Searching for `missing` from Louroudjina… Sevgul Uludag Tel: 00 357 99 966518 00 90 542 853 8436 Last week I received a letter from one of my Turkish Cypriot readers… He wrote: `Dear Sevgul, Believe me, I wrote many things without a problem but now, writing to you is so difficult… I wrote many times and deleted what I wrote, I want to write a short letter and hope that I won't waste your valuable time for nothing… I read your interviews about the two `missing` young Greek Cypriot boys from Louroudjina. In one of the interviews, one of their female relatives talks about a shepherd and a woman who used to cook for them but I believe these are imaginary. What I will tell you is my own memories – I was only five years old at that time. The two young Greek Cypriots were not kept at the storage house of straw but at the bathroom of a big house. The ones who were watching them were some Turkish Cypriot soldiers especially appointed for this purpose. They had told them that they were not going to kill them, two Turkish Cypriots had been kidnapped by some Greek Cypriots and they were told that they would use them for exchange with those two kidnapped Turkish Cypriots. They had agreed amongst them that they would not try to escape. It really was like this. During daytime, I remember them walking freely in the garden of the big house which had a high wall and no one could see inside the yard. Until one of them got really sick. My grandfather used to send him milk because it would be good for his stomach, as well as food. I used to bring the milk and the food there. I did not see much of him since he was constantly sick in bed but I used to speak all the time with the other young man, we would play ball and he would pick me up on his shoulders… There used to be a very big fig tree in the house they stayed. He would pick me up, put me on his shoulders and say, `Hade ….. mou, na soropsumen syka` (`Let's collect some figs`)… I would collect the figs and we would eat together… While writing these, it's not possible not to get emotional; he was a very good person, full of life… He would laugh with me… Somehow, I can't remember his face… In my last visits, I was not seeing the sick one but only him, speaking with him. I was asking about the sick young man and they had told me that he was taken to the hospital. One day I had heard some shouting, some of the leaders of the village were shouting and were beating up two persons, hitting them with their fists and kicking them. I was hiding and watching this scene. Although they had not seen me, I was extremely frightened. I realized that instead of setting the two free, they had killed them and that's why they were being beaten up. But still I did not realize who they had killed. When the leader asked them what they did with the dead bodies, I heard them answering that they were buried in a cave. Dear Sevgul, I still am not sure whether what they were talking about were about the two young men. I still am not sure but I heard this. These two persons being beaten up were from the village Koshi and the cave they were describing as far as I remember, I will describe to you. There is a dirt track leading from Louroudjina, passing from Koshi to Larnaka. It is a dirt track, not an asphalt road. You have to pass the house of Osman Alyanak. You have to pass the rubbish damp of the English. After you pass the almond trees of Ali Bey, you continue towards Koshi. They were talking about the big hill on the left, the cave on this big hill. On the left was the big hill, on the right were vineyards. I don't know whether these vineyards still exist. I do not know whether what I have written will help but if I can help a little bit humanity, I will be very happy. I am always ready to help you, be sure that humanity is not dead. I hope that what I remember is right and the relatives of these two innocent humans will finally find some peace. The fire burns where it falls on… Those who have not burned cannot understand that pain…` My reader is talking about two young Greek Cypriots, kidnapped with their motorcycle, kept in Louroudjina for exchange of prisoners for six months but finally killed and `disappeared`. He is talking about the two young men – we have been looking for information about them for many years and some of my readers showed some possible burial sites, some of these were excavated with no results, some of these possible burial sites still pending since Louroudjina is a military zone and any excavation needs `permission` from the Turkish military authorities. These two, young, innocent persons had nothing to do with the conflict but were kidnapped since some Greek Cypriots had kidnapped some Turkish Cypriots… 1963-64 saw many such incidents – some of those kidnapped, could be saved, some not… The very sad story of these two young men is that after being kept in the village for six months, they were killed and no one knows where they were buried: Only rumours from different sources… From time to time, the brother of one of them calls me and asks me if there is any news and asks for help… I thank this reader and speak with some friends from Louroudjina and surrounding villages in order to find out where this hill might be and also inform the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee about the information given to me by my reader. We decide to go together to try to see where this hill and that cave might be. My readers warn me that the hill I am talking about is surrounded with mine fields and tell me to be careful… I find a Turkish Cypriot relative of a `missing person`, one of my readers, who has been helping me with my investigations in this area and he agrees to come with us in order to help us to see where we are and where the places my reader is mentioning are. He tells me that we should go from the southern part of our island, from the side of Dali, not from Louroudjina since from the northern part we would not be able to take any Greek Cypriot with us. So on Friday he picks me up from my house and we go to pick up Murat Soysal and Okan Oktay from the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee and go to meet Xenophon Kallis from the Committee in Dali. Together we go to see where the big hill is that my reader mentions. My reader, the relative of a `missing person` from the area tells us that the hill is `Kochino Kafkalla` and he directs us where to go… First we need to find the old dirt track, the road that was used between Louroudjina and Koshi. We find the road and we find where the almond trees of Ali Bey were. Just as my readers had told me, there are many mine fields here… We stop and my reader looks around and shows us where the caves are on the top of the hill, just as my reader had described. We get in the car and drive up to reach to a point from where we can walk to the cave… The view from the top is astonishing: Cyprus is so beautiful; we just haven't yet learnt how to appreciate this beauty… We find the cave and both Murat Soysal and Kallis go inside the cave. This cave must have been used by shepherds during bad weather in those times… The hill itself is barren, only a few `mosfilo` trees and agrelli, surrounding the trees… Were people buried in this cave and if so, who? Was it those two young `missing` men or some other people? We don't know so we all need to investigate more… This is the first time I am hearing of this cave so I need to find people who might know about this cave… And also to see whether there are other caves on this hill, how they were used, why they were used, who used them… My reader tells me that after the 20th of August 1974 when war was over, probably aroung September or October, there had been a problem with water in the area and the Turkish Cypriot mukhtar of Louroudjina and the Greek Cypriot mukhtar of Athienou met, while repairs were going on. They looked at the vast land and said, `We should share this land, that is becoming a Green Line, a `no man's land`.` So they sat down and decided that the electricity posts would be the `dividing line` of the buffer zone. From the electricity posts, one side would be used by Turkish Cypriots and the other side would be used by Greek Cypriots. They would go to the United Nations Peace Keeping Force and tell them what they did and the UN would say, `So long as you agree amongst yourselves, we have no problem in you, using the Buffer Zone and planting there…` So my reader tells me that perhaps it's the only place in Cyprus where the Buffer Zone is used by Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots to plant wheat and barley and harvest it. `Of course` he says, `the Buffer Zone is still under UN control…` `What about Pyla?` I ask him. He says, `No, Pyla is different because there are the British bases there…` My reader does not believe that there are only two `missing` Greek Cypriots from this area, from Louroudjina. `There should be more – they had arrested someone with a white car – Anglia – I don't believe he was set free… They had arrested four Greek Cypriots and they were not on the list for `exchange` and they had been kept separately from the others… So there should be around seven `missing` from Louroudjina` he explains to me… Soon two UN officers come to see us. One of them tells us that the Turkish Cypriot military saw us through their binoculars and immediately called the UN commander saying `There are five civilians on the hill` and they came to check. Murat Soysal explains to them that he is an official of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee and that we are investigating information about a possible burial site. The UN officer says that this is the Buffer Zone, we ask him if there are any signs showing that we are in the Buffer Zone and he says, `No, we don't have any signs showing that` and starts explaining to us from which point to which point is the buffer zone… Why aren't there any signs showing the Buffer Zone? Perhaps the two sides need a `Grey Zone` and that's why there are no signs… In a polite, interrogating manner, they want to know if we took photos of the Greek Cypriot, Turkish Cypriot or the UN military positions in the area. Murat Soysal tells them `No, our mission is to investigate information about possible burial sites, not taking photos of military positions…` While leaving we see a Turkish Cypriot on a motorbike – he explains to my reader that he has come to collect agrelli! The UN solider asks us to leave – we have found the cave anyway so we leave… We will need more investigation about this possible burial site, about this cave and our search for the remains of the two young `missing` Greek Cypriots, as well as others `missing` from this area will continue… 26.1.2013 Photo: Xenophon Kallis and Murat Soysal, officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee, investigating the area on `Kochino Kafkalla`... (*) Article published in POLITIS newspaper on the 24th of February 2013 |
No comments:
Post a Comment