Memories from Kaymakli… Sevgul Uludag Tel: 00 357 99 966518 00 90 542 853 8436 Dervish Erel was a carpenter… He was from Ortakeuy, his wife Bahire from Istinco-Paphos… Around 1955-56 he had bought land in Kaymakli and built a house and they had moved there from inside the walled city… This had been a mixed area, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots living together and the Erel family had Greek Cypriot neighbours, both good and bad as it happens in all the communities of the earth. Dervish Erel had five kids so he had bought land and built five houses, one house for each kid… He was a hardworking man and since the big house they were living in was built with cement, when the inter-communal fighting began on the 21st of December 1963, around 40 Turkish Cypriots would come to take shelter in this house… Most of the Turkish Cypriots from other areas of Kaymakli (Omorphita) had left for Hamit Mandrez but the Turkish Cypriots from this area could not leave – not that they did not try… They tried to leave twice with cars but the Greek Cypriot police would intervene and stop them and told them to go back home, they could not leave… This was happening around the area where there is a bus terminal now in Kaymakli. So they had to go back and continued to stay in the house of Dervish Erel. There were women with small babies who needed milk but there was no milk, no food whatsoever… Bahire, the wife of Dervish Erel would make pittas from flour since they could not find bread. The good Greek Cypriot neighbours of the Erel family would try to help, bringing to them eggs, bread and other stuff to eat while the bad neighbours would be shooting at the kids playing in the street as Ali, one of the sons, remembers… One day Sampson himself together with 20-30 of his men with machine guns would come and surround the house, they would take all males above 14-15 years old away… Ali was in a neighbour's house but he watched the whole scene with horror and fear – Ali was barely an 11 year old kid and he saw how the men of Sampson rounded up around 15 males including Dervish, the father of Ali and put them in cars and took them away… Ali would find out later what had happened from his father. Sampson and his men would take this group inside Omorphita to a spot and line them up against a wall… They would give a cigarette each – the last cigarette to smoke before they were executed or at least that had been the impression they wanted to create. But the Turkish Cypriot group had been `lucky` since just at that moment two British women officers were passing by and saw the scene and started a big argument with the Sampson group about the Turkish Cypriot prisoners. Perhaps the group was `saved` because of this coincidence of the British passing through there – the group would be taken to the Regis Ice Cream Factory and they would be beaten severely… Later on, a Greek Cypriot police sergeant would accompany the group back to the house of Dervish Erel, telling them that `They cannot leave, they should stay where they are…` Perhaps because of the British women officers' worries, a British soldier would be sent to sit in front of the house in a jeep 24 hours a day and sort of `guard` them… Dervish Erel would send a message to the then leader of the Turkish Cypriot community, Dr. Fazil Kuchuk to inform him how they have become a hostage but Dr. Kuchuk would send news back that they cannot do anything for them. But the bigger family of Dervish Erel would continue to try to find a way to get them out of there – but until the 10th of January 1964, they would remain in the house, the 40 Turkish Cypriots who could not leave Kaymakli. Ali remembers that around the 10th of January 1964, there came a truck to take them away… The truck was accompanied by a British jeep and they were told, `We will take you to inside Nicosia…` A British officer would accompany them, probably Major Macey who had been the liaison officer of the British for Dr. Kuchuk – Macey would become `missing` later on together with his driver, while investigating the cases of some `missing` Turkish Cypriots… Dervish Erel's relatives had found the truck to take them away… Ali would wear his football shoes and take his football while his little sister Hale would ask for her teddy bear – her mother would come down from the truck and unlock the door and find her teddy bear and give it to her, again locking her door, never believing that this would be the last time she would lock her door… They would go inside the walled city but while going there again there would be arguments with the Greek Cypriots at the makeshift checkpoints they had created but the British officer would tell them not to stop, simply drive through… Now that Dervish Erel had lost all the five houses he had built in Kaymakli, he would become a refugee with his wife and five kids, living in his shop inside the walled city… He would continue to work hard to survive… In 1968 as things eased among the two communities, they would drive to Kaymakli to look at their houses – they had no access to the houses there from 1963 until 1968 – but the house of Dervish Erel had been ransacked, all doors, all windows, even the tiles on the floor and the tiles on the roof had been stolen, even the electricity mechanism of the whole house was gone, as well as all the furniture – nothing remained but a carcass from the house he had built… He would take permission from Denktash to rebuild his house and go back there to live since some Turkish Cypriots had started doing the same… He would take his two sons, Ali and Hasip who had practically grown up in his carpenter shop and they would start rebuilding the house in Kaymakli, with some money he had saved during those years. They would rebuild the house, they would make furniture and buy refrigerator and cooker and get everything ready, even the carpet and the next day they would move there… In 1969, just one night before they would move to the refurbished house they had rebuilt with their own hands in Kaymakli, they would receive news that it was set on fire! They would run in early morning hours to see the burnt house in early February 1969 – all their efforts burnt in one night and again they would still remain refugees… It wasn't clear who had burnt the house; there were rumours that some Turkish Cypriots had burnt it to prevent Turkish Cypriots from returning to Kaymakli, there were similar rumours claiming that some Greek Cypriots had burnt it to prevent Turkish Cypriots from returning there… Whoever had burnt it, the fire brigade did not go there to stop the flames, neither the Greek Cypriot nor the Turkish Cypriot fire brigade… Everything had been burnt down to ashes… Dervish Erel would have to restart again from scratch, having lost everything… He would buy a house from an Armenian Cypriot in 1970 and would move there… `It is a miracle that my father lived up to 60 years old – we lost him when he was 60. He had been born in 1927 – imagine this he had been around 37-38 years old in 1963 and had lost five houses and had become a refugee with five kids… He could only survive until he was 60 years old` says Ali, his son… I am sure that there are hundreds of examples like Dervish Erel amongst both the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots – we all lost starting from the 1950s, continuing to lose in 1963-64 and finally in 1974… Ali could only save his football and his sister Hale only her teddy bear from her house… My husband who is also from Kaymakli had locked his new bicycle and could only save the key to his bicycle that he still keeps today… But the bitter memories of fear, of losing, of having to struggle for survival without food, without a house, without furniture, without the basics for life will always remain with them – perhaps that's why people like Ali will always struggle for a better island, for peace, for the reconciling of the two main communities, for being sincere about what happened in Cyprus and how we ended up with this partition… And unless we are sincere about the past, we will always lose a chance of building a better future… 7.5.2013 Photo: Dervish Erel with his wife and five children… (*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 9th of June 2013, Sunday. |
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