Greek Island Amorgos made History for an Unexpected Reason

Amorgos made history this Saturday. However, not for the reasons you might expect. The 25th Island Of Greece had been on high alert following a recent earthquake warning from the National Observatory of Athens, but on Saturday, they were able to send out a message of relief: no new earthquakes have been detected off the coast of Amorgos in the past 24 hours.

This was the first time that a Greek island had sent out a message of this kind

In a Facebook post from the island, Amorgos wrote, "History has been written here, on Saturday 18/9/17 at 12.51 in Amorgos…we have sent our first SMS from the island…to all Greeks and all those abroad who love us and have supported us through difficult times."

If you think about it, sending an earthquake warning is not too much different to sending a weather warning. The question is, why did they wait until now to do it?

The reason is actually historic. When Greece became independent from the Ottoman Empire in 1830, the first thing that King Otto did was create a postal network. This network was operated by George Averoff - an influential figure of his time - and he made sure that every village on the Greek mainland had its own post office. Every island also had its own post office - but not Amorgos.

On the other hand, he never felt the need to create a post office on Amorgos

And most of all he never felt the need to name a post office on Amorgos. There was no consensus about what to name it anyway; some thought that it should have been called Nesos Imnias (Island of Fire), but research showed that this is not an original name and it probably dates from the pre-Christian period.

And so with little passion, Amorgos was left without a proper post office.

This oversight would later have devastating consequences

In 1956, the first telephone line was installed in the island - and this was immediately followed by an announcement from Amorgos's first postmaster: "Greece accepts the new technology". The announcement was accompanied by a picture of a man in a bowler hat shaking hands with the Minister of Post and Telecommunications.

It was the first TV in Greece

In 1967 he fainted during a live broadcast and was taken to hospital. The event, which took place during a speech by President Karamanlis, sparked off an avalanche of angry responses in every Athenian newspaper, accusing him of showing up unprepared.

But in Amorgos, nobody heard about any of this. Nobody cared that they had no post office; nobody was even aware that they existed.

For another 11 years, the post office on Amorgos remained a myth

Then, in 1979, an etymologist called Aris Yannopoulos returned to his home island after completing university and started doing some research about the origins of its name. After spending a few weeks on Amorgos he returned to Athens and published his findings in a scientific journal. He proposed that Amorgos was related to "amorgós" - a word which means "safe harbour". Yannopoulos said this because of the legend that the island had once been a safe harbour for pirates.

It was however quite obvious: Amorgos is an island in the Saronic Gulf, and it has always been there Unfortunately, the island's two biggest newspapers - To Vima and Kontra - never published a word about Yannopoulos' research. The reason for this was simple: his research mentioned that Amorgos used to be called Nesos Imnias (island of fire).

But there was an alternative way for Yannopoulos to publish his findings

Makis Papageorgiou's father was the director of the local school and all children had to read newspapers out loud in class. Papageorgiou, who was 14 years old at the time, was allowed to choose the newspaper of his choice. And so, with a bit of help from his father, he began reading aloud information about Nesos Imnias - in 1958 Amorgos found its post office.

No one paid any attention

Another post office was opened in another part of the island

However, until Yannopoulos published his findings they were never heard of by anyone, and as a result, there was no interest from either the citizens of Amorgos or the authorities

The post office remained shuttered for decades

Even today, it remains a mystery why the post office on Amorgos (which had been functioning for years) wasn't renamed back in 1960, but four years later an alternative solution was found.

In 1967, a new post office was opened in another part of the island, at the church in Agios Ioannis.

However, this did not solve the problem precisely because this was only a temporary solution Moreover, Yannopoulos' paper about Amorgos and Nesos Imnias did not say anything about an alternative solution to rename the post office.

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