- Title: Greek islanders tipped for Nobel prize stoic about nomination
- Date: 6th October 2016
- Summary: LESBOS, GREECE (OCTOBER 5, 2016) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF FISHING BOATS MOORED AT HARBOUR IN VILLAGE OF SKALA SIKAMNIAS VARIOUS OF TOURISTS AND LOCALS SITTING OUTDOORS AT RESTAURANT / WAITER SERVING CUSTOMERS VARIOUS OF FISHING BOATS MOORED AT HARBOUR VARIOUS OF FISHERMAN AND NOBEL PEACE PRIZE NOMINEE, STRATIS VALAMIOS, STEERING HIS FISHING BOAT OUT OF THE HARBOUR AND OUT AT SEA TATTOO ON VALAMIOS' ARM COASTLINE (SOUNDBITE) (Greek) FISHERMAN AND NOBEL PEACE PRIZE NOMINEE, STRATIS VALAMIOS, SAYING: "It was like a war zone here last year, a proper war. You had the wounded, the dead. Do you know how many people died? How many babies died? How many babies we brought out here on the concrete, on the tables, and died in our arms?" VARIOUS OF VALAMIOS STEERING HIS FISHING BOAT (SOUNDBITE) (Greek) FISHERMAN AND NOBEL PEACE PRIZE NOMINEE, STRATIS VALAMIOS, SAYING: "I will feel neither happy nor sad. I just know I did the right thing. I did what I had to do and everyone here did so too. I can only say that I feel proud living here with these people that acted in this way. There's no better reward than knowing that these people did such things and, when needed, they will be there." VALAMIOS STANDING UP AND STEERING HIS FISHING BOAT (SOUNDBITE) (Greek) FISHERMAN AND NOBEL PEACE PRIZE NOMINEE, STRATIS VALAMIOS, SAYING: "To award someone for something he did might set an example to other people to do the same, it might. Imagine that they give me the Nobel, or to anyone else for that matter. But what was happening still goes on. On Friday, when they give the Nobel, bombs will still fall there (Syria) and people will still get killed. So I think it makes no difference, neither for myself and nor for anyone else." NOBEL PEACE PRIZE NOMINEE, EMILIA KAMVISI, WALKING TO HER HOUSE KAMVISI AT HER HOUSE ENTRANCE TALKING TO HER DAUGHTER INSIDE THE HOUSE VARIOUS OF KAMVISI CHATTING WITH FRIEND IN HER LIVING ROOM (SOUNDBITE) (Greek) NOBEL PEACE PRIZE NOMINEE, EMILIA KAMVISI, SAYING: "If we win (the Nobel Peace Prize) it will be a vindication both for myself and the village. It will be nice. In this old age I will die with a clear conscience." VARIOUS OF FISHERMAN STEERING HIS BOAT OUT OF THE HARBOUR VARIOUS OF FISHERMAN UNTANGLING HIS FISHING NETS ON HIS BOAT FISHERMAN, THANASIS MARMARINOS, REPAIRING HIS FISHING NETS ON THE QUAY NEXT TO HIS BOAT VARIOUS OF MARMARINOS SEWING HIS FISHING NETS (SOUNDBITE) (Greek) FISHERMAN, THANASIS MARMARINOS, SAYING: "Personally, I don't care. I am morally satisfied with what I did - that I helped these people. Everything else, including the Nobel, is not important." VARIOUS OF PLASTIC BOATS THAT WERE USED BY MIGRANTS TO REACH LESBOS FROM TURKEY DISCARDED ON THE BEACH SKALA SIKAMNIAS FISHING HARBOUR SEEN THROUGH THE EMPTY WINDOW OF A BOAT
- Embargoed: 21st October 2016 11:15
- Keywords: migrants refugees Nobel Greece Lesbos Aegean islands
- Location: LESBOS, GREECE
- City: LESBOS, GREECE
- Country: Greece
- Topics: Asylum/Immigration/Refugees,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA00152VABLZ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Islanders from Greece's Lesbos have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize which will be announced on Friday (October 7).
The nomination of a small number of the islanders is a symbolic gesture to all the Greek people who helped pull thousands of migrants to safety after they made the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean.
Greek fisherman Stratis Valamios is one of those who have been chosen symbolically to represent all Greeks and volunteers who helped refugees. For months, he would steer his boat out to sea, only instead of fish, he pulled out people.
"It was like a war zone," Valamios, now a co-nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize, said of his tiny seaside village of Skala Sikamnias on Lesbos, the island where more than 800,000 people escaping war and conflict in the Middle East and beyond arrived in 2015.
"You had the wounded, the dead," he said matter-of-factly. "We brought in many babies out here on the concrete, on the tables, and they died in our arms."
No one knows how many people Valamios and other locals saved from drowning, but it is believed to be in the hundreds.
Some days, Valamios would fit 20 people in his 3-metre (less than 10 foot) long motorboat. Its railing is still broken and wobbly from when one Syrian man tried to desperately cling onto it, he said.
Those days are gone, and since March, when the European Union and Turkey agreed a deal to close off that route, only a handful of refugees arrive each week. Life in the picturesque harbor has resumed its sleepy pace.
Valamios said he was proud of his fellow villagers for having helped so many people. But he said winning the Nobel Prize would change nothing for the refugees.
"To award someone for something he did might set an example to other people to do the same, it might. Imagine that they give me the Nobel, or to anyone else for that matter. But what was happening still goes on. On Friday, when they give the Nobel, bombs will still fall there (Syria) and people will still get killed. So I think it makes no difference, neither for myself and nor for anyone else," he said.
Down the road, fellow Nobel nominee Emilia Kamvisi, an 86-year-old grandmother and the daughter of Greek refugees who fled Turkey in 1922, said she never expected tragedy to hit home but felt compelled to help, having heard stories of her own family.
Kamvisi gained worldwide attention when she was captured in a photograph bottle-feeding a Syrian refugee baby in her arms last year.
"In this old age I will die with a clear conscience," she said.
As he repaired his fishing nets, 63-year-old fisherman Thanasis Marmarinos said the island deserved the Nobel, but on a personal level, he said it wasn't important.
If they win, the $930,000 prize will go towards struggling Greek island hospitals, the nominating committee has said. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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