early El-Sadat years when Egypt supported Cyprus, its northern neighbour on the independence issue and Cypriot President Makarios III was a popular hero with Egyptians -- a symbol of anti-colonial heroism. Shahin acknowledges the Egyptian shift away from Greece and admits that Egypt looked to the United States and the big European donor countries in the past, to Greece's exclusion. "We have not taken much care of the relationship recently. We were preoccupied with our restructuring programme and the current issues of the day. Greece has been similarly busy, trying to meet the EU's tough economic streamlining criteria. Indicative of this is that President Mubarak has only visited once, at the beginning of his presidency in 1982."
Shahin would like to see an improvement in bilateral relations for the good of the Mediterranean region. "Greece can be a supportive force for Egypt and for the Palestinian issue in the EU. We hardly find Greece speaking up for the region. In the European context it's always France, even Spain that stick up for us. Now, it is clear that Greece is looking outward and is seeking a role in the Balkans as a European country. In fact, that was the whole point of Greek Prime Minister Kostas Simitis' recent trip to the US, where he presented Greece to Bush as a European country in the Balkan region, rather than as just another Balkan state, indistinguishable from the rest."
But Greece, according to Shahin, will have to strike a balance between its commitments to the EU and its positioning in the region, both in the Middle East and the Balkans. Greeks influenced by the EU position on the Middle East but they could actually help formulate European policy on the Middle East, instead of just following it. We're now expecting a Greek comeback into Middle East affairs, she states and muses about the days of the Andreas Papandreou government -- the first to recognise Arafat as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people -- when Arafat came to the PASOK conference and was greeted deliriously, as a head of state.
"We know that Greece loves the region, understands and feels it. And yet Greece is not outspoken in its favour. Greece's place in our hearts is not enough; it should also be more in the eyes," she says, alluding to the need for more assertive Greek participation in the Middle East region. It is an unfortunate fact of life that the Greeks do not support their southern neighbours enough, giving most of their attention to Cyprus and the Balkans," she noted.
As regards the war on terrorism, Shahin believes that Greece and Egypt see eye-to-eye on the issue. Both countries have had problems with terrorism. The hundreds of thousands of Balkan immigrants that have made their way into the country in the past few years have made Greece aware of what a badly-handled conflict can lead to, alerting policy-makers to the dangers that a destabilised country can pose to its neighbours.
As Shahin puts it, "It's not by moving from one country to the other, killing Somali and Iraqi civilians that you're fighting terrorism. It's not by chasing Bin Laden around the world that you deal with Islamic militancy. We believe that what happened to the US was disastrous and it's imperative that we find real and fair solutions for the region, solutions that nurture stability."
As regards her efforts, as an Arab ambassador, to explain Islam to the Greeks, Shahin says: "I don't promote Islam but I do lecture on the subject and try to put across our case, explaining that Islam is tolerant. I present myself as an example of how women can progress in Egyptian society, and remind Greeks that the Egyptian government has numerous female heads of mission. Greece has only one."
On the subject of trade ties, Shahin believes that Egypt can be a gateway for Greece into Africa just as Greece can serve the same purpose for Europe. Egypt, which boasts a market of 65 million people and is a key member of regional trade groups, can offer Greece access to a regional free trade area of 300 million consumers. Likewise, Greece, the European state closest to Egypt, can serve as a gateway into Europe for Egyptian products. "It will be less costly if we can send our products to Greece, from which they can be distributed throughout the EU," Shahin argues. Greek businessmen should also be paying more attention to all the investment opportunities available in Egypt. Many have gone and ploughed their money into the Balkans, reaping nothing but losses from the instability there. "The lesson is that you cannot put all your eggs in one basket," she states, and refers to a string of Greek business failures in northeast Europe.
Trade is not the only area in which the two countries can cooperate closer. Both Greece and Egypt value their tourist revenues. But, whereas Greece, a country of 10 million people, pulls in 10-12 million tourists annually, Egypt can only claim an average of three million visitors a year for a population that is 22 times that number. Shahin has already identified the areas in which she wants to see improvements: "There are many Greeks interested in religious travel, to the monastery of St Catherine in Sinai, for example, but we have to be able to make them more attractive offers. Secondly, there really should be a more direct sea-link between Greece and Egypt than the current Piraeus- Limassol-Haifa- Port Said route. How about a direct Alexandria-Piraeus route? It should be a ferry-boat, so that visitors can bring their cars and be more independent when here. Certainly, we can learn from the Greeks how to attract tourism and, with good transport links, maybe even entice some of those 12 million tourists they get every year to visit Egypt as well." Shahin is not oblivious of the irony that Greece owes much of its success as a tourist destination to the Greeks of Egypt who, having been in catering in Alexandria, were a key factor in developing tourist infrastructure in their home country following their mass migration in the 1950s.
Shahin is not just brimming over with ideas on how to forge closer economic ties with the Greeks. She is already putting them into action: "I'm starting by establishing a business council, a Greek-Egyptian friendship league, and a friends of the Alexandria library club. Also, I was surprised when I came here to find out that we do not have an Egyptian business council, given that there are so many Egyptian businessmen active here. I would like to put together a core group of investors who are interested, or already active, in trade opportunities here and work on developing the relationship."
But Shahin is also concerned with the welfare of the Egyptians resident in Greece. There is a sizeable community -- 70,000 of which are registered, while it is likely that there are another 70,000-100,000 unregistered individuals -- mostly working in construction, fishing and manual jobs. Shahin wants to meet the Egyptian community, "get to know them, their problems and how we can improve our representation of their interests." 11 September and the Greek reaction to them told her a lot about the Greek national character -- whereas Arabs in most other European countries felt at increased risk for their personal safety, "here I felt, and continue to feel, completely safe."
The nature of the relationship between Egypt and Greece and the long history that binds the two nations together pushes the issue of cultural relations to the fore of the agenda. The forthcoming grand opening of the Alexandria library is already being seen as an apex in recent Greek-Egyptian cultural relations.
Using it as a launching pad, Shahin wants to use the momentum that it is generating to further cement relations between the two countries. "Our cultural centre only opened recently but we have already brought Ismail Serrageddin, director of the Alexandria library, to Athens for a talk on the subject. Also, I would like to bring an Arabic music chamber orchestra and, of course, the Athenian symphony orchestra will be playing at the library's opening. In addition, there will be a permanent symphony orchestra for the Alexandria library and we will sponsor three or four talented Greek musicians to teach there."
Finally, the mayor of Athens will offer Alexandria a bronze statue of the Greek goddess of wisdom, Athena, a gift that he has made to other great centres of the Greek diaspora -- Australia, Montreal and New York.
photo: Antoune Albert
'That we don't stick to protocol as regards visits is proof of how friendly our relations are'
Greek embassies in the Middle East show Greece up for what it is -- a latecomer to the scene. Without a colonial legacy to draw on or ample funds to throw around, the small Mediterranean nation always seems to end up, despite its rich legacy in the region, with second-rate buildings in which to house its missions. The Greek embassy in Damascus is a drab, if spacious, modern house, while its equivalent in Amman is an undistinguished block of flats.
It is a pleasant relief, therefore, to behold the elegant mansion in the exclusive Garden City district of Cairo that Ambassador Demosthenes Konstantinou and his staff inhabit. The stunning baroque neoclassical building -- a mansion that belonged to a wealthy family before being bought by the Greek government -- boasts heavy column outlines engraved into walls that sustain spacious and shady balconies. An air of decrepit grandeur implies a better past as does the garden's lean appearance, which may well have once run down to the banks of the Nile. Today, although the house maintains a Nile view -- just -- it is hemmed in by highrises while the bustle of traffic on the Corniche, a few yards away, is a constant presence.
The embassy's position serves as an apt allegory of Greece's place in Egyptian history. Egypt has had time-honoured relations with Greece and this is illustrated by the house's old and worn-out air of respectability. As for its location -- hidden away in a quiet area of a prestigious neighbourhood -- it underlines Greece's unintrusive yet integral role in contemporary Egyptian history. The rosy period in Greek- Egyptian relations that still conjures up fond memories on both sides came to an end with Gamal Abdel-Nasser's nationalist reforms. There followed a half century of nation-building -- for the Greeks as much as for the Egyptians -- and a slow but steady reduction in bilateral trade.
"It's a fact that bilateral relations are not all they could be," Konstantinou comments. "In 2000, we had $101 million worth of exports and imported $75-78 million -- a very low figure. The products that the Egyptians can export to us are limited, just as our potential exports to them are limited -- aluminium, raw tobacco, cements. However, there is room for profitable cooperation in investment. We have $30 million of investments in Egypt through the paper industry, food production and clothes factories. But we remain unhappy that a relationship such as ours should be based on a mere $200 million. We try to tell the Egyptians that they should improve their customs and inter-banking procedures and there is a push towards this."
Serious consultations to improve the economic side of the relationship are taking place. "When I saw the minister of economy, Mr Boutros Ghali, he asked me to increase the volume of trade so that we can export Greek cotton to Egypt and import Egyptian vegetables. He wanted us to transport them to the EU but this is not practical as they have a limited shelf-life. Carrying out joint ventures in construction with Egypt in the Balkans is an option but, as regards Greek businessmen investing in Egypt, this depends on private investors who shy away from the unstable climate here -- the Middle East does not inspire confidence and the tangled nature of internal legislation and bureaucracy also poses a problem. We do our best, whether by organising trade exhibitions, preparing country reports or trying to set up a Greek-Egyptian business council, to encourage our investors to consider the country. Right now we're in the middle of consulting with Greek companies that invest in Egypt which will show us what kind of service provision they expect from the business council."
But Greece also is blamed for participating in the rebuilding effort in the Balkans to the exclusion of its southern neighbours. This Konstantinou denies, stating, "The restructuring of the Balkans was not a reality five years ago. Georgia and Russia, hosts to large Greek communities, did not exist a decade ago. Greece has had to cut aid from some countries in order to help other states with which it has equally friendly relations and which also have large Greek communities. We have tried to help everyone but we have become overstretched. Greece has not forgotten Egypt -- it just couldn't help more."
Despite Greece and Egypt being countries where tourism is of paramount concern for their economies, the disparities between the two remain huge. The Greeks seek to strike a fine balance between encouraging Egyptian tourism and moderating the potential flood of economic migrants to a country which already has 150,000 Egyptian labourers living within its borders. "Large-scale tourism to Greece will happen when Egypt has absorbed its manual labour and living standards have risen," Konstantinou notes. As regards the traditionally large number of free-spending Greek tourists who visit Egypt, the terrorist attacks in Luxor in 1998 and the killing of a busload of Greek tourists in Cairo have made them reconsider. "The perceived lack of security means that Greeks and other foreigners are not coming to Egypt. We're working to convince them that Egypt is no less safe than any other tourist destinations," Konstantinou says.
The strengthening of transport links between the two countries is an equally pertinent issue. "We have been seeking to establish a sealink between Alexandria and Pireaus but a feasibility study must first be carried out. As you know, money has neither nationality nor colour. A businessman will not invest in a non-profitable scheme," he said. To compound matters, "Olympic has asked to stop flights from Alexandria but we have moved to ensure that it continues flying," Konstantinou state. "We must put water in our wine with regard to economic benefit if we're to maintain strong links with the Greek communities of Egypt."
On the political front, Greek-Egyptian relations have traditionally been good. The years of the socialist Papandreou administrations in the 1980s were a high point as Greek politics rode a wave of anti-American rejectionism. Greece resisted pressures to recognise Israel and Arafat's escape from Beirut in 1982 was on a Greek ship. The 1990s, however, found Papandreou and his PASOK party on the ropes as a torrent of revelations about sleaze in his private affairs gushed on a daily basis onto the front pages of Greece's lively press.
A new and pragmatic era, shorn of idealism, was then ushered in. Greece reduced its contacts with the Middle East and focused on achieving membership in the prestigious European Economic Community. In 1990, Greece recognised Israel, upgrading, at the same time, the status of the PLO to the level of a delegation. As Konstantinou notes, it is impossible, now that Greece has committed itself to harmonising its foreign policy with the other EU members, to return to the Papandreou days. So, even though Greek policy still favours a negotiated solution of the Arab-Israeli dispute, "we have to walk alongside the EU's decisions even though our positions are generally more progressive. All we can do is to try and bring about a rapprochement between Israel and the Palestinians. We believe that imposed solutions are not viable and that both sides must show tolerance and mutual self-respect in order for dialogue to commence. We offered to bring them together for talks last year and Foreign Minister George Papandreou was in contact with Israel Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council Abu Ala. But it didn't work out."
Greece may be a country that has embraced its Western identity in the recent past but it remains the European Union's easternmost member state and a former part of the Ottoman empire. It is ideally placed, thus, to facilitate an East-West dialogue and is an active member in the body of countries -- also comprising Egypt, Italy and Iran -- that strive to further cross-cultural understanding through discussing their past civilisational interactions.
Beyond the meagre trade links, the below- capacity bilateral investment and the two countries' reduced political coordination, Greece and Egypt truly see eye-to-eye on the cultural level. "We have managed to create certain cultural institutions, such as an office for the Centre for Greek Civilisation in Alexandria as well as a Greek cultural centre there," Konstantinou says. "We also sponsor the Ulysses translation awards and recently had a week commemorating the Alexandrine Greek poet, C P Cavafy. We are now in the process of setting up a Greek cultural centre in Cairo and I want to thank the Egyptian government for having allowed us to carry on hosting cultural events here in the absence of such a body."
An intriguing aspect of Greece's cultural diplomacy, both in terms of approach and scale, is its shunning of conventional places in which to host its cultural activities. Having already established a cultural presence in Cairo and Alexandria, Greece has sought to invest in relatively out-of-the-way areas that, nevertheless, hold promise. Thus, Greece has sponsored a seat in Graeco-Roman studies at the university of Sohag. "Who will be interested in promoting Greek culture in the rest of the country if not us?" Konstantinou asks. "Through the creation of focal points of Greek culture around the country we can maximise the exposure that Egyptians have to our heritage."
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