by Christos Zabounis

The director and journalist Fabrice Turpin, of the weekly show “Enquete Exlusive”, on the television channel M6, with an average viewership of 1.6 million viewers, searches for the rock island on Google Maps. He has come with his crew for a tribute to the Greek islands, and he wants exclusive subjects, as is the title of his show. He is not interested in Mykonos and Santorini, nor Milos and Folegandros, because these islands, indicatively, have been overshadowed as tourist destinations. He is interested in unknown human stories, centered on the Archipelago. He is immediately attracted by the story of “Rinio”, aka Irini Katsotourchi. She is the only resident of Kinaros, a rocky island between Kalymnos and Amorgos. Mrs. Rinio, as we call her, immigrated in 2000 from Australia to her birthplace, which had 12 residents when she immigrated. At that time, her husband Mikes was still alive and they had decided together not to follow their children who settled in Kalymnos. Despite the difficult living conditions, they set up their household next to the wharf of the small port, patiently waiting, once a week, for the boat that supplied them with provisions. The significance of Kinaros and the Greek flag flying on its mast, I explained to Fabrice, is that it is among the 152 islands, islets and islets claimed by Turkey under the EGAYDAAK, a list where the above were not included by name in the Lausanne and Paris treaties . “And how are we going to get there?” my French interlocutor asked, naturally. “With the help of the inflatables of the Aegean Team”, I answered him. “We go and salute her every year, as a small tribute for the new “Thermopylae” she is guarding.”