The bicommunal oral history of Cypriots…

The bicommunal oral history of Cypriots…

 

Sevgul Uludag

 

Caramel_cy@yahoo.com

 

00 357 99 966518

00 90 542 853 8436

 

More than ten years ago, before the checkpoints would open up between the two `sides` of Cyprus, we were meeting in Pyla and discussing about the bi-communal oral history of our island. Research institutes from the two `sides` of our island, IKME and BILBAN were cooperating despite the partition line, to try to collect stories particularly from mixed villages where Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots lived together. What were their memories of a mixed life, that no longer existed? What did they remember, good and bad? Were there mixed marriages in those times? What did people remember from each other's traditions and customs? How did they celebrate their weddings? What about the working life? Those who worked together, what did they remember? What was social life among Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots like? Did they mix? Did they help each other?

With Alecos Tringides as the director of IKME and Rasih Keskiner as the director of BILBAN, the two research institutes, one from each community, we set up on a path to collect memories from very diverse backgrounds… I would be interviewing some Turkish Cypriots since at that time, `crossing` was extremely difficult, even for a journalist – the checkpoints did not open up yet to allow free passage… Some Greek Cypriots would be interviewing some Greek Cypriots… And in the end, we would get all the interviews together, 174 of them, on a database with English summaries on a website and the actual video interviews would be available with subtitles to the researchers from the island and abroad…

It was a pioneering and first of its kind adventure – the amount of information collected was so valuable, it is still valid today, telling us of another kind of life, a life that was mixed, a life without trouble until mid-50s…

I would go to villages to find people to speak to, who had lived in mixed villages. My son, barely 13-14 years old at that time would be helping me with the camera. We would go to Gypsou to find an old lady originally from Kalo Horio (Vuda) who would tell us stories from her village… She would cut a chicken from her garden, clean it and cook it before we would go to visit her, just like in the old times… We would sit in her beautiful garden, full of flowers, enjoying the dolmades she had done for us, listening to her, Aysel Erchakica, chatting about her grandchildren… One of her grandchildren had a lamb as a pet and the lamb would follow the angoni everywhere – he would call the lamb `Chattirez` and we would watch the lamb clattering away in the kitchen, crossing the living room and coming to sit with us during lunch! It was a `Kinali Kuzu` as we would call in Turkish, `kina` meaning `henna` because it had color of henna on its ears and on parts of its body… Aysel Hanim was a real organizer – throughout her life she had struggled for peace, equality, democracy – she would write letters to our newspaper Yeniduzen, talking about the problems of farmers… She was a real hard worker and had so much energy and always a smiling face… Her husband had been bedridden and she was taking care of him like a professional nurse, never complaining, always with a smile… She would lose him later on but she had a big family around her, at least keeping her busy in order not to fall to depression for becoming alone in the house. She would watch all tv programmes and had great ideas about how to fix things – if I had had power, I would send her to the parliament – she would be someone to speak the truth, nothing but the truth and also set out practical ways of sorting things out. She was a real Cypriot woman from grassroots…

I would visit an old man in the area of Kyrenia, living in a tiny room complete with his bed, his chest, his TV, his small refrigerator, a ventilator for the summer, a soba for the winter. He would tell me about how he had become displaced five times and he had had nine kids, he was always leaving something behind, something precious never to be able to retrieve it but memories would still be fresh in his mind and in his heart…

This unusual and touching story is about an old man, 85 years old, who has become a refugee five times during the Cyprus conflict. He talks of his exodus within his own country, how he tried to survive with 9 kids and his longing for peace in Cyprus.

Born in Prastio, Paphos he was 85 years old at the time of the interview. They had very good relations in his village. Only after the conflict began that the relations began to soar.

He first emigrated in 1958 and returned in 1960.

In 1958 he was 39 years old. He had some land and worked in agriculture. In 1958 during the conflict between the British and the Greek Cypriots, the villagers were afraid and the village emigrated to different towns and villages. They returned in 1960 to Prastyo – the Cyprus government built a new village in the same village there. In 1963 they emigrated again. In a close village, a Greek Cypriot was shot at and couple of hundred of soldiers surrounded their village in 1963 so they left the village to go to Malia. They stayed there for a month and when conflict began there, he went to Avdimou… He stayed there for 10 years. After 1974 he emigrated again, this time to the northern part of Cyprus.

He had 9 kids and 20 grandchildren…

Noone wanted to treat him badly because they all knew him – only couple of times Greek Cypriots would not allow them to go to Nicosia.

There was trade amongst Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. Greek Cypriot merchants also helped him at the time when they lived together.

He wanted peace now – there's a lot of discrimination in the north and he's not happy with the situation he had told me…

I knew his grandson Ahmet who was very active in the bi-communal movement of youth in those difficult years – he had raised beautiful children and beautiful angoni who were throughout the years contributing to the peace movement on the island. I would sit there mesmerized at what this old man was telling me, looking at the tiny room he was carrying out his life in and feeling so sad…

I would go to interview an old man from Kondomenos (Kordemen in Turkish) who would tell me of the first `provocation` set up by the British colonialists at the end of 1950s. He would tell me how a group of Greek Cypriots being arrested and taken to Nicosia and then being set free in Gonyeli, meanwhile someone `unknown` burning the fields and informing the Turkish Cypriots of Gonyeli that `Greek Cypriots had come to attack them, to burn their fields and to kill them…` Falling into this trap of provocation by the British, some Turkish Cypriots of Gonyeli would take their knives and batons and run to kill some innocent Greek Cypriots in those fields… Later on some other Greek Cypriots would `retaliate`, killing a very young teacher from Gonyeli, Huseyin Yalchin who had had his first teaching job at Ayia Marina village. Huseyin Yalchin is still `missing` today after so many years…

I would go to Kyrenia to interview a couple, a mixed marriage of a Turkish Cypriot and a Greek Cypriot. They had remained in Kyrenia and I would be amazed with them, not being aware at that time that there had been many mixed marriages until the 50s but because they would change name and religion, you would not be able to trace them easily… Much later, I would find advertisements and announcements in small print in the Turkish Cypriot newspapers of 1950s, declarations by the Mufti (the highest religious leader of those times) that Mrs. Eleni had changed from Orthodox religion to Islam and changed her name to Emine – many advertisements like that I would find… I would find out stories from Famagusta where there were mixed marriages and Famagusta would have a better culture of accomodating these couples, rather than attacking them like it would happen in Nicosia. Nicosia, Eleni would go `missing` and we are still looking for her burial site. She would get married with a Turkish Cypriot, the owner of the famous `Con Coffee` (`John Coffee`) and in 1963 one night after the `troubles` began, some Turkish Cypriot soldiers would come to their house, knock on the door, take her away and make her `missing`. Her husband would be heartbroken – he would search for months and in the end would leave for London and stay there many years, eventually coming back… Eleni had had a sister, Despinou, who had married a Turkish Cypriot in Famagusta, Kemal but nothing would happen to them since Famagusta, being a more accomodating town with a port, would only show respect to this marriage…

A wealth of stories, good and bad and I would travel around the northern part of the island, continuing the interviews. In a village around the Morphou area, I would interview an old man from Potamia who would tell me how he had been a witness to the killing of some priests but later on he would ask his son to call me to delete that part from the interview… Probably, this might have been the priests from the Kofinou area but at night as he would go to bed, he would think about it, feel uncomfortable and call his son in the morning to call me and not include that in the interview… Untold stories would surface, things perhaps we had heard of but never heard it from the mouth of an actual witness.

We have a group on Facebook called `The Cyprus Dream` created by Adonis Constantinides from Kyrenia and he would find a link to these interviews and share it – thanks to him, I would remember all this vast work we had done in those difficult times… I only knew the Turkish Cypriot interviews but never had had any chance to look closely at the Greek Cypriot interviews. I would read and share with my Turkish Cypriot readers the stories of the Greek Cypriots done for the bi-communal oral history project of IKME and BILBAN. I will also share with you some summaries of these interviews next week…

 

3.8.2013

 

Photo: Old Cyprus…

 

(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 25^th of August, 2013.

A story from Akanthou, Lefkonico, Dali...

A story from Akanthou, Lefkonico, Dali...

 

Sevgul Uludag

 

Caramel_cy@yahoo.com

 

00 357 99 966518

00 90 542 853 8436

 

There had been only 12 Turkish Cypriot families in Akanthou and one of those families was the family of Sami who had been a wealthy man, with a house with two khemeris (arches), with land, fields and animals. Sami had not gone to school since there had been no Turkish Cypriot school in Akanthou – when he grew up a little, his father Hassan would send him to a `galliga` in order to learn the skills of a blacksmith... When he had become a blacksmith himself, he would start going round the villages. The father of Dr. Kuchuk, Mehmet, would be his best friend and business partner. They would go together in the villages of Karpasia and Messaoria in order to buy and sell animals... They were `cambazis`...

One day, Sami would travel to Lapithos and as he was there, he would see a young girl on a horse, passing with her `seyis` (horse keeper). Sami would like this girl and would find out whose daughter she had been. This had been the daughter of `Kara Kadi`, the last Kadi (governor) of Kyrenia, Huseyin. Back in Akanthou, Sami would tell his father Hassan that he wanted to marry this girl and his father would get on his horse and travel to Lapithos in order to see Kara Kadi... Hassan would find him and tell him the reason why he was there. Kara Kadi would ask for a day to think about it...  Although he had sons, he had only one daughter and his wife having died, he would spoil his daughter...But next day, the Kara Kadi would give his consent to this marriage so Sami and the daughter of Kara Kadi, Faika would get married in a few months. Faika would come as a bride with all her dowry to Akanthou and would settle in the house with two khmeris (two arches). She would have a lot of women helping her in the house: Some milking the animals, some making halloumi, some cleaning and washing, some cooking, some working in the fields. Nine months later she would give birth to a baby girl and name her after her mother Emine who had died, the wife of Kara Kadi. Then would come Lutfiye, Hassan, Ayshe and Pembe. Faika would pray to have one more son in order to name him after her father, the Kara Kadi and finally Huseyin would be born.  She would have one more son, Saffet...

Born in 1914, Huseyin Niyazi would attend the Greek Cypriot primary school since there had been no Turkish Cypriot school in the village. He had been going every day to the school before the age of five, sitting and observing what the teacher was saying. So at the age of five, he would be reading and writing Greek, better than Greek Cypriot kids! At the primary school, he would be the first in his class and his teacher would tell the Greek Cypriot kids, `Shame on you! A Turkish Cypriot is at the top of your class! You should feel shame and study more!`

One day the leader of the Evkaf, Irfan Bey would visit Akanthou. All the Turkish Cypriot villagers would gather in the coffeeshop. The villagers would complain that there had been no mosque in their village so Irfan Bey would point out an empty plot in the centre of the village and say `You can build the mosque here` and then he would turn to Sami and say, `Why don't you build the cami? And afterwards whatever expenses you have had, come and find me, we will cover it as Evkaf...`

Sami would give some of his fields and borrow some money in order to build the mosque but this would not be enough. `Irfan Bey would pay it back anyway` he would say and borrow some more... When the cami would be finished, he would go to Nicosia to the Evkaf, in order to find Irfan Bey... They would tell him `But he died two weeks ago!` and so since there had been no written agreement, Sami would not be able to get back the money promised to him by the Evkaf. He would lose some of his land and finally would sell everything and go to Lefkonico to buy a house and live there...Their house would be next to the mammou's (midwife) house... The mammou Aredi had two daughters and no sons and she would really love Huseyin Niyazi, feeding him when he came from school or giving him some pocket money... She would pray to have a son like Huseyin and finally she would give birth to a son... Aredi would even prepare some dowry for Huseyin Niyazi and his daughters would play with Lutfiye, Ayshe and Pembe... Aredi would prepare tablecloths and curtains, as well as sheets and would give these to Huseyin Niyazi when he was going to get married...

Meanwhile Sami's son, Huseyin Niyazi would go to enrol in the Greek Cypriot gymnasium and again he would be very successful... Then he would continue to study at a Turkish Cypriot school in Knodhara and finish the three year school in two years! Then his parents would send him to become a worker in the roadworks. But his Greek Cypriot headmaster would not like that. `You are very bright... You must continue to study` he would say and on a Sunday, after church, at the kafenion, he would put his hat on the table and say `We have a very bright youngster in our village. He finished the school with honors. Now he is working as a worker. If we collect some money, we can send Huseyin Niyazi to the Agricultural School in Nicosia...` So all the Greek Cypriots of the village would donate to the `fund` that the headmaster had created and would gather 5 Pounds, big money in those times! The headmaster would also write a letter to the headmaster of the Agricultural School and send Huseyin Niyazi there. So off he would go to study in Nicosia and when he would graduate, they would send him to build a forest in Dali.

Huseyin Niyazi would build such a forest that people would be amazed because from whichever angle you would take, the trees would always be in a line... An inspector from London would come and visit the forest in Dali, together with the headmaster of the Agricultural School and he would say, `This boy is barely 18-19 and he has built such a forest! Why didn't you send him to continue his studies in London? He is very bright!`

During his stay in Dali, Huseyin Niyazi would fall ill with malaria... After some time, his sister Pembe would come to Dali to look after him but she too would fall ill with malaria... Their brother Hassan, a zaptiye (policeman) would come to Dali on his horse, finding them terribly sick...

`To hell with their forests and gardens! I almost lost you!  You have lost so much weight, you have become so thin! No way, you will not continue with this job` he would tell his brother Huseyin Niyazi. `I will make you a policeman!`

So he would take Huseyin Niyazi and their sister Pembe away from Dali...

After recovering from malaria, Huseyin Niyazi would become a policeman, just as his brother Hassan had promised... This must have been early or mid 1930s... Later on, he would stop from being a police and start working in the Nicosia Municipality... At the end of the 50s and beginning of the 1960s, Huseyin Niyazi would be persecuted by the Turkish Cypriot authorities for refusing to join the underground paramilitary organization TMT and for being good friends with Greek Cypriots. He would die of a heart attack in 1966, sick, penniless and heartbroken...

Huseyin Niyazi is my father and one day, I ask one of my friends from Dali to find out where this garden or forest might be in Dali that my father had created. After some time he tells me that there is only one forest in Dali and all the trees are eucalyptus trees there... When I tell him that my father and his sister both had become very sick with malaria, he says `This makes sense... Because in those times, the British were having eucalyptus trees planted next to the rivers in order to dry up marshlands and to prevent malaria...` He tells me that the only forest in Dali is close to his house...

`If this is the place that my father created` I tell him, `I would like to visit the mayor of Dali and ask to put on one of the trees a small plaque with the name of my father, saying he built this forest...`

`Or we can try to build a park there` he says...

When I tell my son that perhaps we might have discovered the forest that his grandfather Huseyin Niyazi has built, he feels very happy... My father died 46 years ago but perhaps what he has built in Dali has remained... I will go and visit this forest and I will also take my son there... He has never had a chance to see his grandfather but perhaps now, he can see something that his grandfather had created and feel happy with that...

 

7.1.2012

 

Photo: Huseyin Niyazi Uludag

 

(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper in January 2012.

 

Stories from Nissou and Kochatis…

Stories from Nissou and Kochatis…

 

Sevgul Uludag

 

caramel_cy@yahoo.com

 

Tel: 00 357 99 966518

00 90 542 853 8436

 

One of my Greek Cypriot readers calls and has things to say…

`I am from Nissou` he says… Nissou is the village close to Nicosia, known to Turkish Cypriots as `Dizdarkeuy`.

`I wanted to let you know that back in 1963, when two young boys from Kochatis were taken and killed, my villagers in Nissou did not approve of this and they felt very sad` he says.

He is talking about two young men, Cemal Mustafa and Huseyin Ibrahim who were from Kochatis (Kochat in Turkish) village. Cemal was engaged and getting ready to be married soon and Huseyin was single.

On the 25^th of December 1963, they had gone on their bicycles to Nissou to buy some cigarettes because they had run out of cigarettes due to the inter-communal troubles that began in Cyprus on the 21^st of December… Those were days of darkness and no one moved unless necessary… When they were in Nissou, they were caught and killed and went `missing` - until today they are still `missing` and no one knows where they have been buried. And those who know, they don't speak up and their families are suffering like all the other relatives of `missing persons`.

`There was a guy in the village with a tractor` my Greek Cypriot reader says, `They had come to him and asked him to take his tractor and go and bury the two young Turkish Cypriots. But he refused to go and told them what he thought of this criminal act… One of those who took these young men was not from our village, his name was S. and you know how he died last year? He fell off a roof and died… He was one of those who would later on get involved with EOKA-B, so you can imagine what sort of person he was… Another person, a policeman from the area was also involved…`

`I know this policeman` I tell him, `he was also involved in the killing of the young shepherd Fikret from Agios Sozomenos and Osman Balligari, an old man from Louroudjina who was going to Dali-Potamia with his bicycle to buy cigarettes… He too died I think some time ago…`

The Turkish Cypriots of Kochatis village has been displaced and settled in Dikomo…

Once I was in a coffee shop in Dikomo and we had a lively conversation about `missing persons` - there was one person who kept quiet but I could feel his tension… Later he would get up and leave without a word. After he left, they told me that he was the brother of Cemal, the `missing` young boy from Kochatis.

On another occasion I tried to speak to him but he said, `What is there to speak about?...` He had so much bitterness inside him, you could see it in his eyes… He looked like his brother from the photographs I saw of Cemal Mustafa.

Cemal was engaged to a girl from Agios Sozomenos (Arpalik as the Turkish Cypriots call it) and was staying some times in Agios Sozomenos and sometimes in Kochatis. He was building a house in Kochatis, getting ready to be married with Aysel and when he went `missing`, Aysel was two months pregnant…

Cemal was one of nine brothers and sisters – he was a farmer…

After a few days, a Greek Cypriot from Nissou would go to Kochatis and inform the Turkish Cypriots secretly by whom Cemal and Huseyin were kidnapped. He warned the Turkish Cypriots that this policeman together with his `team` planned to kidnap more Turkish Cypriot youngsters from the village so they should leave Kochatis.

But they remained where they were in Kochatis..

The other boy kidnapped by the Greek Cypriot policeman and his `team` at the entrance of Nissou was only 19 years old – Huseyin Ibrahim. He was a builder, single, not yet married. He was one of eight children in his family.

These were the two young Turkish Cypriots that my reader from Nissou was talking about…

`I will ask around the old people` he told me, `to see if anyone remembers anything and if I find out, I will call you…`

Some Turkish Cypriots would retaliate and kill an 80 year old Greek Cypriot from Mathiatis and shoot two Greek Cypriot brothers from Agia Varvara. Some Greek Cypriots would retaliate and would shoot an old Turkish Cypriot with his donkey, wounding him… Some three Turkish Cypriots would fall into an ambush and would almost get killed, luckily they would escape… One retaliation after another and yet all those killed or wounded or who went `missing` would be the poor, ordinary citizens, the innocent ones who had nothing to do with the conflict. Those who suffered from this conflict were the innocent ones…

It has been half a century since these two young men went `missing` and their relatives are still waiting for their remains to be found… Many in their families died and those who remain are suffering silently, waiting an endless wait like all relatives of `missing persons`.

What is important is that a police officer was involved; someone in charge in this area and no one ever questioned him or held him accountable for the alleged crimes. The Turkish Cypriot relatives of Cemal and Huseyin even gave the names of those involved in the kidnapping and killing of their relatives but nothing happened. Silence… Everything was swept under the carpet. The same thing happened with those involved in killing Greek Cypriots. Greek Cypriot relatives also submitted names of those responsible for their `missing` but nothing happened. Silence… Everything was swept under the carpet.

In such small villages like Nissou or in faraway Komi Kepir, everyone knew but everyone kept silent. Komi Kepir too has `missing persons` and there are names who collected them from their homes and they would go `missing`. No one would question them. Nothing. Silence…

The picture on both sides is the same: The authorities in both sides protected and rewarded those who were involved in such crimes. These are crimes against humanity because these people who were taken from the roads or from their homes were not in combat in a war – they were unarmed civilians and kidnapping and killing an unarmed civilian is a crime. There can be no pretext to this. We can't have double standards for `human rights`, say a different set of rights for Europe and for Cyprus or for Rwanda or for former Yugoslavia and Cyprus. What is the big deal with Cyprus that it should be able to sweep everything under the carpet and pretend that everything is okay? What about the relatives who have a right to know and who have a right to get back the remains? Some might argue that going after them is a bit risky since it might stop the process for the search of the `missing`. Perhaps they are right. But we must know that in future, we need to face our own recent history and without doing that, we will never be able to achieve any sort of solution or understanding or peace on this land. There are many ways to do that and one of the most reasonable would be like a process they had in South Africa, a `Truth and Reconciliation Commission`. There, they called on those involved and said `Come and admit… If you admit, in front of the public what you did, you will be pardoned. You will not go to jail. But if you don't admit and there are witnesses about what you did, you will go to jail…`

The two main communities of this island, that is the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot communities would have to decide TOGETHER, not separately how they want to handle the crimes of the recent past. Will they pardon the perpetrators? Will they ask them to come out and admit publicly? Will they send them to prison? What sort of mechanism can they create to handle the crimes of the recent past? Whatever our two communities decide, there should be a platform where these crimes of the past can be handled together. Going to the European Human Rights Court separately as Turkish Cypriots against Greek Cypriots or Greek Cypriots against Turkish Cypriots or Turkey for me does not bring any reconciliation to our communities. Unless we do this together, it will not bring peace of mind and peace of heart and peace of spirit to the island…

 

28.7.2013

 

Photo: Cemal Mustafa and Huseyin Ibrahim, `missing` since 1963 from Nissou...

 

(*) Article published in POLITIS newspaper on the 18^th of August, 2013 Sunday.

Somewhere between Agia and Melousha…

Somewhere between Agia and Melousha…

 

Sevgul Uludag

 

caramel_cy@yahoo.com

 

Tel: 00 357 99 966518

00 90 542 853 8436

 

Readers call, readers write, readers show… Readers illuminate our path towards healing the wounds of our island… Readers both Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot speak up to tell us things we don't know…

One of them from the area of Agia Kepir-Melousha-Tremetousia tells me the story of two possible mass graves from 1974. He was not a primary witness but this is so important since all information coming from my readers we can investigate, these are very valuable clues of what happened in the areas they were talking about… He heard of these from his villagers and from his close relatives…

`It was between the 20^th of July 1974 and 14^th of August 1974 – in this time period, some Greek Cypriot soldiers from Athienou had been digging ditches and came all the way to the area between Agia Kepir and Melousha. Agia Kepir and Melousha were purely Turkish Cypriot villages, they were not mixed. In the night time, the villagers would hear the sound of a tractor or a digger and they wondered what was going on…

Next day they sent two Turkish Cypriots from Agia Kepir (now called Dilekkaya) to check. They went with a car to check and they saw that the Greek Cypriots coming from Athienou had built a military post – when Greek Cypriot soldiers opened fire on them they would shoot back and then fearing for their lives they drove the car inside the fields, leaving the car and running to Agia…

Nothing happened and then after the 14^th of August 1974 when the Turkish army advanced and got the area under control, some Turkish Cypriots were ordered to collect the dead bodies from around this area and they buried them in the military post that the Greek Cypriots had built between Melousha and Agia…

Later on, those villagers from Melousha who knew about this burial site would go there to search for golden rings or watches because they had not buried them properly and some hands and arms were sticking out…

I don't know exactly where this military post was – I showed the area to some archaeologists and investigators. If you want we can go there sometime next week before the Bayram and I can show you the area… And then you can investigate and try to find out exactly where this military post had been…`

`Why do I know the name Melousha so well from my childhood?` I ask him. `I have never been there yet it is well known… What was it famous for?`

`Well,` he says, `it was a village very famous for its grapes and figs… In the old days, people from Melousha would stack their donkey carts with grapes and figs and go all the way even to Kioneli (Gonyeli in Turkish) to sell their produce… They also used to make vinegar and Melousha was very famous for its vinegar… There are some very prominent businessmen who came out of Melousha… Melousha was also `famous` for its hit team at the end of 1950s. Together with a leader from Tremetousia, they used to be active in the area between 1958 until 1964. One of them was involved in the attack on the small church in Avdellero, you wrote this story in the past, I read it in the newspaper. Those years were years of what you may call revenge. If the Greek Cypriots killed or kidnapped some Turkish Cypriots, such teams would do the same… But from 1964 until the 70s, nothing significant happened in the area. The only thing that happened was some Greek Cypriots had killed a Turkish Cypriot, Yusuf Alchici Yusufoghlu from Archoz and with orders, some Turkish Cypriots attacked three Greek Cypriots from this area, killing one and wounding two.

One of those `famous` snipers from Melousha lives in London for many years and cannot come back because he is very ill. He is not allowed to travel by plane… He was involved in killing some Turkish Cypriots back in the 50s… One of those was a policeman in Nicosia who had fallen in love with a girl and the girl's family did not approve of this relationship. I don't know too many details but what I know is that he was related to this family through his brother and he accepted to kill the Turkish Cypriot policeman in return for some payment. Later on he killed the son of a woman who had come to settle from Agia to Melousha. The boy's name was Mustafa. He also killed a rich Turkish Cypriot from this area called Mehmet… His friend from Tremetousia always encouraged him and led him and spoilt him…`

This `sniper` now cannot even travel back to Cyprus to come and die in his own country. Whoever had been involved in the killing of innocent people somehow pay back in the end in strange ways – nature finds a way to punish them…

Another close friend whose father is from Melousha tells me that they renamed Melousha `Kirikkale`, after the famous place in Turkey for making guns since in Melousha there was this Turkish Cypriot who used to make guns out of pipes… She says, `From the stories my father tells me, I understand that Melousha was a place where they produced these guns from pipes during late 50s and early 60s. But you need to find someone from the area to give you more details…`

But my reader has more to say…

`I have a close relative who lives in Australia now` he explains to me… `After the 14<sup>th</sup> of August 1974, he took his family to come from Larnaka to the northern part of the island. It wasn't only him but other Turkish Cypriots and it was a sort of a convoy travelling. When they came to Lyssi, they were stopped by some Turkish soldiers and had to wait some time… After some time, they were allowed to pass… As they were passing, they asked a civilian Turkish Cypriot from probably either Vatyli or Sinda, why they had been stopped and had to wait so long… The civilian Turkish Cypriot told them that the soldiers were burying some Greek Cypriots and that was the reason why they had been stopped. This area is just outside the military camp in Lyssi, next to the military canteen. It is not a `military area` the possible burial site because it is not within the military camp. I showed this place last week. When you come I can show it to you too. My relative who knew of this place now lives in Australia as I said. You can investigate and if he comes to visit, we can ask him too…`

I thank this reader with all my heart having given us very valuable information… We will investigate further all these clues and see if we can find the possible burial sites he is talking about… Already I called one Greek Cypriot friend from Lyssi who has many friends from Athienou and soon I am sure he will be able to find someone who can show us the exact location of the military post that the Greek Cypriot soldiers had built between Melousha and Agia… If you know anything about what my reader has told me, please call me with or without your name on my CYTA mobile at 99 966518. I do not want to know your name if you don't want to say it but if you know of any possible burial sites, or the information we are seeking for, please speak in the name of humanity so that we can heal the wounds of this country…

On the 2nd of August 2013 Friday, together with the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee I go to see this reader and he leads us together with another reader from the area, to the two possible burial sites he is talking about. With my readers we will continue our investigations to help find more details about these two possible burial sites…

With the help of ordinary citizens we will continue to search for unknown, unmarked graves and all the details of what happened in the past… Only the truth will set us free because if we don't know what actually happened, we will never find the right direction to go together towards a better future on our island. Many thanks to my readers both Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot who help in this difficult but illuminating path towards truth…

 

Photo: Possible burial site between Agia and Melousha...

 

(*) Article published in POLITIS newspaper on the 11^th of August 2013 Sunday...

Searching for a way out of the labyrinth…

Searching for a way out of the labyrinth…

 

Sevgul Uludag

 

caramel_cy@yahoo.com

 

Tel: 00 357 99 966518

00 90 542 853 8436

 

`Uncle Giannis would come every Sunday with sweets made by Turkish Cypriots… He would come on his Raleigh bicycle to our house in Agios Dometios… We would look forward to those sweets since in those times this was a great luxury…`

Takis Hadjidemetriou now 78 remembers his uncle Giannis quite well… He was a close relative from his mother's side, from Morphou… Giannis has been `missing` since 1963, together with his wife Kakoullou… They had been killed by some Turkish Cypriots at the end of December 1963 and later that night buried in the Tekke Bahchesi (`Garden of Tekke`) by two of their neighbours… The neighbours had been witness to the killings of Giannis and Kakoullou – I had written their accounts previously in these pages as well as the letter of one of the relatives of Kakoullou from London… Kakoullou and Giannis had been living in a house next to the Agia Sophia (now Selimiye Mosque) within the walled city of Nicosia, in the Turkish Cypriot part… Giannis Ellinas had warned the sister of Takis one day in early December 1963, telling her not to come and go around in this part since it was becoming too dangerous… Takis says that `He could smell danger from that time…`

Giannis, seeing that they had come to kill him and his wife, tried to escape and go towards Ermou Street but could not manage… He had jumped from a second storey window down to the Khani below and broke his leg – crawling he had tried to leave since the street they lived in was close to Ermou Street but the killers had caught up with him and killed him in the street… Kakoullou was killed in her bed in her house and thrown in the street… The Turkish Cypriot neighbours feeling terrified with all this violence but at the same time feeling sorry for the killing of their Greek Cypriot neighbours had taken the bodies from the street, hidden them in a van they used for distributing goods and waited for the night. Secretly they had gone to the Tekke Bahchesi (`Tekke's Gardens`) and buried the couple secretly in the dark of the night… Kakoullou and Giannis had no children to actively search for them… Most of Kakoullou's family was in faraway Gialoussa in Karpasia and in those days, news travelled slowly in Cyprus – no mobile phones, no internet, no fax machines… 1963 seems like a lifetime away and yet its scars are here in our hearts and minds, destroying life in Cyprus, creating `missing` from both communities, creating mistrust and fear just like 1974 that finally led to the complete partition of our island, resulting in hundreds of `missing` and killed, thousands of displaced, people uprooted from their homes they built working all their lives, losing their fields, their trees, their animals, their houses, their dowries, their photographs and furniture… Only their memories, good and bad and bitter memories would remain… The key to a house would remain or a `bavouli` that would only fit so few things to take with you… Always there would be something lacking – even if you had been able to take away your chest, your bed, your clothes and your photos, still your trees would remain without you, your flowers, your garden, your fields and would come back to you in your dreams…

In these dark days of July where there are so many commemorations for those Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots who died in the war, few voices of wisdom looking forward to a better future are heard. We hear the same things repeated over and over again every year but what is the way out? Are we locked up in the labyrinth of Minotaurus that we can't even conceptualize a bright future? What is the way out of the labyrinth? Do we see any future in this partitioned country for our children and angoni?

Any move creates suspicion and any proposal is scrutinized by sceptics. Any attempt to do something new is bound to be killed before it has a chance to flourish… This is the general mentality of Cypriots, whether they are Turkish or Greek speaking – the underlying reason is that they have been disappointed so many times that people are afraid to hope and to dream! The forces who are intransigent and who want the partition to continue have always managed somehow to steal the dreams and hopes of our communities… I remember during the times of Denktash, whenever there was a fresh move to `resolve the Cyprus conflict`, he would `assure` people that `nothing will happen, don't you worry!` Even though Denktash is gone, the same sort of attitude remains – the two `sides` does not even `negotiate` now, let alone create hope and dreams for a better future. And we have new `belas` called gas and oil… In the whole area of Middle East, the petrol never brought any happiness to the people living there but instead brought dark days and endless wars involving outside powers… We have the whole area on fire and we are sitting in the middle of the Mediterranean searching for a small light that might bring some peace and happiness to us, a way out of the labyrinth…

Actually it would not take too much effort but only a very clear mind, courage and wisdom to get out of the labyrinth… It is us, the Cypriots who helped build the labyrinth because without the cooperation of certain sections of our communities, the `outside` powers would have not have been successful.

It would only take wise leadership on the island from both communities to sit together and work out a road map out of the labyrinth that would protect primarily the needs and concerns of both main communities of the island. The type of `leadership` we need for such a road map is people like Takis Hadjidemetriou, like Alpay Durduran, people like them who have proven to all of us that they have actually risked their own lives in order to defend peace and democracy on this island. Only with such leadership who would care as much for `the other` communities, not just their own, we can find a way out of this mess that our communities have helped to create. If we, as Turkish speaking and Greek speaking Cypriots can agree on a road map out of the labyrinth, it is much easier to deal with whatever `outside power` there is who might like to keep us inside the labyrinth…

For us to succeed, first of all we must look in the mirror and face our own mistakes, our own stupidities, our own weaknesses and as people of this land must find a way to walk together out of the labyrinth. We can't ever get out of the labyrinth unless we join our efforts as Turkish speaking and Greek speaking Cypriots, as well as `other` smaller communities like Maronites and Armenians – we all belong to this land and have nowhere else to go, no other motherland, no other sky under which we would feel most comfortable because this is the place we are born in. Only if we build trust among all Cypriots, only if we face the past together and see clearly how Cypriots have been used and manipulated by their own mistakes, we can try to build a road where we can walk together towards the light… Unless we deal with how this labyrinth was created, we won't find our way out of it, neither community and in future we shall become extinct while outsiders will continue to enjoy the benefits of this land…

 

19.7.2013

 

Photo: The house of Kakoullou as painted by Turkish Cypriot painter Ferah Kaya (oil on canvas). The painter remembers clearly Kakoullou and her husband...

 

(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 4^th of August 2013, Sunday.