A woman from Yialousa: Kakoulou and her husband Giannis… Sevgul Uludag Tel: 00 357 99 966518 00 90 542 853 8436 I had come across her story while searching for some Greek Cypriot `missing persons` from 1963… A young boy remembered her being killed and her body thrown in the street… He had witnessed this at that time and was in shock… This was not the only murder he had seen… Just across his house another Greek Cypriot who had gone to buy bread had been killed and he had seen how the loaves of bread the old man had bought had scattered on the ground, how his bicycle had fallen and how later, some Turkish Cypriot soldiers would come to pick up his body to bury him at the Tekke Bahchesi in Nicosia, within the walls. `It was amazing how, some hours later, they would use the same car to distribute bread` he would remember. He would give me names to call, names of those in the car – some of them would deny knowing anything… Silence would fall but it would not matter since a witness has already spoken, silence broken, taboos shaken, zones of darkness illuminated… That's all that mattered since he would remember, as a child, vividly, all those killed around his house… `They had killed the woman and thrown her body in the street… Someone had thrown a mattress over her body… I saw that as well` he would tell me. I would try to find out more and discover that the woman he was talking about was known as `Kakullu` by Turkish Cypriots. She had been living in Nicosia, just next to the old market that we call `Bandabuliya` that had had two doors, one facing the north, one facing the south and this old market had been a joint one, once upon a time… Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots had worked together in this market, with a very high ceiling, smelling of fruits and vegetables, intact with butchers selling meat… At the entrance in the southern part had been the Greek Cypriot butchers… But as the conflict slowly brewed, Greek Cypriots would be kicked out of this market and the southern door closed, never to open again… This was 1963-64 and the old Greek Cypriot who came to buy bread with his bicycle had been caught unaware, not suspecting anything… `Kakoullou`, who lived just next to the old bazaar with her husband, with no children, had been bedridden… She too had been young once, a very rich woman from Yialousa who had contributed so much to her villagers, as well as her family. But she was not even on the list of the `Missing Greek Cypriots of 1963` - I would discover that she is `missing`, as well as her husband and inform the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee so that they would take measures to put her on the list. I would call people from Yialousa to help to find out details about her life and finally, one of my Greek Cypriot readers would tell me more… He would send me a letter thanking me for remembering `Kakoullou` and would say the following: `Dear Sevgul, I follow your articles regularly and I would like to state that you are a healer of the wounds of our country Cyprus. Please continue to do what you do since you are like an angel helping to heal the wounds of families in pain. I wrote this letter in order to thank you. You have been trying to find out information about a woman that you call `Kakoullou` that no one bothers to remember. You have found out what happened to her and her husband and also wrote about their possible burial site. Our family used to know Kakoula (you pronounce her name as Kakoullou but the correct name is Kakoula) very well. She had settled in Nicosia but she was actually from Yialousa. She had a big house next to the old market (`Bandabulia) and she had been a pioneer in many things. For instance she had been the first woman shareholder of the Bank of Cyprus. She used to rent the rooms of her house next to the old bazaar in Nicosia like a hotel and was running a coffee shop downstairs. Her husband's name was Giannis Ellinas. In those old times, those who came to Nicosia would stay in her pansiyon. I remember staying with my father in this pansiyon once… Kakoula had built an elementary school in Yialousa and they had called it the Kakoullion Elementary School. This school was just next to the church. I believe she had been born around 1890s. She was a very rich and very generous woman from Yialousa. Due to her building an elementary school in Yialousa, the church had honoured her and gave her some very valuable land. Kakoula, in return had given these lands and some houses she owned to her sisters in Yialousa and to her sister's daughters. She had a sister called Nestilou and she had given some houses to the daughters of Nestilou. Kakoula herself did not have any children. She had built a coffee shop in the land that the Archangelos Church in Yialousa had donated to her and had donated this coffee shop to one of her relatives. Kakoula had also bought a big place in the graveyard in Yialousa and had prepared her own grave. She wanted to be buried in Yialousa, although she resided in Nicosia. But as the conflict exploded in 1963 among the two communities, as you said in your articles, both Kakoula and her husband Giannis were killed by some Turkish Cypriots and their dead bodies remained there. As you state in your article, a kind hearted Turkish Cypriot would take their bodies and put them in a closed van and in the night time would go and bury them at the Tekke Bahchesi in Nicosia. Please thank this kind hearted Turkish Cypriot in our name for doing this. As far as I know, they were never enlisted as `missing persons`, neither Kakoulou, nor her husband Giannis, by her family in the official list of missing persons. Perhaps you can find one of her relatives so that she and her husband are put on the list of missing persons so that if one day, their remains are found, they can at least be taken by some of their relatives and buried properly. Dear Sevgul, When you go to Yialousa, please go and see the school she has built. Go to the Greek Cypriot cemetery and find the grave Kakoulou has prepared for herself but could not be buried – the grave remains empty. I would like to thank you for not allowing her to be forgotten…` I thank this Greek Cypriot reader for writing to me and giving me some details about Kakoulou… Those who remember Kakoulou and her husband Giannis, please give me a call on my mobile 99 966518… Perhaps one day, I can find a photo of this `missing` woman I have been writing about… I asked a Turkish Cypriot friend of mine, an artist, who knew Kakoulou to draw a picture of her and she did… But I would appreciate at least a photo of her so that we could see her face… She contributed so much to Yialousa – at least the people from Yialousa must do something so that she is not forgotten… 15/12/2012 Photo: The house of Kakoulou, painted by Turkish Cypriot artist Ferah Kaya. (*) Article published in POLITIS newspaper on the 23rd of December, 2012. |
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