Remains of six `missing persons` from Lyssi on their return… Sevgul Uludag Tel: 00 357 99 966518 00 90 542 853 8436 One by one, your remains are coming back in small coffins to your relatives, to the ones who have been waiting for you. We could never say `Yiassou! Hello!` to each other, we never met. We never had a sketto coffee with you. We never shared a conversation during dinner. When you went `missing`, I was only a 15 year old young girl – some of you had been married with children, some single… I look at your photographs: How young you were, how bright, who knows what sort of big hopes you had about life… I ask my dear friend Kyriacos Andreou from Lyssi to find your photos – he finds your photos and sends them to me… Now I know you from your photos and what I have been told by your relatives. Your photographs are your profiles in black and white, you will never be able to brush your hair again, never take such photographs. These photos are like footnotes to history – you will never grow old, your hair won't turn to gray, your skin will not wrinkle – you won't have rheumatic pains on your knees or your back. Your right to age peacefully has been torn away from you – you had been arrested by some Turkish Cypriots from Sinda in the mandra of Attas – you were civilians, you were not soldiers, you did not carry guns. The only reason you were there was that Costas Attas had gone back a day ago to his farm in Lyssi from Xylotimbou where all the Lyssi people were staying as refugees – Costas Attas had gone back to feed and water his animals but did not come back. His brother Chambis had become worried and had gone to his friend Giangos Geropapas also from Lyssi and had said, `My brother did not return, let's go and take him back…` It was the 18th of August 1974 – for a few days now, people from Lyssi were going back and forth between Xylotimbou and Lyssi, trying to feed and water their animals left behind, perhaps take a few things from their homes, a few blankets, a quilt or a pair of shoes and some food… The refugees not only from Lyssi but from other villages as well were out in the open under the trees in Xylotimbou… So you had set out to go to Lyssi, Giangos had his smaller brother Antonis, there was Chambis Attas, Xenis Rousos and Panayis Spirou in the car – you were five persons. As you came close to the mandra in Lyssi, you saw a Greek Cypriot hiding behind a big rock. `Yes I saw Costas feeding his cows` he had told you, `but I also saw some soldiers. So I hid here… I wait for darkness to fall so I can leave… You, don't go to the mandra!` He had warned you… But how can someone leave behind his brother? Chambis could not do that so he said, `You stay here, I'll go and check to find Costas…` You had stayed all together about 400 meters from the farm while Chambis went to find Costas. When he went there, he had called you to come… But a group of Turkish Cypriot soldiers from Sinda had set up an ambush for you so you were all caught as you reached the mandra. You were arrested. You were civilians, without uniform, without guns. They had taken you to Sinda and later on executed you and had buried you at an unknown mass grave. They had not buried you properly though and one of you had your shoe sticking out of the earth – later on an old Turkish Cypriot would see this and his heart would not permit that you were buried in such a haphazard way – he would go and find a bulldozer and bury you properly. Years later as we were searching for you and other `missing persons` from Lyssi, this old man would show this mass grave to one of my readers from the area. And this reader would show me this place as well as another place and I would show these burial sites to the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee – when exhumations took place, remains of six of you would be found, as well as another two `missing` persons buried a bit further up in a different place. But you were all there – Giangos and Antonis Geropapas, the two brothers had met death together. Costas and Chambis Attas, again brothers had gone to death together. And Panayis and Xenis who were also close relatives (Panayis was the brother of the wife of Xenis) had gone to death together… The brother of Giangos and Antonis, George Geropapas had made a lot of efforts together with our friend Kyriacos Andreou from Lyssi in order to find any information about what had happened to you. I had met George Geropapas in Larnaka, in the office of Kyriacos Andreou and had interviewed him – as I would show to the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee various possible burial sites pointed out to me by my readers in the area of Sinda, Lyssi and Kondea sometimes we would meet with Kyriacos and George Geropapas and they too would show us possible burial sites that they knew of. While excavations were taking place, we would meet with Kyriacos and George and visit these sites – we would also show the possible burial site of Dimitris Strouthos, another `missing person` from Lyssi to the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee, together. So both the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee as well as the archaeologists would get familiar with both Kyriacos and George Geropapas, as well as my dear readers showing us the possible burial sites in this whole area. Finally in the two places we showed to the Committee, the remains of all six of you, as well as another two `missing persons` were found and exhumed. After the DNA tests now your return process to your relatives are beginning. Already some funerals for some of you have taken place and these will continue throughout these summer months. You will no longer be in an unmarked mass grave but in proper graves with your names and photos on them and we will lay flowers on your graves as you are buried. There are also stories about what happened to the ones who had killed you: Whoever had pulled the trigger had strange things happening to them and to their families – somehow the earth has punished them in various ways. Of course this does not bring any `comfort` because the whole idea is not `revenge` - the whole idea is to make sure that such horrible murders will no longer be committed on this island, that no one will be executed in such a haphazard and cold blooded manner… Your blood was spilled on the soil of Sinda – Cyprus is such a beautiful island and yet it is full of blood stains… Same thing happened to women and children in Maratha-Sandallaris-Aloa who were unarmed civilians with no guns – they were executed by a group of EOKA-B and their blood spilled on the soil of Maratha-Aloa-Sandallaris… Same thing happened to two busloads of Turkish Cypriots from Tochni, Zyggi and Mari and their blood was spilled on the soil of Palodia, Gerasa and Pareklisia… The unarmed, civilian Greek Cypriots of Karpasia with no guns were also killed in Galatia and their blood was spilled in the lake of Galatia and they were called `missing`. Wherever we go in this country, whether from 1963 or 1974, whether they are Turkish Cypriots or Greek Cypriots, we will find that the blood of the `missing persons` was spilled in every corner of this island, in fields, in wells, in mass graves in quarries and lakes… Shall we be able to draw any lessons from all of this? How many years have to pass until we realize that we don't need anybody else but each other and instead of seeing each other as `enemies`, unless we think together, move together and care for each other, only then `peace` will come to this island… How many generations of Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots will grow with suspicions? How many more generations will be raised with half-truths and lies and how much longer the `fears` will be fed? We don't want to take back any Cypriot – whether Turkish Cypriot or Greek Cypriot – in small coffins… We don't want to meet death by receiving remains in these small coffins – we want to embrace life… Our beautiful country has seen more than enough death and bloodshed and per capita pain is so high as one poet friend had pointed out… Our children should never meet such pain, no one should be executed, no one buried in a mass grave – our children should never see such days… The six sons of Lyssi, you are now beginning to go back to your families in small coffins – to your relatives who went through this horrible tragedy and who waited for your return for so many years... Perhaps the only hope out of this tragedy is for your death to be a lesson to future generations: Perhaps the only thing that your small coffins are telling us is this – that we should allow no one to turn this island to bloodshed again… There are no winners in any war – the losers have always been the people of this country – the children left as orphans, women left as widows, youngsters whose lives and happiness stolen from them… The only hope we can amass from your tragic return is this: We should NEVER allow this to happen again… 2.6.2013 Photo: The six sons of Lyssi whose remains are being returned to their relatives... (*) Article published in POLITIS newspaper on the 16th of June 2013 Sunday. |
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