Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Tel: 99 966518
On the morning of 25 July 2017 Tuesday, we go to Dikomo in order to meet one of my readers, together with Xenophon Kallis and Murat Soysal, officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee.
This reader of ours had shown us various possible burial sites over the years – for instance together with another witness he had shown us a place in Synchari where some remains were found by the CMP when they dug there… I believe some of those remains belonged to the missing Greek commander in Synchari, Kalbourdjis…
It was the first time ever that Turkish Cypriot witnesses were showing some burial sites in Synchari and we had gone there on the 12th of January 2010 and this reader, together with a witness had shown us a well that the shepherds had emptied… When our reader and his friend had gone there to collect mushrooms and agrelli, they had seen the remains of humans scattered around the well… The well had been emptied by some shepherds in order to use it for watering their animals… When CMP would dig there years later, they would find some human remains – few – since the bones had been scattered all around…
Another time he had tried to show us a place for a single `missing` Greek Cypriot that he had come across these mountains and Kallis and him had climbed up but did not manage to finish the search since it was more than 45 degrees centigrade that day – they would continue later on in a bit cooler weather searching the area with some archaeologists…
A few days ago, this same reader would call me and told me that he had acquired some information about some possible burial sites and would like to share this with me.
That is why we go to Dikomo today, to meet him… We find him and we go together to look at the possible burial sites.
First we go to the Dikomo-Kyrenia Boghazi road – here my reader wants to show us a possible burial site… It is what is called `The Pentathlon Area` within the military zone. This is an area where there is a small stream going up…
There is no way we can stop to take photos or coordinates since this is a military zone and photography is not allowed.
As we drive further there is a second pentathlon area in another military camp, our reader also shows us this.
Years ago we had shared information given to us by other readers about `The Pentathlon Area` on these pages…
According to our readers, when they were putting up posts for the pentathlon, they had found human remains. One of our readers giving this information had even sent us a google map, marking it on that map.
Later, more details would start coming out about this possible burial site with the help of my Turkish Cypriot readers of the YENIDUZEN newspaper where I have been writing stories on `missing persons` on a daily basis for the past 16 years…
Because of the information we had gathered and a witness that one of our readers had found, we had come here previously, five years ago on the 15th of October 2012 to show the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee `The Pentathlon Area`.
On the 24th of October 2012, we had published the accounts of that day in the YENIDUZEN newspaper on our pages called `Cyprus: The Untold Stories…`. The same article would be published in POLITIS on the 11th of November 2012 with the title "From Vouno to Dikomo and Mia Milia, in search of the `missing`..." I had said in that article:
"On the 15th of October 2012, Monday, I go together with the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee to meet with one of my readers and the witness that my reader has convinced to speak to us. With me are Xenophon Kallis and Murat Soysal, the assistants to the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot member of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee, as well as Okan Oktay, the coordinator of the exhumations. While we are drinking our morning coffee with my reader and the witness, an old man, Murat Soysal has to leave us since he has a meeting. Together with my reader and the witness, we start the day of investigation in the area of Synchari-Vouno...
Our first stop is in an area not far from Synchari, at the junction where one road goes up to Synchari and one road goes to Vouno. We stop before the junction, just under the huge flags painted on the mountains...
This had been the first place for the Turkish army to stop while they were proceeding in 1974. According to the witness, next to a small stream three `missing` Greek Cypriots had been buried. He remembers this quite clearly... Actually in this area, there had been some exhumations by the Missing Persons' Committee but they had found nothing. Okan tells him this but the witness says, `That is impossible... If you dig inside this small stream, you will definitely encounter remains... I remember this area quite well...`
Even if there had been some exhumations around here, the presence of mosfilo trees inside the stream could be an indication that perhaps there could be remains since the trees had not been uprooted... Perhaps a careful investigation by archaeologists could yield something.
Our next stop is a bit further up the road at the road going towards Vouno. On the left side of the road there are some houses – according to the witness, a group of 5-10 persons had come out of these houses and they tried to climb up towards Vouno. `At first, the Turkish soldiers did not notice them but when they discovered they were trying to climb the cliff, they opened fire and 3-5 persons fell, some others escaped. And then the Turkish army proceeded...`
Next we go inside Vouno... Our witness finds a stony cliff in the village... `Here` he says, `7-8 Greek Cypriot soldiers had set an ambush and when the Turkish soldiers were entering Vouno, they opened fire... Soon they were surrounded on this stony cliff; they were hiding among the rocks... They were killed. If you search this rocky cliff among the rocks, I am sure you might find some remains...`
We go back to Dikomo, to see a place where I had written about some years ago... One of my readers, years ago, had told me of a burial site in a military camp in Dikomo where soldiers were doing pentathlon exercises. He had even sent me a Google map, showing the exact location and I had published this information in YENIDUZEN newspaper. According to this reader of mine, while doing some works in the area of the pentathlon, they had encountered human remains and had stopped doing what they were doing.
We pass with the car and see the area of the pentathlon but we do not take photos and we do not stop since this is a military area and we don't want any trouble...
Now, the old witness is confirming what one of my readers had told me some years ago and he has some details... According to my witness, around 28-29 Greek Cypriot `missing` persons have been buried here. This had been a group arrested between Mia Milia and Vouno and were being taken with a bus. Probably they were being taken to Boghazi... In the middle of the village, an old man from Dikomo, who wanted to go to Nicosia, had stopped the bus, without realizing that this would be the end of him. He too, had got on the bus... But then, there had been an order to divert the bus to this place we had just seen and the group would be executed and buried there. The old man who had got on the bus in Dikomo, amongst them..."
Now this reader is showing us the same area – the first pentathlon. As we drive up there is another pentathlon and we find out that this pentathlon is in the military zone where there is the Turkish Armed Forces and that the CMP had asked for permission to dig there but has not yet got permission.
But actually where our readers have pointed out is not the pentathlon area that is within the military camp of the Turkish Armed Forces… It is the pentathlon where the "rapid deployment" police force pentathlon area…
We have not shared any information about the Turkish Armed Forces pentathlon since our readers were doing their military service not in the Turkish Armed Forces but in the adjacent camp, for the Security Forces of Turkish Cypriots – our readers are Turkish Cypriots who had shared information about the pentathlon, not Turkish soldiers. Since we do not have any readers from the Turkish Armed Forces, I believe that investigation should be done about the first pentathlon area that we had shown to the CMP back in 2012 and now in July 2017.
The witness we had taken to this area back in 2012 was a primary witness of what had happened and he had clearly shown us the first pentathlon with the little stream going up. Of course it is always possible that CMP has other information about the Turkish Armed Forces pentathlon but we do not have any such information. All our information is about the mass burial of around 30 "missing" Greek Cypriots in the first pentathlon that is where the rapid deployment force of police is said to be stationed. So we believe strongly that this first pentathlon must be investigated… According to my readers from Dikomo, the group of around 30 Greek Cypriot `missing persons` had been buried where the first pentathlon is all the way up the little stream… As far as I can tell there is no little stream in the second pentathlon…
When we finish our work in Dikomo, we drive to Vouno with my reader and the officials of the CMP…
Our reader wants to show a suspicious area and a possible burial site area that he had learned from a Turkish soldier who was in Cyprus in 1974 during the war. This former soldier told him about a possible burial site…
After the first invasion, the soldiers had been stationed in a house at the entrance of Vouno – this house was on columns and the soldiers had stayed there for three days.
Meanwhile, during those three days of stay, they would collect dead bodies from the area and would bury them in an area across that house on columns.
We find the house on the columns in Vouno – right across the house there is an area which looks as though there is a cavity and where grass as tall as humans have grown… It is an overgrowth coming out of this place… There have been constructions in this area but my reader has another area which has attracted his attention…
He tells us of a heap of soil that looks like a small hill and each time he passes from the main road, this heap of soil would attract his attention for many years because where the soil is, there is no constructions or anything.
We go to find that heap of soil… It is across the house but further up and we go from another dirt track and climb up the hill.
Kallis says, "This soil is not from this area…"
The colour of the soil is different…
"If the bodies that were collected had been buried here," Kallis points out, "then this is not a place for a few persons but could be a mass burial site…"
We stop and take photos and we leave the area, thanking my reader…
I want to thank this reader from my heart – for many years he has been sharing what he knows, what he has seen and what he hears with us. And I thank the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee for accepting to show them these possible burial sites together with my wonderful reader…
26.8.2017
Photo: Officials of CMP, Kallis and Murat Soysal on top of the suspicious heap of soil in Vouno…
(*) Article published in POLITIS newspaper on the 17th of September 2017, Sunday. A similar article in Turkish was published in YENİDÜZEN newspaper on my pages called "Cyprus: The Untold Stories" on the 26th of July 2017. Its link is:
http://www.yeniduzen.com/dikomodan-vunoya-kayiplarin-izinde-11010yy.htm
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