Following the trace of a ring in Ebicho (Abohor)… (*)

Following the trace of a ring in Ebicho (Abohor)… (*)   Sevgul Uludag   caramel_cy@yahoo.com   Tel: 99 966518   One of my readers from Ebicho (Abohor-Cihangir) had first told me about the ring... The ring he was telling me about was taken from the finger of a Greek Cypriot killed during the war in 1974 and whose body had remained in a field for couple of months... One of his relatives had taken this ring from the finger of a `missing` Greek Cypriot but my reader was insistent to retreat this ring from his relatives. One night he came to the newspaper YENIDUZEN where I work with the `missing` ring... `I found it!` he was saying, all smiles... There was an inscription inside the ring: it said Ethn. Agon – 1940. This was a thin, silver ring, on its front there must have been some sort of pattern but it was no longer visible... I had to find out what these words meant first of all, the `Ethn. Agon – 1940` (Ethnikos Agon – National Struggle). I called many Greek Cypriot friends but they had no idea what this ring might represent... Finally it was my son who helped me: `Mom, call your friend Petros` he said, `he would definitely know the meaning behind...` I realized that my son was right when I called my friend Petros Yiasemides. Petros explained to me the meaning of this ring: During the Second World War, as the Nazis had occupied Greece, during the resistance movement of the Greeks against Nazis, there were campaigns to help this resistance, hence the words `Ethn. Agon - `1940` (Ethnikos Agon – National Struggle). The Greek Cypriots too were donating their wedding rings, golden bracelets or earrings in order to help the struggle against the Nazis. When they donated their golden wedding rings or bracelets, their names would be written down as well as what they had been donating. After the end of the Second World War, the Greek government would thank all those who had donated in this campaign by giving them these silver rings with the inscription inside the ring, `Ethn. Agon - 1940` (Ethnikos Agon – National Struggle). This might have been around 1948. In the middle of the ring, there must have been a crown pattern that is no longer visible now... So the `missing` Greek Cypriot must have donated his golden wedding ring for the fight against the Nazis during the Second World War, that's why he must have had it on his finger... A Turkish Cypriot relative of a `missing` person would also tell me that there had been a similar campaign in Turkey during the national struggle of the people and they too would donate their golden wedding rings and in return they would get a silver ring. I would ask my reader from Ebicho (Abohor-Cihangir) to try to find out where this `missing` Greek Cypriot had been buried and he gladly helps me. We found the ring and now it's time to find out where the `missing` Greek Cypriot who had been wearing it is buried. My reader speaks to his relatives in Ebicho and finds out that the `missing` Greek Cypriot wearing this ring was a very tall person, was wearing a black suit, a white shirt, black shoes, he had black hair and a long face, that he might have been around 50-60 years old. While one of his relatives had taken this ring from his finger, another relative had taken his watch. The relative who had taken the watch has lost it during the renovation of his house, `Someone might have taken it from the buffet he was keeping it...` The relative who had taken this watch from the wrist of the `missing` Greek Cypriot was shocked that although the `missing` person had been dead for a couple of months, that the watch was still working... Or perhaps this was an illusion, something he created in his mind, that the watch was still working? The Turkish Cypriots from the village Ebicho (Abohor) had left their village and had gone to Knodhara (Konedra-Gonendere) during the war and after they had returned to their village when the war was over, at the end of September or during October, they had gone to collect some straw for feeding their animals. And that's when they had come to the field where the `missing` Greek Cypriot was lying, facing the east... According to the information that my reader gathered, this `missing` person was never taken elsewhere to be buried and if there is digging in this field, his remains might be found... He would try to convince his relatives to show us the field and I would arrange with the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee to come with us so we can show the field to them. So on the 2nd of November 2012, Friday, in the morning we go to find one of the relatives of my reader. Murat Soysal and Xenophon Kallis, the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee are coming with me to pick up our witness. An old woman with very beautiful pale blue eyes greets us. She has great difficulty walking but Murat Soysal helps her with great care... We go to a field and the old woman is pondering whether it is this field or that field where she had seen the `missing` person. A little while later, the daughter and the husband of the old woman catches up and comes to where we are. The old woman's husband points out the field where they had seen the `missing` person. The old woman starts crying, standing in the middle of the field... She too has been affected by war when a bomb had hit the place she was hiding... She had gone with her children from Ebicho to Chatoz when a bomb fell and she was severely wounded from her hand, losing some fingers and one of her children was wounded from her head... She was then taken to Knodhara and from there, together with five other wounded Turkish Cypriots; she was taken to the Varosha Hospital for treatment... `The doctor there, Hadjikako, was a very good, very kind man` she explains to us... `He treated me very well... He even ate and drank from the food I was offered so that I would feel safe to eat and drink the water... Please thank him from me if he is alive...` `He is not alive but I know one of his daughters, Evie` I tell her... Although she was severely wounded and she lost her fingers in the war, this does not stop her from showing us the possible burial site of a `missing` Greek Cypriot, it does not stop her from acting with humanity... `His skin had stuck on his bones, he had been dead for a couple of months` she explains to us, `he might have been around 30 or 40 years old...` My reader had explained to me that he might have been 50 or 60 years old but this does not matter since if his remains are found, he would be identified through DNA tests. `He might have been coming from Palekythro or Exomedochi` she says... `I saw no visible wounds on him... He was wearing a black suit and a white shirt...` `Why do you think he was dressed like that, in the middle of the summer?` I ask her. `Perhaps because he was leaving, perhaps he wanted to put on his best suit...` she says. `I raised my children to be respectful towards all, no matter what their religion or language is, they too are human I told them and that's how I raised my children` she says, still crying... We take the photos and coordinates of this field and take the old woman back to her house. Her daughter has prepared for us hallumi pitta and fresh chakistez, collected from their own fields and prepared the Cypriot way. We sit and speak, drinking coffee and feeling their warmth... The warmth and the humanity of this family affect us all... These are the real beautiful people of Cyprus, of Messaoria who have known the horrors of war but did not become monsters; they still love people and believe in peace, not in war. If all families were like this family both in the southern and northern part of our island, today Cyprus would not have been divided, we would not have to live through so much pain, so much suffering and there wouldn't be so much blood and so many tears... If Cyprus is healing its wounds just a little bit, it is because of such people, our anonymous heroes... Their hearts are so full of love that it's more than enough for all of us...   9.11.2012   (*) Article published in POLİTİS newspaper on the 25th of November, 2012.