Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Tel: 99 966518
After visiting Sinda on the 16th of November 2018 and doing investigations together with Kyriacos Andreou and his villagers from Lysi for the two shepherds "missing" from Lysi, we say goodbye to them and continue to go to Epiho (Abohor) to meet one of my readers – a key witness from Voni…
Together with Romanos Lyritsas and Sila Murat, the young investigators of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee we go to his house to sit on his balcony, drink coffee and speak about the possible burial site of at least six "missing" Greek Cypriots taken from the church in Voni in 1974 and killed… And "disappeared"…
Sila and Romanos show him the map of Voni – a military camp since 1974 – and point out where the CMP had been digging…
The only place that has not been dug, apparently is the place our readers, as well as this witness had pointed out to the CMP years ago! Under the olive trees!
We had given this information to the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee, you know when? Exactly 11 years ago! And we had also written about it, 11 years ago in the YENIDUZEN newspaper – on the 22nd of July 2008… 11 years ago in our article, based on the information from our readers and some witnesses, we had written this:
"A group of eight or ten missing Greek Cypriots are buried under the olive grove in Voni… Our reader told us the following: 'The Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee was digging at a spot close to Voni, it was the excavation of a well. This excavation went on for a long time. Then we heard that they had found the remains of only one person in that well… 50 meters to the north of this excavation site, there is an olive grove… Under this olive grove a group of 8-10 missing Greek Cypriots' group is buried. If they dig the eastern part of this olive grove, they will see that this group is buried there…
Previously, this was NOT a military zone. We used to bring our animals to graze around there. Then 10-15 years ago, all of a sudden the military would cut off this area putting up wires and we were no longer allowed to go in that area to graze our animals…"
Sitting on his balcony, our witness says that a top military officer from Voni had come to visit him… The military were doing some excavations in the area he mentions (under the olive grove) and some human remains had come out… The military officer had asked him, "Were some missing persons buried here?" and he had answered him: "Yes, there is information that some missing persons had been buried there…"
In those days, he explains to us, the military was taking some soil with a bulldozer to build a set around the camp… Therefore, some small pieces of human remains that were found outside the military camp in Voni by the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee probably went together with that soil taken from around the olive grove, I suspect… And therefore, if the CMP takes a decision to dig the places we wrote about – the olive grove – that our witnesses pointed out 11 years ago and if they can't find remains there, then they would probably have to sieve the soil around the camp that was used to build a set and search for remains in that soil I think… But again, we are not authorised with such decisions: The authority is the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee and that is a decision that they will take or not take. It is up to them… Our humanitarian mission is to consistently show them possible burial sites, share information voluntarily and help them in their search for "missing persons". That is all…
Since we are in Epiho, I want to show the investigators another possible burial site that I had shown them 11 years ago which has not been explored. We showed this place several times to the officials of the CMP and I had also written what a primary witness had told me and published it in the YENIDUZEN newspaper on the 12th of August 2008 and later on those days, in POLITIS newspaper…
Our witness had said:
"Again this man called ….. killed one person in front of my eyes. He set up a table in the centre of Epiho as a show off and ….. was sitting at the table. This guy also served as the director of an Office. He was the one who gave the order to kill. He had a military uniform on. This Turkish Cypriot official said "How can you shoot at the Turkish soldiers?" and the Greek Cypriot soldier they had caught said "I was fighting"… And then he said, "You are guilty because you fired a shot at the Turkish soldier…"
And then he turned around and said, "Still, we will let you go and you will go to Exometochi down there… There are Greek Cypriots there…"
This Greek Cypriot soldier had gone to some Turkish Cypriot women to ask for water in Epiho. And those women would give him to this Turkish Cypriot. This Turkish Cypriot had a Thompson machine gun and had put a bayonet on his gun and pushing him with that bayonet, he had brought this Greek Cypriot next to us… This was in the centre of the village… We were kids and we were looking at the looting in those days… They had taken the things looted from Exometochi and they were registering them, they had not yet shared the loot… There had been a "James Bond" type of bag, they opened this bag with a knife and there came out a lot of photographs from that bag… There were photos of naked women, the bag was full of these photographs… This bag came together with the looted goods from Exometochi to Epiho… The owner of the bag apparently had taken naked photos of his girlfriend… We were looking at those photos… There was a cheque book… The Turkish Cypriot guy said, "The cheque book is mine!" – what good would it do to him, this cheque book?!!!
Then I saw the other Turkish Cypriot guy pushing that Greek Cypriot soldier towards us – the guy with the bayonet… While we were playing around with the James Bond bag, they came… In five minutes, they set up a "court" – it was …… who set up the court. He had white hair and he was director of an Office for many years… He passed away few years ago. He gave the order (to shoot and kill) and the Greek Cypriot soldier turned around and two bullets from that Thompson gun came out, one of those bullets hit him on the hip… He was screaming and he fell down… The guy with the Thompson gun whose name was ….., put his foot on the guy who fell… He took out his sakoulla of shells. But he had a full magazine… The Greek Cypriot was screaming… He put bullets one by one in his gun and then shot at his head…
Then he took out his boots and said "Here kids, here are some boots!", throwing the boots at us… And he took him by his feet and there is this shrine called "Seydali" in Epiho, just across there he put a ball of straw and he put the Greek Cypriot's dead body there, then put up another ball of straw and put fire to this straw and left… He burned him… For days, the hands of this dead guy were out in the open… Do you know why the hands of a burned person is up? He is asking God, "Why??"
I think this guy was a teacher… Or that was my impression… Then they buried him there… Where? Within the 200 square meters of that field, he is there… They buried him on the surface. His legs had been totally burned…"
After 11 years, we show this place once again – there has been no digging here… My witness tells them that years ago, one day he started taking soil from here and the villagers told him to stop… "You will find the remains of that Greek Cypriot we buried there… Don't take soil from there" they would tell him… He had told this several times over the years as we came to see him with other investigators of CMP… He had shown this place several times to CMP… We had shown this place with other witnesses as well, including the child at that time who saw this burial with his own eyes… Nothing happened until now so without losing sight that we need to continue to help the relatives of "missing persons", we show it one more time to Romanos and Sila…
While there, a Turkish Cypriot from the area approaches us to take a look at what we are doing…
"I am renting this place" he says…
We explain to him what we are doing. It seems that he is giving his consent now if the CMP wants to dig here…
But later on, I find out that the owner of the field would not give her consent… Perhaps the investigators can visit her once again and try to convince her…
I suspect that the Greek Cypriot who might be buried here might be one of those 45 Greek Cypriots, taken from the house of Frosso Dimou in Voni by some Turkish Cypriots and who were killed and who disappeared… I have been working on this for many years and recently, we helped to find the remains of five "missing" Greek Cypriots in the former rubbish damp of Epiho that we had shown to the CMP and three of those Greek Cypriots now identified through DNA testing by CMP, turned out to be from the group of 45, taken from the house of Frosso Dimou in Voni in 1974…
So far, remains of the 35 of those from that group of 45 have been found but we still need to find 10 more "missing" Greek Cypriots from that group…
They were taken outside Voni to around Beykeuy and they were shot but some had tried to escape when the guns of the Turkish Cypriots trying to kill them got stuck… They would chase those who had escaped and tried to catch them and kill them… I believe the guy killed in the centre of Epiho, could be one of those who tried to escape… If we manage to find him here, then through DNA testing of CMP, we will know for sure who he was and his family will not be waiting any longer for news from him… He will be able to go back to them for a proper burial with human dignity…
I thank all my readers and witnesses who have been helping me voluntarily and I thank Romanos and Sila from CMP for coming with me to show them some possible burial sites so that they can continue their work for the "missing persons" of Cyprus…
9.2.2019
Photo1: Area marked in red in Voni that we pointed out 11 years ago to CMP that has not been investigated or excavated until now...
Photo 2: CMP investigators Sila and Romanos at Epikho at possible burial site we had shown 11 years ago and we show again...
(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper in Greek on the 3rd of March 2019, Sunday. A similar article was published in Turkish in the YENİDÜZEN newspaper on my pages entitled "Cyprus: The Untold Stories" on the 25th of January 2019 and here is the link:
http://www.yeniduzen.com/sindeden-kayip-edilmis-iki-cobanin-ve-voniden-kayip-edilenlerin-izinde5-13540yy.htm
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