It is the time when Athens, Greece, it smells like jasmine. Cars are few. People's programs have nothing to do with today's madness. Not that life was easy then. It just definitely was more beautiful.
And it was beautified by various small or larger things that made everyday life a little more tolerable than it is today.
One of them was all these strange and graphic guys who, however, had a unique innocence in them and certainly lacked evil in them, they became loved by all. Even if their stories often didn't end well.
Perhaps at the top of this list is his name Armandou Delapatridi. Surely his last name provokes various associations related to politics.
We still use it today when we want to show the political emptiness of someone who can talk for hours but say nothing substantial. In other words, we use it in many cases!
He may never have become prime minister or even a minister, as he would have liked, but Delapatridis has been a favorite figure in Athens for many decades and has certainly managed to leave his mark. Just not in the way he hoped…
Our story begins in 1895. Then in Mytilene a little boy is born whose parents give him the name Telemachos. According to some other testimonies, Telemachos Natalakas was born in Smyrna but in the first years of his life, his parents moved to mother Greece and a specific one on the island of Sappho.
There, little Telemachos showed a willingness to go to school and learn letters. In fact, when he grew up and raised enough money to move to Athens in order to build his own life.
To accomplish this, she began working at a notary's office Mytilene. It is said, in fact, that he took part in the Asia Minor campaign, with the rank of sergeant.
Everything went smoothly, until the moment when Telemachus falls in love.
Many details are not known. However, all the stories that have been passed down from generation to generation state that the love disappointment he experienced was so strong that it marked the psyche of Telemachus.
It seems that to some extent he lost his sanity. The closed society of Mytilene, however, did not tolerate behaviors such as those that Telemachus had begun to present and so, one day he took his hat, boarded the ship and traveled to Athens to make the life he always dreamed of. It was of little importance that he had not collected the money he wanted.
For some years, the first of his stay in the capital, the traces of Telemachos Natalakas are lost. No one knows where and how he lives or how he manages.
At some point, in 1925 and now that Telemachus has turned 30, the first reports of a well-dressed, petite and handsome young man begin, who always wears his favorite tall hat.
He always walked around in a studied style and holding his briefcase, he passed by cafes and neighborhoods of Athens, greeting everyone.
Most people saw this graphic figure with sympathy, however, there were also those who made fun of him and even gave him counterfeit wine in order to get even more easily intoxicated and ridicule him.
For most, however, Armandos Delapatridis, as he had become known, was a man who gave plenty of laughter. At one point he became so popular that wherever he walked or stood (especially in the Constitution) to get his famous speeches, a crowd gathered to listen to him, to laugh and to applaud him.
In fact, there were reports that wealthy Athenians sent their employees to take Delapatridis and transport him in their luxury vehicles to their villas in order to entertain them at home. This practice was strongly criticized by the Athenians who saw it as the manipulative form of exploitation of a man who was clearly having a psychological problem. The contradiction, however, was that from these appearances Delapatridis always left well-dressed, full and with some money in his pockets. And that's how he managed to move around neatly and well dressed in the center of the capital.
In his glory, Delapatridis had come to promise that he would create the Ministry of Love and that he would staff it with all the faithful who follow him now on his. Tours.
Appearing as the leader of the Blue and Whites party, he had set up his headquarters at Zacharatou Cafe (where the Athens Plaza Hotel is located today), in Syntagma Square.
In his speeches, he argued for the need to connect the Acropolis and Lycabettus with a bridge and analyzed the reasons why the underground transport between Athens and Thessaloniki is imperative!
"There are people who do not know who the Minister of the Interior is (I am one of them), but there is no one who ignores A. Delapatridin. Wherever he goes, wherever he appears, people welcome him with applause, take off his hat and address him as "Chief of Staff" or "Chief of Staff". It was enough to appear one night last summer in Syntagma Square and deliver a political speech, neither worse nor better than those uttered in the Greek Parliament in order to become immediately famous ", the poet Costas Ouranis wrote about him.
Delapatridis was so popular and beloved that at some point the newspaper "Ethnos" published his statements, in which he had predicted that K. Karamanlis would rule the country, a position that, although offered to him, he rejected.
-Personalities of his once glorious party Eleftherios Venizelou they approached me and asked me to take over the command. I refused.
-Why; (the journalist asked him).
-What are you talking about; Am I crazy to get the snake out of the hole? Let those who put it out. Besides, there is also Markezinis, the biggest charm of snake pharmacists!
For Karamanlis, in fact, he had stated that "this amateur politician does not know how to speak, but he knows how to govern".
One of the many stories circulating about him (how difficult it is to cross such a cross), said that at some point the reputation of Delapatridis reached the ears of his father in Mytilene, who traveled to Athens to see if his son had really gone crazy. . It is said that when he arrived in the city and saw Armando living decently in a hotel, dressed in good clothes, eating every day in a restaurant and being known by the whole world, he returned to his island satisfied.
Journalist Tassos Kontogiannidis in an earlier article in the newspaper Real News had written about a bad-tasting prank against Delapatridis that led him to cross the threshold of Parliament:
"In 1956, when he resigned Karamanlis, In order to resort to the polls, a farmer handed a note to Delapatridis, urging him to be sworn in as prime minister. Armandos put up a half-height and a tailcoat and hurried with a group of people in front of him shouting "Long live our leader!" He understood the prank and, in order not to offend him, said to him: "President, the king is absent and the archbishop is ill! What do you think; Should we postpone it? " Armandos bowed with satisfaction and left.
It is said, however, that during the difficult years of the occupation, due to deprivation, his mental state deteriorated.
Many times the police arrested him and took him to Daphne. However, because he was safe, the doctors did not keep him locked up but allowed him to take his walks and return. Every time he went out, he would say, "You're locked up Psychiatric hospital, I make the statement directly, how can I stop being a politician, in our state. Only my opinion, if you want, can come straight to Daphne and when asked, I will gladly give my opinion. "
From the old glamor of "Savior of Greece", however, there was a worn suit and a faded half-height. As the years went by, he became obscure. The old ones were no longer willing to deal with him and the younger ones did not know him or were indifferent.
Armandos Delapatridis died, completely forgotten, at the Municipal Hospital of Athens, on June 1, 1960, at the age of 65. A public expense was buried, as no one was interested in him.