Greek expatriates in Qatar divided on current crisis

By Joey Aguilar/Staff ReporterGreek expatriates in Qatar have expressed optimism that their country will weather the current financial crisis despite conflicting views on the issue.“Greece is in a “very bad” situation,” admitted 51-year-old Athanasios Tseremeglis, who works as a mechanical engineer in Doha. Greeks last Sunday rejected a bailout deal proposed by the country’s international creditors, which demanded new austerity measures in return for emergency funds. As many as 61.31% of voters decided against the bailout deal, in a sharp rebuke of the austerity measures imposed since 2010.Tseremeglis believes Greece will not exit the eurozone and print its own currency. He said the move would be a catastrophe to the country without a clear plan yet for the future. He also sees no vision from any Greek political leader at this moment. Tsaganou Sofia, also an expatriate in Doha, travelled back home during the referendum and voted ‘yes’ but with “a heavy heart.”She said Greece does not have enough financial resources and it is unsure of having a better deal in a short term, which their Prime Minister had promised.“As a Greek expatriate and still being part of the spoilt political system and the current economic situation, Greece voted ‘no’ to our international creditors. We are going to be affected either way,” Sofia explained.About printing its own currency and leaving the eurozone, she said the move may come gradually but will cost a lot of things to Greeks.Sofia believes that the new drachma would create enormous short-term disruption. But for the longer-term, it could be a motor for future economic growth, stimulating demand for Greek exports by the products and goods produced in their homeland. For Antonios Antonatos, Greeks opted for the end of austerity and the coming of a fair deal that will bring development and growth “after five years of absolute decline.”“It is an end to punitive stance of the countries of the north towards the countries of south. The Greeks said we want to see some smiles in Europe for a change, because nobody is perfect,” the country manager of an engineering company said.Asked about his confidence in their current leaders, Antonatos said any democratically elected government in Greece is part of the people. “It is not a question of the government’s ability to overcome but the people’s ability to overcome and we as Greeks have proved that we can,” he added. “We have 3,000 years of history to prove it.”Like Tseremeglis, he does not see any possibility of Greece leaving the eurozone and much less printing its own drachmas for practical as well as strategic reasons.Thirty-eight-year-old Nikos Sirigonakis, a family man and a father of two, voted ‘oxi’ or ‘no,’ believing that they cannot afford austerity anymore. “We want to live our life with dignity even if that means to be out of the European Union,” he stressed. “Our present political leaders are young people with different and more modern point of view.”Sirigonakis believes having their own currency will give them a better and more efficient management of Greece’s economy. He cited the case of Irish who said no to International Monetary Fund and after five years, they have become the fastest growing economy in Europe.The New York Times reported yesterday that as Greece hurtles toward a Sunday deadline for either reaching a bailout deal or risking a hasty exit from the eurozone, the one certainty is that its economy is already on the brink of collapse.“Businesses and humanitarian organisations are warning that the social and commercial damage now evident could become deeper and longer lasting if Greece and its international creditors cannot finally come to terms on a new bailout package,” the daily stated.