Today we are on the same sea. I am in Bari. You are in Venice, it seems. We are sharing the same waves of the Adriatic Sea. In a few days I will be back in Istanbul. And somehow this is also amazing. Venice and Istanbul, 2 alleged historical enemies, that fought until almost the total mutual destruction in the notorious Lepanto battle in 1571.
This is an interesting metaphor of what happened to us. Istanbul turned to be Turkish (and islamic) in 1453 and that was a shock for Venice, a terrible threat, more than a simple betrayal. So Venice decided to attack Istanbul and to defeat Turks. This is what History tells us. But, if we want to see under the veil of the Western propaganda, we can retrace some documents of that time that don't say exactly this. It seems that Venice, which was supposed to lead the Christian Alliance against the Moors, in fact joined the Saint Navy only at last minute, under the pressure of the pope "Pius V". Sebastiano Venier was everything but happy to fight that battle, while Genoa and Spain were much more ready to join the battle (as they were much more interested in the Atlantic Ocean and thus they had nothing to lose in fight the Turks, as the pope ordered it).
But the official History hardly reports these details, it's a matter of propaganda. In any conflict there's a huge dose of it. Despite this Venice and Istanbul continued even later to be like 2 secret lovers. Maybe unconfessed lovers, maybe untouched lovers, maybe impossible lovers. But even later venetian sailors used to trade in Istanbul and live there and still Venice preserves precious treasures brought from Istanbul. There's a proverb in Venice that says something like: "if you go to visit the Sultan, speak to him in Venetian, he can understand you..".
But, after that terrible battle what happened? Venice, which was among the winners, started to become weaker and weaker (some say now it's a dead city, I also believe this). Istanbul and the Ottoman empire conquered almost all the East Europe up to Vienna. Now Venice city has around 60 thousands inhabitants, Istanbul more than 14 millions.
I don't know if this story can teach us something, maybe not. But still there's one thing I like to believe. Because I really believe it, historically, and so I like to take a lesson from it also for our story.
The battle in Lepanto (1571) was the tomb of the Mediterranean civilization. After that, regardless who were the winners of that battle, the Mediterranean Sea became the sea of others, became for example a shortcut for the English to reach India through the Suez canal. This happened because the sea which always brought people to each other as a common good, became something scandalous, because scandalous was to dialogue with those you could meet in that sea. Look how Italy still treats the ships of immigrants coming from North Africa. The inevitable result was that Venice has dried like a flower without roots.
This I want to say, until we will consider a scandalous thing to dialogue on the sea where we found happiness (that doesn't mean to become alleys), we will be something smaller than what we are, we will remain without a part of ourselves and maybe one day we will dry like thirsty flowers.
This is the second time I write directly to you on my web-diary. Last time was 11 months ago. I write because it's important for me to protect and claim our own sea. And it's important to be in peace with you. Even if you are German, and maybe you are not interested in the Mediterranean History.
This is an interesting metaphor of what happened to us. Istanbul turned to be Turkish (and islamic) in 1453 and that was a shock for Venice, a terrible threat, more than a simple betrayal. So Venice decided to attack Istanbul and to defeat Turks. This is what History tells us. But, if we want to see under the veil of the Western propaganda, we can retrace some documents of that time that don't say exactly this. It seems that Venice, which was supposed to lead the Christian Alliance against the Moors, in fact joined the Saint Navy only at last minute, under the pressure of the pope "Pius V". Sebastiano Venier was everything but happy to fight that battle, while Genoa and Spain were much more ready to join the battle (as they were much more interested in the Atlantic Ocean and thus they had nothing to lose in fight the Turks, as the pope ordered it).
But the official History hardly reports these details, it's a matter of propaganda. In any conflict there's a huge dose of it. Despite this Venice and Istanbul continued even later to be like 2 secret lovers. Maybe unconfessed lovers, maybe untouched lovers, maybe impossible lovers. But even later venetian sailors used to trade in Istanbul and live there and still Venice preserves precious treasures brought from Istanbul. There's a proverb in Venice that says something like: "if you go to visit the Sultan, speak to him in Venetian, he can understand you..".
But, after that terrible battle what happened? Venice, which was among the winners, started to become weaker and weaker (some say now it's a dead city, I also believe this). Istanbul and the Ottoman empire conquered almost all the East Europe up to Vienna. Now Venice city has around 60 thousands inhabitants, Istanbul more than 14 millions.
I don't know if this story can teach us something, maybe not. But still there's one thing I like to believe. Because I really believe it, historically, and so I like to take a lesson from it also for our story.
The battle in Lepanto (1571) was the tomb of the Mediterranean civilization. After that, regardless who were the winners of that battle, the Mediterranean Sea became the sea of others, became for example a shortcut for the English to reach India through the Suez canal. This happened because the sea which always brought people to each other as a common good, became something scandalous, because scandalous was to dialogue with those you could meet in that sea. Look how Italy still treats the ships of immigrants coming from North Africa. The inevitable result was that Venice has dried like a flower without roots.
This I want to say, until we will consider a scandalous thing to dialogue on the sea where we found happiness (that doesn't mean to become alleys), we will be something smaller than what we are, we will remain without a part of ourselves and maybe one day we will dry like thirsty flowers.
This is the second time I write directly to you on my web-diary. Last time was 11 months ago. I write because it's important for me to protect and claim our own sea. And it's important to be in peace with you. Even if you are German, and maybe you are not interested in the Mediterranean History.
