The two `missing` brothers from Tochni… Sevgul Uludag Tel: 00 357 99 966518 00 90 542 853 8436 Ramadan Aydin Ahmet was barely two months old and his brother Ahmet two years old when their father was taken away from their house in Tochni in August 1974. Some Greek Cypriots of the village had come and collected all Turkish Cypriot youngsters and men, whoever they could lay hands on… To these were added some Turkish Cypriots they took from their homes in Zyggi and Mari… The total number became 84. On the 15th of August 1974, they would put these 84 Turkish Cypriots on two buses to take to Limassol but the buses would never reach Limassol. They would be taken to the Palodia military camp and would become `missing` since then. One of those in the first bus, Suat Kafadar, would be wounded but would remain alive and manage to escape to Muttayiaga to tell the story of the mass execution at the Palodia military camp. After this testimony, UN and British soldiers would visit the camp but the Paloldia military authorities of the camp would not allow them to do a search, instead they would tell them that `They were busy now with military exercises, to go now and come back the following morning…` That evening they would open the mass grave in Palodia military camp and take out the bodies of those they had executed there in cold blood. They would take them to Gerasa, to a quarry and bury them there. This was the group on the first bus. Those on the second bus would be buried at a quarry in Pareklisia… Actually in Gerasa the `missing` Turkish Cypriots' place of burial would change again during the years… When some expansion of the quarry would be underway, they would be taken out of where they had been buried and thrown down the hill, a bulldozer passing over them and covering the remains… Years later, after the investigations of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee, excavations would begin in Gerasa… There would be exhumations between 29th of May 2007 until 10th of October 2008 at a depth of 30 meters and these difficult exhumations would be done manually in seven different areas over a period of one and a half years… The remains of 45 `missing` from the first bus would be found, some scattered, some very much damaged… Meanwhile when exhumations began in a quarry in Pareklisia, after digging for 14 meters, at the bottom of the pit some scattered remains would be found – apparently this mass grave had been emptied at an unknown time and the bones have been taken elsewhere, somewhere no one knows… The very few remains would be analysed and it would be confirmed that they are in fact human remains, the remains of those on the second bus from Tochni… But where the actual remains of a busload of Turkish Cypriot `missing` have been taken to, still remains a `mystery` until now… The first remains from the first bus from Tochni have been identified through DNA analysis by the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee and on the 22nd of June, 2013 Saturday, they were returned to their relatives for burial. Aydin Ahmet and Bekir Ahmet were brothers, both from Tochni. Aydin Ahmet was only 25 years old, married to Aliye from Dromolaxia village and settled in Tochni. They had two sons: Ahmet and Ramadan. Ramadan had only been two months old and Ahmet only two years old when their father was forcefully `disappeared`… Bekir Ahmet was only 23 years old, had only got married on the 14th of July 1974 and had barely been married for one month with Hayriye from Finike village – they too had settled in Tochni. Hayriye's sister Seval would come to the wedding on the 14th of July together with her husband Niyazi Musa but would never be able to leave Tochni since first the coup and then the war would begin. Her husband Niyazi too would be taken and put on a bus and still `missing` from that time… For the two `missing` brothers from Tochni, a burial ceremony would take part in Limnya (Mormenekshe as it is called now) on the 22nd of June 2013 and the son of Aydin Ahmet, Ramadan Kayiplar, who had been only two months old when his father went `missing` would speak… He would wish for peace in Cyprus and peace in the world and would say `No child should ever remain without a father…` and the grandson of Aydin Ahmet, Hasan Kayiplar would say `Today I am here to send my grandfather and my great uncle whom I never saw to heaven…` The family had taken the surname `Kayiplar` meaning `Missing Persons` as their surname… Aliye, the wife of Aydin would be devastated during the ceremony… I cannot imagine how hard it might have been for the two sons of Aydin Ahmet, Ramadan and Ahmet Kayiplar, to go to the viewing of their father's and uncle's remains… They had been such small babies, two months old and two years old to be able to remember anything… Their sorrow, the harsh life they would have to go through without a father and having become refugees must have hurt them a lot and meeting your father in the form of simply just remains must have been another trauma to encounter... Still during the ceremony, giving the message of `peace` and wishing that no children should remain without a father is a clear message to all of Cyprus. It can be the story of Ramadan or Petros, the child can be a Turkish Cypriot or a Greek Cypriot whose father was forcefully taken away and made to `disappear`, executed and buried in a mass grave – what Ramadan is saying is that no child should endure such pain and suffering anymore in Cyprus and he is asking for peace on this island so no such terrible things ever happen again… This shows the amount of suffering he has gone through: Since he has suffered so much, he does not want anyone else's children to go through the same turmoil… This shows the purity of his heart: During the funeral he could have said many other things to pump hatred and feelings of vengeance on this soil. He chose not to do but speak of peace… These are the people we should listen to and learn: Those who suffered most are the ones who want peace on this island most… They have suffered quietly on their own, living through their own hell… The voices of those who have suffered most should be heard the loudest on this land – perhaps only then we can have an understanding of staying clearly out of trouble, doing things that would bring the people together rather than trying to keep apart the two main communities of this island. 23/6/2013 Photo: One of the two `missing` brothers, Aydin Ahmet on his wedding day with Aliye Hanim... (*) Article published in POLITIS newspaper on the 7th of July 2013 Sunday. |
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