A woman from Yialousa: Kakoulou and her husband Giannis…

A woman from Yialousa: Kakoulou and her husband Giannis…   Sevgul Uludag   caramel_cy@yahoo.com   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.

In search of `missing` from Dikomo and Kochatis…

In search of `missing` from Dikomo and Kochatis…   Sevgul Uludag   caramel_cy@yahoo.com   Τel: 00 357 99 966518 0090 542 853 8436   On a sunny morning of these winter days, we travel to the village Dikomo to look at some possible burial sites of some `missing persons` from the village… The witness is from this village, a Greek Cypriot who grew up here and who knew everyone… He guides us to our first stop, a house that does not exist anymore because it was demolished but you can still see the walls… `This was the house of Maritsa Christofi Netou` he says… `She had been living with her brother Kiriakos Strati. Kiriakos could only walk with the help of a cane, he would walk very slowly…` He holds a book in his hands about Dikomo and he finds the photo of Maritsa and shows it to me: A typical Cypriot village woman, sitting down, surrounded by some youngsters, probably her relatives or co-villagers. `She was the natural dentist of the village` he tells me, `she used to take out our shaky teeth when we were children… She had one long fingernail and with the help of that, she would take out our teeth and put salt in the wound so it would stop bleeding…` Maritsa and Kiriakos are `missing` from their house in Dikomo… Next to the demolished house is another house that looks new: `This was the house of her daughter` our witness explains. According to our witness, both Maritsa and Kiriakos were killed in the demolished house and then buried under an almond tree in their yard. We go in the yard and find the almond tree… `A team of Turkish Cypriot policemen were sent from Kyrenia Boghazi to Dikomo and they killed those who remained behind, back in 1974` he says. We move in the same street to the place of another demolished house: Not even a stone has remained, all cleaned up… `Here` he says, `used to live Yakumi Petrou who had been born in 1910… So he was around 64 years old in 1974. He has been killed here…` But our witness has no information whether he had been buried here or elsewhere… We walk in the narrow streets of Dikomo, the sun shining on us and you notice that Dikomo is so green: In the gardens of the houses we pass by, we notice the lovely trees and flowers… We stop at another point where yet, another demolished house used to exist – now another makeshift construction has taken its place… `This was the house of Christalla Nikola Christofi` he says, `she was paralysed so she could not move. She was killed in her house and was buried in her yard… This is the information I have…` I feel sad hearing all these stories and more and more, this village starts to remind me of Kythrea… Kythrea had the same story: Killing paralysed or very old people, killing those who could not or did not try to escape the war… From Kythrea there are 49 `missing persons` and with the help of my readers and Maria Georgiadou who is also the relative of four `missing persons`, we managed to find two `missing` old men from Kythrea… Dikomo, similarly has 45 `missing persons`, some from inside the village, some during fighting in the war in other areas. We move yet to another house in another part of Dikomo… `Here` says our witness, `used to live a father, a mother and a daughter. They were old. The daughter was paralysed. They were all killed and buried under that electricity poll. The daughter's name was Eleni, she had been born in 1909, the mother was Mirofora and was born in 1892 and the father was Pantelis Zotis – he had been born in 1889…` We go to the centre of the village then, to sit in the main coffee shop and have some coffee. An old man with blue eyes and a cane sits with his hat on, a small branch of basil tucked behind his ear… He is from Louroudjina I learn. There are people in this village from Kochatis, Dali and Agios Sozomenos… Most of those we meet can speak Greek… A bearded man does not speak but looks at us with sad eyes… He gets up and leaves… After he leaves, one of his friends says to me, `He is sad because his brother is missing since 1964. His brother, together with another Turkish Cypriot had gone from their village to Nisou to buy cigarettes. They were on bicycles. They were kidnapped by some Greek Cypriots who were also `active` in the kidnapping of the young shepherd from Agios Sozomenos, Fikret and killed him – his remains were found in a riverbed around Alambra village. One of those who kidnapped both Fikret and Cemal and Huseyin had been a Greek Cypriot policeman, acting like a `Rambo` in the area… We heard that this policeman died recently of cancer. There is no news of Cemal Mustafa and Huseyin Ibrahim since December 1963 and their remains have not been found… His brother feels very sad… The family is in so much pain, waiting all these years for the remains of these two `missing` Turkish Cypriots to be found… But nothing has happened and it's 49 years since they are waiting… Almost half a century… This is very cruel…` The coffee I drink will coil like a snake in my stomach after hearing about Maritsa and the others `missing` from Dikomo, as well as Cemal and Huseyin `missing` from Nisou… They too were innocent people, one of them engaged to be married soon… Cemal Huseyin was engaged to Aysel, who had been pregnant for two months, they were finishing the construction of their house in Kochati village when her fiancée went `missing`. The Greek Cypriot policeman, a sergeant in the area who kidnapped Cemal and Huseyin with his friends had been also terrorizing Nisou village and a Greek Cypriot of Nisou would warn his co-villagers, the Turkish Cypriots to flee since the policeman was planning on kidnapping some other young Turkish Cypriots of Nisou. So Turkish Cypriots would leave Nisou and go and live as refugees in the nearby Louroudjina, after Cemal and Huseyin had gone `missing`, out of fear for the lives of their own children and youngsters as well… We leave the coffee shop to go yet to a fifth possible burial site that our witness will show us: There had been a house behind the trees of the Panayia Church of the village – we search and find the area and our witness shows us the place where Stavros and Annesou Chatallos, an old couple, might have been buried… `What happened in 1964 in this village?` I ask the witness. `We had to create spots to try to guard our village in case there was an attack from Ortakeuy, Geunyeli or Aghirda` he says… `What happened in 1974 during the coup?` I ask him. `We lost two` he says… `Andreas Menikou, whose nickname was `Daskalos` (`Teacher`) was killed in a restaurant in Syncyari while eating and drinking by some people from EOKA-B. Andreas had been a supporter of Makarios. Kostas Sotiriou, a fireman who had been a good friend of Andreas Menikou was also killed. One of the friends of Kostas Sotiriou was forced by EOKA-B to kill him…` Together with us on this trip to Dikomo are Xenophon Kallis, Murat Soysal and Okan Oktay from the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee, as well as two Turkish Cypriot investigators working for the committee. We leave Dikomo, once a beautiful, quiet village, now full of its `secret` burial sites that we try to uncover through the help of witnesses…   7.12.2012   Photo: Maritsa Christofi Netou, the "natural dentist" of Dikomo, "missing" since 1974…   (*) Article published in POLITIS newspaper on the 16th of December 2012, Sunday.

`Together we can...`

Sevgul Uludag

caramel_cy@yahoo.com

Tel: 00 357 99 966518

0090 542 853 8436

She turns her back to the lake, facing the multicultural group, catching her breath first, mingling on the edge of pain and then starting to speak, slowly reciting the horrible days of August 1974 and what had happened here... It is a multicultural group – some young artists from the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot communities, a Syrian Cypriot artist Adi Atassi who has been in Cyprus for the last quarter of a century, an Armenian Cypriot, Nouritsa Nadjarian, whose mother was expelled from Anatolia to come to Cyprus back in 1921, settling in Nicosia and herself being born in Cyprus... She is 81 years old, with a cane but she comes with us wherever we go, she walks with us and she stands with us to open her heart to hear what's been passing from the hearts of the others... And there is our Italian Cypriot artist, Gaia, as well – it's the first time she comes with us to a mass grave here in Galatia, taking photos and hearing the story about this burial site of 11 `missing` Greek Cypriots whose remains were uncovered during exhumations... No, this is not a `bi-communal` group, it's a `multi-communal`, multicultural group...

Christina of Komikebir was only 13 years old when she had to go through the horrors of war... She has lost her father and brother and the last place they were seen was in the Turkish Cypriot village of Galatia at the beginning of Karpasia.

Christina is part of the Bi-Communal Initiative of Relatives of Missing Persons and Victims of Massacres and War, `Together we can` association that has been running a workshop on `missing persons` together with Nilgun Guney Art Studio since last June... We have been taking the young Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot artists, as well as our Syrian Cypriot artist and our Armenian Cypriot friend around the island, showing them the mass graves, getting them together with relatives of `missing persons` to speak and to tell what sort of turmoil they have been going through... We have been giving them material as they need, photos of `missing persons`, their stories as I wrote, trying to help them to feel, to understand and to paint...

It is very difficult for Christina to be here since it refreshes all her bad memories but she makes the effort because she knows that with the knowledge will come strength... If she speaks and if people hear with their hearts what she's saying, truth will set them free and truth will make them stronger. Truth is the only medicine we should drink in this country in shambles, divided, torn apart with memories of trauma and pain... Truth is the only thing that will save us so we must all speak and tell what we know and we must all listen and hear what is being told by people like Christina... People like Christina are in this group of relatives of `missing persons` and victims of massacres and war and they work humbly, quietly with a very low profile, like saints in this geography of pretence...

You will not find them in posh cocktail parties, you will not see them wearing expensive jewellery and driving luxurious cars... They will not be invited to receptions given by the United Nations or other `important` international organizations... You will rarely see them on TV or hear them on radio – they are ordinary people like you and me, going around very quietly, doing what needs to be done, sacrificing themselves so that the truth be known although the truth might not be `popular` on either side of the island.

You will find Christina planting trees in her garden, one in the name of her father, one for her brother...Or with garden scissors she would be trimming plants and trees in my garden, showing me which one is sick and what I should do to heal it, creating space to branches and leaves so they can breathe... She would be speaking to me the language of understanding nature and she would know each plant and each tree and what they need and what they don't need. She would be teaching me how to take care of nature because she has learnt this from her childhood in Komikebir where her family had vast amounts of fields and gardens, always producing, always working, always taking care of nature and humans around them... Or you will find her visiting old people, speaking quietly and trying to find out this or that detail about what might have happened in the past, where there might be some burial sites or how things unfolded in this country torn apart by war.

No, you will not find her or anyone from this NGO called `Together we can` invited when important figures like the European Commission's Vice President visits Cyprus or when there is the UN Day at the Ledra Palace Hotel or the opening ceremony of the EU Presidency of Cyprus. No, this group will not be invited to any of the activities of the EU Presidency of Cyprus because they are not `important` people, they are ordinary people like you and me and they don't speak the language of power or Cypriot politics. They speak the language of ordinary people, of life, of real problems, of real issues, of real trauma and pain, of real suffering because they come from there... You will find Christina in possible burial sites or with witnesses trying to show or describe those sites. You will find the members of this NGO working insistently and consistently, without stop, without complaint, without showing off, investigating, arranging, encouraging the people to speak up so that our children and our grandchildren can have a better life since if we don't speak the language of truth, our children and grandchildren will always be led by lies... Mountain of lies created by both sides, mountains of hatred, mountains of pressure forcing you to `choose` the one side or the other. No, members of this group will not choose one side or the other, they will choose both because they come from both – Huseyin Rustem Akansoy comes from Maratha, Sherif Mehmet Ali comes from Tremethousa, Petros Souppouris comes from Palekythro, Christos Efthymiou comes from Dali, Andreas Sizinos comes from Gypsou... They would embrace all and allow their hearts to open up to hear the truth of the other, the pain of the other, the suffering and the agony and the trauma of the other and feel it as their own...

Among all the `mainstream` politicians and `mainstream` politics, only Takis Hadjigeorgiou, the Euro MP of AKEL really heard their voice with his heart and he proposed Huseyin and Petros who have lost all their families in the massacres of Maratha-Sandallaris-Aloa and Palekythro, to the European Citizen Award... This week Huseyin and Petros went to Brussels to meet with others who have received the European Citizen Award of the European Parliament. But Takis is rare because he has a very human heart and is not blinded by ambition or position or power and he uses his power to help the voice of this group, `Together we can` to be heard in Europe... What Takis has done is very symbolic for Cyprus, showing Europe that people like Huseyin and Petros, despite their enormous loss and trauma, have managed to overcome their own pain, turning it into a struggle for a common peaceful future on this island, becoming role models for all countries in conflict, as well as our torn island... Takis has shown Europe that the Bi-Communal Relatives of Missing Persons and Victims of Massacres and War from Cyprus has said `Yes!`, `Together we can!`

`Yes, together we can work, we can share, we can build a better life on this island! Yes, together we can face the traumas of the past, we can look into each other's eyes and see the truth because only the truth will set us free and make us stronger! Yes, together we can do it and we are doing it and we will continue to do it...`

People like Christina, Huseyin, Petros, Spiros, Sherif, Andreas, Ali, Christos and all the others in this group are showing the way to the future, even if some try to make them `invisible`... Thanks to Takis Hadjigeorgiou, at least their voice is heard in Brussels, if not among the ruling elites of the international community and the `locals` in Nicosia...

10.11.2012

(*) Article published in POLITIS newspaper on the 2^nd of December, 2012.

Photo: Some of the young artists at the Galatia lake…

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.