In search of `missing` in Agia Marina… Sevgul Uludag Tel: 00 357 99 966518 00 90 542 853 8436 We go back to Agia Marina, this time, with a Turkish Cypriot reader of mine – he too is from Agia Marina which called Gurpinar now and the village is a military zone that no one can enter. My reader who has helped me a lot during my investigations about `missing persons` as well as the `untold stories` from this region, knows the area very well. Back in 1974, his uncle had seen the bodies of `four` missing persons in a `havuzi` (natural pond) between the two monasteries, the new and the old Profiti Ilias of Agia Marina… We go together with the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee, Murat Soysal and Xenophon Kallis, as well as Turgut Vehbi, who is not only the photographer in the Committee but also like a `joker` in a pack of cards for the excavation teams – he runs wherever there is a need and I have known him since he was a toddler, a chubby baby with red cheeks, blond hair and blue eyes! Children grow up to become young man or young woman – the only thing that did not change with Turgut is his smile – as a baby in a push cart, he was smiling with his whole face and this smile is with him all the time… He grew up with a passion for anything with wheels and ended up riding motorcycles, joining motorcycle clubs, touring the island and taking beautiful photographs… The only thing that did not change since he's a baby is his appetite and love for food: He loves eating and when we start talking about food, he always smiles… Today he is on the driver's seat and my reader sits next to him to direct him from where to go… This time we go from a different route than last time – instead of taking the dirt track from Morphou-Nicosia road, we go from Kirni… There is a reason why we take a quick stop at Kirni: There, we go to meet another reader of mine who had told me about a possible burial site. Back in 1974, a truck had come to unload some dead bodies in a spot by a hillside and later on a bulldozer had come to cover them with soil. We go and find him there, together with the archaeologists explaining where the possible burial site might be. Kirni, on the Pentataktilos (Beshparmak) mountains, close to Boghaz and Aghirdagh is a very pretty village and at this time of the year, it's all green and the almond trees are in full blossom. After we are done in Kirni, we say goodbye to the excavation team and my reader who came to show the possible burial site there and we leave for Agia Marina. With the directions of my Turkish Cypriot reader from Agia Marina we drive there and find ourselves in the area where we had got stuck in mud last time we were here. But my reader knows from where to pass and where not to pass: `I only came here 15 days ago` he says, `it must have rained and all of this water is coming from the hills…` Everywhere is muddy and in various spots the dirt track has turned into a swamp but he gets down from the car, checks and then directs us in a way that we don't get stuck… On our way to the new monastery at Agia Marina, we only see a shepherd with sheep close to the mandra, not far from the old monastery. His two dogs run to bark at us while Turgut drives very carefully and manages to pass the car through this isolated, lonely and beautiful land without getting us stuck in the mud. We drive through donums of land with `gafgarit`, wild artichokes that no one had collected – they grew and now they have dried up but new ones are blossoming – the whole area, once the `chiftlik` of Bayram Pasha, an Ottoman Pasha, is full of `gafgarit`, `agrelli`, `hostez` and wild mushrooms growing under the `gavcar`… Apparently no one comes here or only a few since nothing is touched and nature is happy as it is… My reader tells me that once upon a time, Bayram Pasha had the `chiftliks` from Denia all the way to Agia Irini so that's why there are no settlements in these lands stretching for miles and miles… He mentions a family with the surname `Ikidereli` whom I know, `They have 8 thousand donums of land here` he says! `Ikidere` means `Two streams` and there used to be a village here in old times which no longer exists… There used to be other small villages which were destroyed by the plague – some Maronite villages were wiped out during times of plague in Cyprus… Finally we stop at the new monastery of Maronites of Agia Marina, bombed and burned in 1974 – the beautiful building made of stone, without a roof, without doors or windows has a beautiful staircase, a beautiful pond in the inner courtyard – my reader remembers visiting the Abbot Andriko… `He was my friend and my villager` he says. Maronites used to call him `Igumenos Andreas`, his name was Andreas Frangou. Abbot Andreas Frangou stopped the team coming from Kokkinotrimitia village from killing the Turkish Cypriots of Agia Marina back in 1963. This team had killed some Turkish Cypriots in Agios Vasilios, a village close by and had come to collect the Turkish Cypriots of Agia Marina and kill them. But Abbot Andreas would call the team from Kokkinotrimitia to this monastery where we stand now: `You will not touch the Turkish Cypriots of our village!` he would tell them. Since they would not be able to kill the Turkish Cypriots of the village, they would harass them going around their houses at night and asking where their son or daughter was, in order to frighten them and chase them away from this mixed village where Maronites and Turkish Cypriots lived together peacefully. Maronites of the village would try to protect the Turkish Cypriots, having them sleep at night in their houses with their children but still, the harassment of this team would continue. They would also have a `representative` or two in the village at that time, taking them along this path of evil… The Greek Cypriot team from Kokkinotrimitia would kill the teacher of the village, a young man from Geunyeli and gradually during January 1964, the Turkish Cypriots of Agia Marina would start leaving in groups… My reader tells me that Abbot Andriko had a letter of thanks from Dr. Kuchuk, the leader of the Turkish Cypriot community back in 1963. `He had shown me the letter – probably that letter too, burned down in 1974 when the monastery was bombed` he says. Dr. Kuchuk thanked the Abbot Andreas from the Profiti Ilias Monastery for what he had done to save the Turkish Cypriots of Agia Marina and for preventing a massacre there. That's why, even when the checkpoints were sealed until 2003, Abbot Andreas could pass, anytime he wanted and could go back and forth between the two sides – Turkish Cypriot checkpoints had instructions to allow him to pass… Unfortunately he is not alive now but perhaps the reason why I keep on coming to Agia Marina is this: To learn also of the story of Abbot Andreas and to remember him, to write about him, to see that there were not only atrocities on this land but also humanitarian acts of bravery, saving lives of others like Abbot Andreas Frangou. `Laledes` (tulips) in bright pink, soft violet and creamy white greet us – from where we stand, next to the new monastery, we can see as far as the Morphou Bay! My reader points out Kambilli and other villages and the beauty of the whole area looks like a postcard: The beauty is timeless… Finally he shows us where his uncle had seen the three bodies in the natural pond (`havuzi`) that collected water coming down from the hill and further down, another body… Now this natural pond is covered with stones – he goes down together with Kallis and Murat Soysal to show the exact areas… This natural pond, under the new monastery and above the old monastery had a huge carob tree, he tells me. `You should have seen the days of feasting under that carob tree!` he says. `So where is it? Did someone cut it?` `No! The carob tree was also bombed and burned down…` he says… They climb up and my reader shows us the two wells in front of the new monastery… They had been 30 feet deep but one of them is filled up and is only a meter deep now – there are animal bones in it… We find a way to climb up and see the water deposit tank of the new monastery – it is of cement and is open, nothing inside. According to one of my Maronite friends, a Maronite from Agia Marina, before he left the village in 1974, had sneaked out of the village and had come up here. In the water deposit tank, he had seen the bodies of three or four persons… But the water tank is empty now… We leave the area going back through the mountain road leading to the Morphou-Nicosia main road. As we go down on this dirt track, my reader points out the caves in the Kokkino Kremmos Hill – he tells us of an underground church in this hill, very ancient, dating from times when Christianity was banned… `I heard that it collapsed` he says… I thank him for taking us here and showing us the possible burial site of four `missing` persons… I also thank the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee for coming with us in order to show them this possible burial site… 24.2.2013 Photo: View from Agia Marina (*) Article published in POLITIS newspaper on the 10th of March, 2013. |
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