Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Tel: 99 966518
One of our wonderful Turkish Cypriot readers who had shown to the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee two possible burial sites at the St. Hilarion military zone last year has been very happy that during exhumations there, the remains of a total of six "missing persons" have been found… The exhumation continues so by the time this article goes to print, maybe the number will be higher…
He had previously helped to find the remains of five "missing" Greek Cypriots in a gamini (kiln) in the Boghazi area as well…
When I call him to tell him about the finding of the remains, he feels so happy and we speak during the following days…
He says, "So far I have helped to find the remains of 11 "missing" persons… I feel so happy… I wish everyone will speak up…"
He has been struggling for years about this place in St. Hilarion and we had written what he had told us multiple times about a gamini in the military zone that had been emptied and the remains buried further up…
He had called on the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee to get permission for him to go with them to St. Hilarion so that he could show these two possible burial sites that he had been a witness to…
Finally last year this had been possible and I am so happy that with his help in St. Hilarion military zone, remains of at least six "missing" Greek Cypriots have been found… I congratulate him for his great humanity and thank him with all my heart…
He visits me in our newspaper YENIDUZEN and gives me an article he has written to share his feelings with our readers…
I want to share with you his letter…
Here is what he has written:
"In its history of 10 thousand years, the island of Cyprus has seen very sad events… Too much blood was spilt on its soil… Too many tears have been cried… Those who did shameful acts against humanity have fought with each other on this land… Those who started the wars on this land have never fought in those wars themselves… They never died… They were never thrown in a well and never went "missing" themselves.
Their children never remained as orphans… Their young wives never became widows… They never forgot to smile and moan all their lives after their husband was taken from them… They never went away from this world in tears, wasting a whole life with tears…
It is not their bones that is being searched in the wells, in the gaminis, in the makeshift ditches…
It is not their bones that are half buried in the soil, half spread out all over the place… It is not their bones that will never be found so long as this earth exists…
The most dramatic and sad issue of the 10-thousand-year-old history of the island of Cyprus is the issue of "missing" persons, bringing so much unbearable pain and a dash of hope thinking "maybe he will come back", wasting many lives like that…
It is so true this saying that goes as "Fire burns where it touches"… It is true… But the "fire of the missing" does not burn only where it touches but it burns all of us, it burns everything and it should burn all our hearts…
Those who have information or who are witnesses should speak up without any more delays. This is a task for the honour of humanity. It is a responsibility towards our country Cyprus. Those who know and who remain silent, will die with a heavy conscience… And they will never rest till eternity where they will be buried.
These people should know that the soil will not want them…
Whatever has happened concerning the missing persons, has happened. It is not possible to turn back the time… The Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee is not looking for "missing persons" but the remains of the "missing persons"… It is not important who has done it but the remains, the bones… Those bones are someone's loved one, their son, their daughter, their wife or husband, their mother or father. Or brother or sister… What is wanted is only to find those remains… It is "someone else's" task to find who did it and punish them… This is the Almighty God's task…
In my opinion we should not look for the killers of the "missing persons"… They know who they are themselves. Let us leave them with their own conscience… Let them die knowing that the soil does not want them and that their soul will never find any condolence, let them die with this heavy burden in their soul… But those who know, those who are witnesses, those who have heard must speak up… Let the remains be found… Let them also have a proper grave… Let their loved ones also have a chance to visit them and bring them flowers and pray for them… Let goodness overcome evil…
My call is to everyone…
And let no one use the humanitarian issue of the missing persons for their own politics. Let no one manipulate this issue. Let no one play "lingiri" over the lives and pain of others…
My interest concerning the "missing persons" began when I started reading the articles and interviews of my journalist friend Sevgul Uludag in the YENIDUZEN newspaper… How much pain people were going through… What sort of dramas took place… How many innocent lives had been taken… How children's mothers and fathers were taken away, how young women were turned into widows and how mothers and fathers were feeling the pain of their "missing" sons and daughters… I was affected too much… I put myself in their stead…
Something deep in my heart stirred… I remembered the skeletons I had seen in a gamini when I was doing my military service. They had been soldiers… Because among the skeletons, there were bullets of the same style as well… I also remembered that those bones had been buried somewhere else afterwards, the remains were relocated in another spot. I told this to Sevgul. And she told this to the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee. The Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot officials came to visit me. We spoke… I gave them information, I drew a map… We waited for couple of years for the permission to dig in the military zone. Then last year they called me from the CMP. They asked me if I could enter the military zone with them and show them the gamini and the second burial site of the bones. I said of course… At first I gave them coordinates of these places from the Google Map. And on the day they called me, I went and showed the gamini, as well as the place where the remains were relocated – the second place.
Meanwhile, the committee looking at my map carried on exhumations in another gamini very close to the military zone. Five "missing persons" were found in that gamini… These five "missing persons" were not buried but thrown on top of each other in the gamini…
I showed the possible burial sites in the military zone three times. When exhumations in and around the gamini ended, I showed the second burial site on the 8th of May 2017, Monday for a second time. This place was about two meters long and half a meter wide. It was towards southwest-northwest… But 33 years had gone by… There had been a fire in this area and there were physical changes in the area… I had shown this place on my second visit. It was smaller than I remembered… It had also gone a bit hollow for few centimetres… The grass around it was green but on top of this hollow place, the grass had a lighter colour and was shorter… But in my last visit, it was very difficult for me to find this place. I went around in a narrow strip… This time all the grass had gone yellow and there was no trace of it… When I realized that, I became very sad and demoralised… As I continued to search, I felt even worse… In a small place of a hundred square meters, I wasn't finding the spot that looked like a crib, just a bit hollow… Almost an hour passed… I wanted to sit down and cry… But I resisted this feeling… I felt as though I would just drop and faint. Here below my feet there were "missing persons" who were loved ones of some humans and I could not find them… These bones needed to be found, buried in a proper grave and their families United with them at least in this way… And for this, the delay of even a minute was not acceptable… If I could not show the exact location, the whole area would have to be excavated but I wanted to show the exact spot and the remains to be found immediately… Finally I noticed that hollow area like a crib… Immediately I started pulling out the grass on top of it… This was the spot… At that moment I was thinking, "If after so many years and so many physical changes in this area, remains are found, it means that there is God… If there is no God, then there is some other power…"
Last night (Thursday) Sevgul called me…
"Sevgul, please give me the good news" I said…
And she did… She told me the good news that in the spot I had shown, the remains carried from the gamini had been found… I was so happy… I felt joy… All of a sudden my heart became relaxed because I had helped for some people to find peace and ease their pain a little bit… All those years the heavy burden I was carrying was lifted from me… Meanwhile I want to thank in the name of humanity to the commanders and the personnel of that military area for helping us and all those commanders and officials who allowed the permission and the implementation of the exhumations there…
I want to thank the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee and all those who work at the CMP "digging holes with pins" trying to reach the remains of the "missing persons"… I share the pain of all the relatives of the "missing persons" and say "Rest in peace" to all the "missing persons"…
I gave more information to Sevgul and to the officials of CMP about "missing persons"… For 30 years now, everyday I buy the YENIDUZEN newspaper and every morning before I even wash my face, I read what Sevgul Uludag has written about "missing persons"… Until now I have helped to find the remains of many "missing persons"… So long as I am alive, I will continue to do that… In order to help ease the pain of those I don't know… Because that is what the honour of humanity dictates… So that the soil can embrace me with love and with a "Bravo" forever…
What has happened, has happened… All of this is in the past. Turkish Cypriot or Greek Cypriot, everyone wants their remains back… So that they can have a grave and so that if they are going to cry, they can cry by their grave. This is their right… There is no way one can say "Remains of my missing should be found but not theirs…" This does not comply with humanity… There are 2 thousand "missing persons" and the mass majority of these are innocent people… We have nothing to do with those who have killed. We are not looking for the killers but the ones they have killed and who became "missing"… Even a deaf person can hear the voice of his or her conscience… Speak up… Let humanity speak up…"
19.5.2017
Photo: Digging at the St. Hilarion. Photo by CMP.
(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 25th of June, 2017 Sunday. Same article was published in Turkish in YENİDÜZEN newspaper on the 13th of May 2017 and here is the link:
http://www.yeniduzen.com/sagir-insan-bile-vicdaninin-sesini-duyar-konusun-artik-insanlik-konussun-10667yy.htm
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