{"id":631,"date":"2016-07-21T18:43:55","date_gmt":"2016-07-21T18:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting\/?p=631"},"modified":"2020-07-02T19:52:26","modified_gmt":"2020-07-02T19:52:26","slug":"paradise-lost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/globalreporting2016\/2016\/07\/21\/paradise-lost\/","title":{"rendered":"Paradise lost"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Harrison Blackman<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Four months have passed since the European Union outlawed undocumented migration from Turkey, effectively trapping new arrivals\u00a0from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan in camps in Greece. As of July, United Nations statistics show that the agreement has cut arrivals by sea from the peak\u00a0of 210,000 people a month in October 2015 to a markedly smaller\u00a01,554\u00a0over the\u00a0month of June.<\/p>\n

Yet despite the relative quiet of Lesbos today, \u00a0the migration crisis continues to\u00a0shadow the Greek island at the center of the storm. Frustration stews in the remaining camps, and Lesbos\u2019 once-vibrant tourism scene has evaporated. No place on the island of 630 square miles appears to remain untouched.<\/p>\n

“I think the island will never be the same,\u201d said\u00a0<\/span>Marios Andriotis-Konstantinos, an adviser to the mayor of Mytilene, Lesbos’ capital and port city.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut I hope the island will never be the same in a positive way.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

\"The

The Museum of the Lesvos Petrified Forest at Sigri. (Harrison Blackman)<\/p><\/div>\n

The Land<\/strong><\/p>\n

The third-largest Greek island, Lesbos is home to\u00a0many landscapes. To the west, in Sigri, arid mountains give way to the sea. Sparse vegetation is juxtaposed with impressive petrified tree trunks, borne out of a massive volcanic eruption 20 million years ago, wiping out a dense jungle that was home to a\u00a0prehistoric species named\u00a0deinothere<\/i>, a bizarre-looking elephant precursor. Sigri\u2019s Museum of the Lesvos Petrified Forests hosts exhibits, a lecture hall, gift shop, cafe and \u00a0a theater — in spite of few visitors this summer.<\/p>\n

At the island\u2019s center,\u00a0a large inlet hosts a wetland environment. Its primary residents: flamingos.<\/p>\n

To the north, dense vegetation surrounds the charming village of Molyvos, which rests\u00a0beneath a Byzantine castle, its ivy-canopied alleys sheltering gift shops and tavernas. Molyvos\u2019 charm rivals that of the Greek island tourist mecca of Santorini\u2014but with no one to see it. The same goes for the mountain village of Agiasos, legendary for its founding during the Byzantine wars of Iconoclasm in the 9th<\/sup><\/span> century. There, trinket sellers perk up at the infrequent sight of a tourist.<\/p>\n

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Empty restaurant in Molyvos, Lesbos. (Harrison Blackman)<\/p><\/div>\n

Glykeria Kontaxaki, of\u00a0the Repanis travel agency in Mytilene, said television news networks create the impression that Lesbos continues to receive large waves of refugees by replaying\u00a0footage of the island\u00a0from 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey say it happens now, but it\u2019s a huge mistake,\u201d Kontaxaki said. \u201cThey don\u2019t have the reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

An\u00a0attempted coup in Turkey in mid-July also\u00a0led to a wave of cancellations from Istanbul-based ferry operators, said Ismini Mamouni, who works at Gardenia, a Mytilene ice cream shop.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course [the refugee crisis] has had a negative impact,\u201d Mamouni said. \u201cWe sell things that are like a luxury.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Andriotis-Konstantinos, it\u2019s a\u00a0persistent image problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I think everyone knows Lesbos,\u201d Andriotis-Konstantinos said, \u201cWe want to detach Lesbos from the image of chaos and crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The main gate of the Moria refugee camp. (Harrison Blackman)<\/p><\/div>\n

The Camps<\/strong><\/p>\n

But the crisis remains. \u201cWelcome to Moria Hills, the finest refugee camp in the world,\u201d reads a local post from the anonymous social media app YikYak. The apparently sarcastic remark belies Lesbos’ ongoing struggles hosting a refugee population–as well as the island’s\u00a0long history as a border zone, a gateway to the West.<\/p>\n

Lesbos has long been an island on the edge\u2014the final outpost between East and West. Even as far back as the mythical events of The Iliad<\/i>, Lesbos is referred to as part of Priam\u2019s Trojan kingdom before the Achaean (Greek) invasion.<\/p>\n