Lebanon is a very important country in geopolitics, for example, if America wants to destabilise or have something against Syria or Iran, they know that they should be in Lebanon!
They all know that Lebonan is like a black farm, a laboratory; also you can make experiences in vitro, in small scale to see who is strong who is better with the West. For example in the first war, in 1975, there was Cold War everywhere and Lebonan was protoganist of Cold War who are really fighting but using practice of Lebonan! Then what you had for years, beginning with Hariri, to see who is stronger, the West or Iran. Iran is giving weapons I think to Hizbullah and supporting part of Lebanon, and the Americans are supporting another part to see who is winning.
Which are the Americans supporting?
It is called 14th of March and the other side is called 8th of March.
If this is the case, if it is that important for the Americans, Syrians, Iran and all that, there must be lots of agents and people coming and going out of the country?
Ohh yes, all that is going on all the time! There are people being sent by everybody, the CIA, the State Department… they come, I have meetings with them all!
With who?
With people being sent by whom, whoever you want! By Russians, by Americans, by Iranians, they all come… I have even a saloon that they all come to!
You have a saloon?
Yes, it is called Utopia now!
Where is it?
It is in downtown Beirut. It is a special place just for that! It is my saloon, not open to public, only by invitation. There, I have all ambassodors, prime ministers coming from abroad, ex-presidents of republics, all the important people coming to Lebanon, they pass by my saloon for a night and they meet very important people.
Are you acting like a middle man?
We have negotiations sometimes. They ask me to go out sometimes, for a while… It is all happening in my place! Sometimes, if they cannot agree, they say “ask Michel what we said”! Very interesting meetings! You learn, you see how the world is being run, how the decisions are being taken, a lot of big meetings!
For example now, I think I have a small role to play in trying to convince the Armenian communities of Lebanon on how to get over what happened 80 years ago! It is finished 90 years ago! I think people have to understand you cannot, in 2010, look at some events as if just happened now to decide, who is good who is bad in the time of war. In the time of war, crimes happened in both sides in my family; all the family was killed; Saint Chrysostomos Kalafates, Patriach of Metropol of Izmir was great great uncle of mine. He is uncle of my grandfather and but I don’t think that one can blame now a young Turk living in 2010 for what happened then. All the people back then are dead now, but the truth is not the way is being told our families. My grandfather was saying that “Turks came and killed us”. No it has not happened like this! When I see the photos of grandfathers of my Armenian friends, they all have weapons, all these weapons are not for hunting! They were using those weapons for shooting Turks! You cannot live in a country and dream, taking this counry and giving this country to the Czar, to the kings of French…
This is what the minorities in Turkey played. They played the dirty game, what a lot of minorities play, they don’t say that exactly but you cannot bet on foreigners and work for foreigners to give you the state that you were living for hundreds of years.It is not normal for the Turks to be loosing their empire and it is not normal to have this reaction when they saw the Greeks and Armenian were working for the West to divide Turkey. We have paid the heavy price! We have to understand that we should not play this game and those who are living, Greeks and young Armenians, we should finish this!
I guess it is quite difficult for people not to dwell on the past once they are removed from their roots, from their home…Are you commissioned by anyone then?
I work a lot on the issues and try to resolve the problems…
I was joking…
No, no but it is important and I want to put it right. I always do things that my concience tell 100 percent! Even if I ever get proposed millions on something that I am not convinced of I will never do it!
Nowheristan is my big project, but in the meantime I will try. Nowheristan is a new boat that I am preparing for the humanity; to move humanity from a boat to another because this boat that we are on is sinking, it is a fucked up boat, it is full of holes! Meantime in this sinking boat if I can get medicine to some people, of close up some holes, I will do it. This is what I am doing with Armenians.
This is what I am doing in these meetings.
How did the experience of civil war affect the political life in Lebanon? I mean all the parties in Lebonese politics seem to have their roots in the civil war. Aren’t they still militaristic in their structure and attitute?
People tend to think that there is democracy, monarchy and shit! If you are not in democracy or not in monarchy, then you must be in a shitty sistem! But there are different systems! For example, if you look at Singapore is a totally crazy system but it is working there. In Lebanon, it is also like one of these countries; it was built on different communities. It was built on countries’ communities that was escaping massacre Armenians, Greeks, Kaldenians, Assyrians, Druzi and Shiite communities. Everybody persecuted in all Middle East and Near East was coming to these mountains to hide because it is difficult to access. Even Ottomans were not able to take completely so; this is why it became a kind of mozaic.
You can not ask them like a normal country to elect by voting precisely their president, because all the communities then will be fighting to get one of their guys to be president! But by saying that the presidents has to be a Maronite and Prime minister has to be a sunni and the head of the parliament a Shiite, then you create this a game! It would be a good system if they were not working as proxis, if not every community had a boss outside the country! Some are working for Iran, some for Israel, some for Syria this is what makes it difficult!
If all the political parties are organised around ethnicity or religion, how is it possible to be represented for Lebanese people who don’t identify themselves with any of these? Which party do you support for example, does it have to be Greek, Orthodox and Christian?
I am nothing and in the next elections I will be representing lists of Nowherestanees! The next elections, we will be beyond this, we are not entering this game, the people who are not finding themselves in the system that already exists, they can vote for us!
Let’s talk about the famous night life in Beirut a bit! You own one of the “must be seen” type of nightclups in Beirut, “Music Hall”. How is it there, what sort of club is it?
Music hall is a unique concept in world wide. Each night you have 13 to 14 bands and Djs, between the bands, each band playing only 2 songs. It is non stop music and non stop from live music to famous Djs!
Is it true that you have a “torture chamber” in your club?
No, it is not in my club, it is in my saloon “Utopia”. In my club it is very glamarous, very beatiful, it is very classy. I don’t mix it with my ideas, my ideas in Utopia, the club is very high class, politically correct place!
Do you have a VIP room, what sort of people come?
No, no VIP! All kind of people come. It is expensive and exclusive and you have famous people from everywhere. I have Sting came last year, last New Years Eve, with his wife. I have famous actors, actresses like Cathrene Deneuve! People like that, when they have a vacation, they come for a night or two.It is in the list of best clubs in the world.
Is there anybody famous coming this New Year Eve?
Zuchero might come, the famous number one Italian rock star Zuchero!
Do you have lots of Turkish people visiting your club?
Some… for example Cem Boyner visited couple of times, Omer Karacan, Eczacibasi…
Anybody else?
I don’t know myself, but my friend Fadi would know.
(Michel Elefteriades hands his phone to me, a male voice on the other end, difficult to understand so I repeat the question: “Do you know any famous Turkish people visiting the club?” Fadi Nahas is talking, but still hard to understand “Mehmet Ali Babaoglu, Omer Karacan” are the names I can pick up, and then “All the ‘Alem’ people came!” says Fadi Nahas laughing… I ask him again “Do you know Nuray Mert?” “Who?” he says “Nuray Mert, she is a Turkish academic, a newspaper columnist, she has been talking about “crazy Beirut nights” in some of her articles” Fadi Nahas laughs again “I don’t know any academics woman, I only know the ones with silicons!” says. I hand the phone back to Michel, yet, I persist!)
You still haven’t told me why there is an image that Beirut has ultra crazy night life? Why?
Well, I don’t really go out to those types of places. I have my club which is very exclusive and correct place and this image is all because of the Lebanon being the only Arab country in the world to have this! Otherwise, it is not as crazy as Ibiza; it is just because no other Arab country is like this!
This interview was published in Yeni Harman Magazine on January 2010. Copyrights©Filiz Elasu
(You are free to quote any part of this interview as long as you credit me: copyrights©filizelasu.com)
