Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Tel: 99 966518
I had first met Christalla Kyriacou and her brother Alkis back on the 21st of February 2011 when we had gone together with the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee, Xenophon Kallis and Murat Soysal to Deryneia… It was exactly six years ago…
Since this was a military area we could not enter but we had stood there and Christalla and Alkis had explained to us what had happened.
That day we had no chance for an interview…
The father-in-law, mother-in-law, sister-in-law with her three small kids, the brother-in-law, her five-year-old son and her three-year-old twin daughters had been killed and had gone `missing` in 1974 at Kato Deryneia.
But there were others who had been killed in that group… The 12-year-old Alkis had managed to run away and stay alive from this massacre.
Since we could not enter Kato Deryneia that day, Alkis had drawn us a map and had shown us where the massacre took place and we had given this map as an indication of the possible burial site to the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee that day.
Again six years ago we had also shared on these pages what some Turkish Cypriot readers had told us about the possible place of the mass grave there…
We had been seeing Christalla Kyriacou in various activities concerning the `missing persons` as well as at bi-communal meetings. Since she did not speak English, it would only be possible to interview her with the help of a dear friend, Christina Pavlou Solomi Patsia who is also the relative of two `missing persons` - she would kindly come from Limassol and we would go together to the refugee house of Christalla Kyriacou in Larnaca to sit down and talk: Christina would act as our interpreter…
Christalla and her husband Christos Kyriacou have lost ten relatives in this massacre back in August 1974.
Christalla was born in Kato Deryneia, one of the five kids of Andreas Pieridi and Maria Christou. Her father was working as a driver in NAAFI and her mother as a cleaner in the same place. Her mother would pass away and Christalla would take her youngest brother Alkis to stay with her, after the death of their mother.
Christalla had got married in 1969 and they had three kids: Andreas was born in 1969 and her twin daughters in 1971.
When the war began, her husband was sent to Kyrenia as a reservist. They would stay until the 14th of August 1974 in their house in Kato Deryneia. When they heard that "Turks are coming" they would fit a total of 15 persons in a car and leave to go to Liopetri, to stay under some trees for two nights. Then her father in law would hear on the radio a call for people to return to Varosha. The call was saying "You can go up to the Technical School…"
"Actually the Turks were in Kato Deryneia but we did not know this" she says… "They had thought Varosha was empty and were making a call to go back…"
A lot of people tried to go back. Christalla and her family too tried to go back… Her brother in law was the driver when they went back and the car was stopped in Deryneia – since he was wearing khaki colour hunters' clothes, they would arrest him and no one would ever see him again. They would make them walk all the way to the Gardens of Perdjana…
"There, we were around 200-300 people" Christalla remembers.
When they asked Christalla where she had been going, she would tell them that her house is not far from here, she was going to take some clothes for her kids – they would explain to the soldiers that they had heard on the news that they could return and that's why they came back.
The soldiers were a mixture of Turkish soldiers and Turkish Cypriot soldiers. Since the father in law of Christalla was from Yenaghra, he could speak Turkish fluently… He would listen to what they were saying and translate for Christalla and the others. There were around 20 soldiers Christalla remembers, "5-6 of those were Turkish Cypriots… They would accompany us to our house which was close and allowed us to stay there – this was the 17th of August. I remember this because 19th of August 1974 was the third birthday of my twins. This was the day they were taken from me – on their birthday they would go "missing"… So we stayed from 17th of August until 19th of August in our house: My father in law, mother in law, my sister in law with her three kids, a neighbour (woman), a couple with two daughters, a friend of my brother in law, my three kids, myself and Alkis… All together we would stay for two nights in my house. When they had escorted to the house they had told us "We allow you to stay and we will watch you. If anyone tries to get away, we will come back and kill you all… Don't you try to leave this house" they had said.
They would come back to our house in the afternoon of the 19th of August. They had taken us to the road… They would separate two girls and myself and had told us "You stay in the house, we will take them and come back and pick you up…" I had tried to take my kids with me but one of the soldiers had hit me on my shoulder – these soldiers were drunk, they smelled of alcohol… They were Turkish Cypriot and Turkish soldiers, 5 or 6 of them. I had thought "Since they might not have space in the car, they would take them and come back and pick us up"…
When they came back, a Turkish Cypriot with long hair had told me "Run! Go and save your life!"
This was a Turkish Cypriot with long hair, the Turkish soldiers had short haircuts. This Turkish Cypriot with long hair would take all three of us and would take us out – before we left I would leave a note on the refrigerator: "We will go to Deryneia and bring some help…"
So we left from the back of the house and travelled through fields and the gardens of neighbours to reach Deryneia… There in the coffeeshop Greek Cypriots were sitting as though nothing had happened. We walked all the way to the village Sotira since my brother was married there – we went to his house. He took us back to Deryneia to the police to give testimony. That night we heard that my brother Alkis had come so we would learn what had happened from Alkis…
When they were taking the group away I had tried to take my kids and a soldier had hit me on my shoulder. Then my mother in law had said "What does it matter, you and me, I am here, let the kids come with me, I will look after them, they will come back and take you to us anyway…" Her name was Andriani Kyriacou. My father in law's name was Kyriacos Georgalli… He was from and Yenaghra my mother in law was from Marathovouno…
We learned from Alkis that they had taken them all the way until the last house… And then there were the fields of Aymemnos… The field they took them to, the owner was from Deryneia. They found the location of this field from the satellite. In this field was a mulberry tree and a water depot.
Since my father in law was from Yenaghra, he was very fluent in Turkish and could understand what they were speaking about. He had heard the soldiers talking about killing them.
He would turn to the soldiers and say, "Don't you feel pity for these kids and you are going to kill them?"
One of those soldiers would answer my father in law and he would say "Did your people feel pity for the children in Aloa so that we too could have pity on yours?"
Then my sister in law Sotira would start crying and shouting… She was having a nervous breakdown… On this instance, they would shoot her on her shoulder… When Alkis would turn and see Sotira in blood he was so frightened and started to run… That is why he survived, my brother Alkis. He had heard them shooting but did not turn back… They were shooting behind him perhaps in order to frighten and stop him but he never stopped, Alkis and ran and ran. Another person managed to run away and went to Paralimni but this woman was so shocked that it had affected her a lot. Each time she would tell it differently…
My sister in law Sotira with her kids 12-year-old Tasos, 10-year-old Koulla and 8 year old Christos are "missing".
My brother in law Costas Kyriacou is `missing`.
My twin daughters Kika and Maria – it was their third birthday that day – are "missing".
My five-year-old Andreas is "missing".
My mother in law Andriani and my father in law Kyriacos are "missing".
A couple they took from our house, Androniki and Savvis are "missing".
The neighbour of this couple called Marika that they took from our house is "missing".
They killed them all there…
Then we found Alkis, he was in shock… But shock is shock. When you close your eyes, you remember everything. We stayed with my brother Sotiris in the village Sotira for some time together with Alkis until my husband came back. He knew nothing about what had happened when he had come back…
When I look back now, I dream of the day I will return to my house. I want to go back to my house… Skevi Koukouma had told me to sit down and write what I felt. But I can't write these down, it is too painful…"
I thank Christalla for opening her heart to me and speaking of her tragic story… I will speak with Alkis as well in the coming days…
I thank my dear friend Christina Pavlou Solomi Patsia for helping to translate our interview…
When this interview was published in our newspaper YENIDUZEN, the fake "nationalists" were furious with me… I would come under attack but this did not matter – what matters is that we need to show the tragedies of this land to both communities if we want humanity and compassion to win on this island… I share the pain of Christalla and her family and may no other family on this land ever has to go through such hell…
27.8.2017
Photo: Andreas, 5 year old son of Christalla missing...
(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 24th of September 2017, Sunday. An extended version – the whole interview – was published in Turkish in the YENİDÜZEN newspaper on my pages called "Cyprus: The Untold Stories" for three days on 22-23 and 24 August 2017. The links to these articles in Turkish:
http://www.yeniduzen.com/derinyanin-gozyaslari-11135yy.htm
http://www.yeniduzen.com/derinyanin-gozyaslari2-11141yy.htm
http://www.yeniduzen.com/derinyanin-gozyaslari-3-11147yy.htm
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