The bicommunal oral history of Cyprus (2)
Sevgul Uludag
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Andreas Violaris from the once mixed village Ayios Vasilios (Ayvasil) remembers that `They dug holes around the house and placed there dynamite and blew it up… The people who were hiding inside came out in panic… They held them and killed them all in cold blood and buried them in a mass grave… One of the victims hand was sticking out of the grave. After the invasion and the occupation of our village, they renamed it to 'Turkel' which means `The hand of the Turk`.`
Andreas Violaris was 80 years old when he was interviewed for the bi-communal oral history project of IKME and BILBAN, the two research institutes of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. He had been now living in Dali. In the summary of his interview, Andreas Violaris is quoted as saying:
`The relations to the Turkish Cypriots of my village were excellent. When later trouble began, Greek Cypriots from other areas used to come to do what they did.
The Turkish Cypriots in my village were very poor. They used to earn their wages at large farms and by doing heavy work… Until the 1963-64 events there had been no problems between us. If a stranger had come to one of our coffee houses, he would have not been able to tell the Turk from the Greek…
A friend of mine, Ibrahim, helped me to come into business. He advised me to buy myself a car and afterwards he sent me business. I used to play the violin. I was invited to play at their weddings. In older times, from what I have heard, there had been mixed marriages but not in my time. The relations to my Turkish Cypriot fellow villagers started to be affected from 1956-57 on by EOKA's struggle. Our Greek Cypriot fanatics did whatever they could to separate us. They used to come from Nicosia and threatened them and intimidated them. Some of our Greek Cypriot fanatics made sure to confirm their earlier threats…
Many years after the invasion, I met my friend Ibrahim at the British Bases in Dhikelia. His first question was:
`What could an eight years old girl have done to them so that they decided to kill her? What was her crime?`
He was referring to his daughter who was killed together with her grandmother by some Greek Cypriots outside the village…`
Sophoclis Panayiotou Hadjiloizou who was interviewed in Nicosia said:
`I was born in the Kyrenia Hospital and when I was very young we moved to Nicosia because of my father's work. We settled in the Turkish mahala (neighbourhood).
I grew up together with the Turkish Cypriots. We used to play all day long. When we grew up a little, we used to picnic in... Pallouriotissa. We brought with us our lunch and sat down and enjoyed ourselves. Our company's Turkish Cypriots had no problem with eating pork...
My grandfather, Sophocles Knodarites was an important land owner in Knodara. He had only Turkish Cypriots working for him. When he later had to leave the village (around 1900), he gave most of his land as a gift to the Turkish Cypriots with whom he had good relations. He came up for the school fees for many of them. He had a coach bring them there.
Our relations to each other were very friendly, brotherly I would say... Problems arose after 1958...
When I got married in Deftera, I met there some Turkish Cypriots with which I had excellent relations, if I am not to say that those people were better than ours...
My Turkish Cypriot friends helped me build my house like I helped them build theirs....
When my wife had our first baby, my Turkish Cypriot best man sent his wife to stay with us for a month helping my wife....
When trouble broke out in 63-64, some people came from Nicosia to spread unrest among the Turkish Cypriot fellow-villagers and take them to the Turkish Cypriot sector. But they didn't want to leave at all. A fragile old man died while he was placed in to the car. They were pushing him violently, placed him in to the car but he was struggling to escape. He wanted to stay in his village... When they finally realized that they couldn't persuade him to leave... they killed him... Another one, called Tarzan, was killed because he was refusing to follow them...`
Eleni Poullou who was interviewed in Nicosia had stories to tell:
`Dervish Kavazoglou who was later killed by Turkish Cypriot extremists used to come to our home and my mother looked after him. He loved her so much that he used to call her aunt...
We had contact with many Turkish Cypriots before 1963, and we still have friendly relations and contact until today.
We settled in Nicosia in 1935 where we still live. Our landlords were always Turkish Cypriots with whom we still have good relations...
During the EOKA struggle, I helped together with a Turkish Cypriot midwife a Turkish Cypriot neighbour called Pembe, give birth to a child. Her husband rewarded us with a silver five shilling coin...
`Eleni hanim you are a mother, you are a sister to me...` Pembe was telling me again and again after the birth...
When I was doing my embroidery work, Pembe use to come over to learn...
In 1959 they forced them to leave for the Turkish Cypriot enclave in Nicosia. Pembe told me to go over and she gave me a pot with a flower that I still have until today...
Later we heard that her husband was killed by Turkish Cypriot extremists...
We used to be together with our Turkish Cypriot friends at weddings, christenings and on holy days... Nothing separated us. They used to sing their songs and we used to sing ours....
Our former landlord was a very rich Turkish Cypriot. He had a great fortune, houses and shops. Later when he was forced to settle in the Turkish Cypriot sector of Nicosia, the extremists ask for money from him to buy arms. He refused to give them any and they killed him...`
Andreas Klitides from Ayios Loucas area of Nicosia would remember life before all the troubles started:
`My mother used to run a tailor school in Ayios Loucas. The majority of her students were Turkish Cypriot women. She used to teach them in Greek and Turkish, which she spoke without a flaw...
We used to organise events and feasts in our house that was very large with a huge garden. When our Turkish Cypriot friends were celebrating a feast or Bayram, our house was full of sweets like ekmek kateif, gullach and more. We too offered to them flaounes (traditional cheese cake) and other kind of meals on our holydays...
Because of the friendly relation we had to the Turkish Cypriots, we considered the Bayram celebrations as an occasion for revelry for ourselves as well... We used to go to their celebrations and they used to come to ours...
An 80 years old neighbour, I had and who used to speak Greek without a flaw, had the habit to weave jasmines together, put them on a tray to offer them to the others, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots... He used to tell me: `Take, Andrico, take some jasmine so that your house can smell beautifully, my son...! `
I knew Osman Orek well and had friendly relations to him, whose father was the hodja (Turkish Cypriot cleric) in the part of the town. Osman was the first minister of defence of the Republic of Cyprus.
Another well known, funny and good at heart guy in our neighbourhood was someone we called «Saat Kach ishte» («What time is it?»). He used to walk around all the year round wearing a coat. He always had with him two watches and asked whoever he met: «Saat Kach ishte?» !
There were plenty of such people in our neighbourhood...
The inhabitants of Ayios Loucas used to have mulberry trees in their gardens where they kept silkworms. Then they gathered in the garden of a Turkish Cypriot called Mevlit, where the silk mercer came to produce the silk. There was a large water tank in that garden (havuz), where the children on Pentecost (also called «Cataclysm day») used to play games with the water...
Pembe hanim sat down outside our house door and protected us from the vandalizing fanatics who caused a lot of damage to the houses of the Greek Cypriots during the first events of 1956. »
These are just a few of the summaries of interviews… You may read more at: www.ikme.eu/cybihi/
4.8.2013
Photo: Old Cyprus…
(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 1st of September 2013, Sunday.
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