Kyrgiakos Argyropoulos: Yes, you are right (he laughs). You see, I’ve always hoped that there will be no borders one day. It was madness to live in a civilized country that is part of Europe and borders to exist. I was convinced that they will disappear one day. And it happened. Not checking you on the border is the best thing that could happen in a person’s life.
GRREPORTER: Three homelands, three native languages, three cultures ... Don’t you loose yourself at times? Linguists say that we are as different people as many language we speak…
Kyrgiakos Argyropoulos: I’m not confused with my three homelands. I’m not mixed up. This is wealth indeed. It's nice to be able to say - yes, this is my country too!
GRREPORTER: What do you remember for your life in Poland most?
Kyrgiakos Argyropoulos: Well, I have lived there in my best years, when I was a child. This is the period of life when one does not deal with politics, does not build the future ... One lives in the most genuine, most emotional, most pure way. In this sense, my memories are wonderful. Then there were the very hard post-war years. Actually, I remember many things very well as image, sound and smell, if you want. For example, I knew the Russians for their smell wherever I was. It was very strange. I lived in Legnica and the Soviet troops, their CO's headquarters were located very close. We, the children, communicated with all these soldiers as children and spent the day with them. And a smell remained in my mind. Sometimes I walked past Russians and I said: Ah, these are Russians! I went back to check and it turned out that they were Russians indeed. There is a strange and peculiar odour I feel. Maybe tobacco ...
GRREPORTER: You are a man of three homelands. You have chosen to live in Bulgaria, however ... What made you choose it?
Kyrgiakos Argyropoulos: Yes, I have three homelands. Surely, my childhood has left a large footprint in my mind. The second part, the more conscious one, when you go into the years of youth, when you start to realize things, look for them and understand them was in Bulgaria. I did try to stay to live in Greece, but I was already married here in Bulgaria. My wife had a job that did not allow the existence of a language barrier so I agreed to live in Sofia. My job as a director allows me to be free to travel and return without being a hindrance. For my wife, however, traveling was an obstacle. Later, my two daughters were born. They went to school, built their own environment, although the years were very difficult. I have always hoped that things will change and that Bulgaria will grow in these years. I strongly hoped, although it did not happen.
GRREPORTER: Didn’t it happen...?
Kyrgiakos Argyropoulos: Well, 20 years is quite a long transition period. A wild democracy occurred. There was no control, rules disappeared and new rules have not appeared. Things in Poland have evolved in a different way... Perhaps the spirit of the Pole is associated with very strong patriotism. In Bulgaria anyone can swear at the homeland, while the Pole would not do such a thing. The Pole may get involved into a violent conflict with you if you insult his homeland. You could offend the homeland of the Bulgarians and they would not respond ... The power is in nationalism which does not go beyond chauvinism. The Poles have a constructive spirit that has allowed them to keep themselves in the system of communism, to assert themselves. They were always suspicious, ironical and and ill-disposed to the whole system. They did not ever reconcile. While Bulgarians seem to absorb things. Realities were adopted very quickly.
GRREPORTER: What is your comment about how things have evolved in Greece?
Kyrgiakos Argyropoulos: I would say that the Greeks, because of their temper, are emotional patriots. Now things are complicated because of distrust. There is breakthrough in mutual trust, in the confidence in the political class. The ordinary Greek felt deceived. Greeks overcame wars ... I mean both WWII and the civil war and ended up closing the book. However, the book was read. While in Bulgaria this did not happen ... Poland came to somewhere in reading the book. They read it to the end in Greece, closed it and all are convinced that what happened in the period 1946-1949-1950 was a deadly civil war. They all agreed. Both parties pleaded guilty. In Bulgaria, this is not happening yet. Neither ex-communists, nor socialists did apologize so far to their own people for the years of terror and obscurantism.
GRREPORTER: What do you think of the young Greek generation? Many of them emigrate today.
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