Between Synchari and Aspri Moutti…
Sevgul Uludag
Tel: 00 357 99 966518
The hot summer would gradually leave and autumn would come… He would lay there, complete with his uniform, his helmet, his boots… He would lay facing the sky, without actually seeing or feeling… He would lay in a hole, a makeshift military post of 1974, around Synchari, up the mountains, towards Aspri Moutti…
Autumn would come with its coolness and he would lay there, lonely on top of the mountain, no one passing by from this rough spot and seasons would continue to change… Swallows would leave for Africa, foxes would hunt and gradually clouds would gather turning the blue of the sky to darker shades… Rains would come, washing away all the dust, all the soil gathered on his clothes and he would lay there, without seeing, without feeling, just a body left where he had been killed… He wouldn't feel the spring with all its energy coming, flowers blossoming, the bees roaming the mountains in search of tiny purple flowers… He wouldn't see the birds migrating back to the island, he wouldn't hear there cries, the sound of the flap of their wings… He would just lay there, unaware of the change of the seasons and while seasons would change, the clock will continue to tick and seasons would turn into years and years into decades and he would still be there, in that hole, that makeshift military post, laying complete with his uniform, his helmet, his boots turning into a skeleton in a uniform…
Time would take away the flesh but would not touch the leather of his boots. Time would not be harsh on the buttons of his uniform – while his hair would fall and his flesh gone, the only thing that would remain of him would be his bones… And his uniform… And his boots… And his helmet…
One day about ten years ago, two kids would encounter him, laying there and would be amazed… They would try to take the helmet and their father who took them up the mountain would shout at them to stop, not to touch anything! He would go next to his kids and would look at the finding of his children. He would take them away but would never forget what he saw…
Still no one would come searching for the human body lying in his uniform… He would still lay there, unaware of the kids or the father who had seen him… Seasons would continue to change, summers turning into winters, springs giving way to heat, heat giving way to the cool nights of the Pentataktilos… Under the beautiful sky full of stars he would remain where he had been killed, years ago, during the war in 1974…
One of very dedicated readers who would read everything I wrote would remember that we had been looking for a boy from Kyperounta in this area after hearing from his friend telling him about how his children had discovered this human body, laying in a hole…
My reader would call me and ask me to go with them to show me this spot…
`The moment my friend started talking about his children's finding, I remembered the young boy from Kyperounta that you wrote about… Perhaps it is him, perhaps not… But it fits the descriptions of where he had been seen last time…` he tells me on the phone.
So I ask the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee to go to this place up the mountains together with my reader and his witness. We go on the 2nd of August 2013, Friday and reach the area where the witness had seen the remains.
Together with Xenophon Kallis and Murat Soysal, the assistants of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot members of the Missing Persons' Committee, the witness starts a very tough climb up the mountains. It is very hot and they would walk about three kilometres to climb up in order to attempt to locate the exact position of that military post.
While they would start the very tough climb up the mountains, we would wait in the car with my reader who took us here – my reader is from the southern part of the island and he is a refugee living in one of the villages close to Synchari – in the past he helped me a lot voluntarily, finding witnesses and showing possible burial sites and as a result of his efforts, many `missing` Greek Cypriots' remains have been found both in Synchari and at Aspri Moutti… He is humble, works quietly, does not boast about anything – he feels the pain of relatives of `missing persons` since both from his village in the south and from his wife's family there are `missing persons`… I had helped to find the burial site of his wife's uncle and had also attended the funeral when he was buried. His wife's uncle was taken away from his house in Aredhiou by a Greek Cypriot policeman and went `missing`, never returning to his home back in 1963. With the help of one of my Greek Cypriot readers, we would find the remains of three Turkish Cypriot `missing persons` from 1963, buried in a well in Tseri… The policeman who took three Turkish Cypriots from their homes in Aredhiou would also go `missing` in 1974 in another area… The son of the policeman would call me to ask for help to find his `missing` father and when I would tell him about the `missing` Turkish Cypriots from Aredhiou, he would be shocked… Like a game of `dominoes` people would be connected, sharing almost the same fate…
While we wait my reader who took us to Synchari would tell me how as a small refugee child he would roam these valleys and mountains around Synchari, how it was full of so many bullets and so many shells… In the whole area, littered by the remains of the war, he would go with his father to collect mushrooms or agrelli, or just to play… The sights, the smells, the remains of the war would scar his heart forever… The stories would scar his heart, the waiting of the relatives of `missing persons` would scar his heart… He would see and smell and touch and walk among the litter of the war as a small child of 10 years old, learning what sort of a place the elders had created for him…
He would tell me of the fassa and the crow that he had found somewhere outside his village – he would take these little birds home to cure them since they would not be able to fly and would keep them as pets… But one day the crow would kill the fassa and he would feel sad…
He would tell me of snakes, the goufi, roaming these mountains, how he would see them while climbing and that this was the period they are most active… He would be worried about Murat Soysal, Xenophon Kallis and our witness and would call out after them to watch out for the snakes…
We would sit in the car while wasps would come and go, checking out what we are doing there… Completely isolated, up on the mountains we would sit and talk and wait for them to come back…
The place where we are is high and the dirt track is littered with stones and big holes – he would tell me about how two Turkish Cypriots' tractor fell off here while they jumped at the last moment, saving their lives. `There was no way they could take out the tractor from where it fell – it's still there` he says…
I ask him about the foxes and he tells me that because people have been poisoning them for years, there are less foxes and less vultures here. `The vultures eat the poisoned meat and they also die…` he says… We feel sad for the inhuman way humans intervene in natural life up on these mountains…
We talk about the boy from Kyperounta, the carpenter, the 19 year old kid sent to Aspri Moutti to serve… He tells me of an encounter he had with someone from Potamia – they would send boys of left wing families to Aspri Moutti like a `punishment` - I had written about that, having interviewed Michael Efthymiou who had served here and who was the last person to see the boy from Kyperounta… My reader having encountered a Greek Cypriot from Potamia who had also served up at Aspri Moutti, would ask him that and the guy from Potamia would confirm that yes, this was a sort of a place of punishment…
Our witness, together with Kallis and Murat Soysal come back breathless – they could not locate the spot but `When it is a bit cooler,` our witness suggests, `like in September we can come and search again – it is there…`
We will try again to arrange to come back with a bigger search team when it is a bit cooler and our witness will help to find the exact location of the hole and the human remains where he saw him…
I thank my reader and our witness for doing this humanitarian gesture, hoping to bring some sort of `closure` to one more family of a `missing person` and I thank the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee for coming with us so that we could show them the area…
We leave this isolated spot, driving on the very bad dirt track to go back…
Sometime later, the assistant to the Turkish Cypriot member of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee, Murat Soysal, goes to the same spot with a team to investigate and speaks to the witness again. The witness tells him that maybe they had gone to the wrong area; maybe this military post was around Aspro Moutti. He says that since many years have passed, he might have confused the area. The remains of some "missing persons" had been found at Aspro Moutti. My reader, who has taken this witness to us, says that "Perhaps more surveys are needed behind the spot where exhumations took place at Aspro Moutti… I will continue to investigate…"
There had been couple of surveys in this area with the voluntary participation of the archaeologists of the Missing Persons' Committee… We hope that in the autumn months, more surveys can be done in this area and hopefully the military post and the remains of one "missing" person that our witness saw can be found…
15-28.8.2013
Photo: View from the area we went to around Synchari...
(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 22nd of September 2013 Sunday.
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