A little church in the area of old Grammar School…
Sevgul Uludag
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Early one morning my phone rings: A Turkish Cypriot reader is calling. I do not know him but he has some very interesting information to tell me…
According to his information, there are four or five `missing persons` buried around the area of the old Grammar School, where there had been a fierce battle – this had been the area where ELDIK (The Greek Army stationed in Cyprus) and TURDIK (The Turkish Army stationed in Cyprus) had their camps next to each other…
`There is a little church there` he says…
`The entrance to the little church faces north… And if you would stand at the entrance, 15 steps from there are buried four or five soldiers…`
These soldiers were probably Greek soldiers since it was their camp…
Now it is not possible to go and see this church since this is a military area but perhaps there are some spots where we can see the little church? If we find such an area, would my reader be willing to come with us to show us this place?
`Sure` he says…
Immediately I inform the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee, Murat Soysal and Xenophon Kallis about this new possible burial site.
We agree one day to go and check from an area in the southern part of Nicosia where this little church might be visible. I speak to my reader and we agree on a date and time…
We go together, my reader, myself, Murat Soysal and Kallis as well as Turgut Vehbi from the Committee to the southern part of Nicosia and we find a high spot around the Agios Dometios area where there is a magnificent view of the whole of Nicosia.
From this high spot, my reader points out the little church – it is the only church in that area and no one can miss it… He explains to us the exact location of the possible burial site.
Then we go back…
Kallis thanks my reader:
`What you have done is very humanitarian` he says.
Occasionally the military would give permission for excavations in the military zones in the northern part of Cyprus. If permission would be given to this spot that my reader has just shown us, perhaps we may find the four or five `missing persons` in the possible burial site he has described to us.
I had written a lot about this area years ago, about the fierce battle that took place and had investigated about what had happened to the people killed in this place. I had even found the medical civilian doctors who had served there and they had described to me what they had seen. According to one of the civilian doctors who had been sent to this area to treat the wounded, some Greek soldiers were lined up and they would be returned to the Greek Cypriot authorities at that time. He remembers quite clearly from their uniforms – he had explained to me that Greek soldiers or Turkish soldiers, therefore, if they were caught alive they would be returned to their respective side or if they were killed, the same would apply. That might have been some sort of principle. In fact, I have heard of stories of Turkish officers or Greek officers being returned alive to their respective sides but this was war and in war drastic things happen and things might happen out of control so all those captured were not returned – some Turkish officers were tortured by some Greek Cypriots and perhaps similar things might have happened to Greek officers
So the civilian doctor had seen bodies lined up, ready to be returned to the Greek Cypriot authorities. In fact some who had been killed had been returned and some of these ended up being buried in the Lakatamia cemetery – I think among those returned were also some Greek Cypriot `missing persons` but they were taken from a different area - their story would be discovered by our friend, journalist Andreas Paraschos in the 1990s who would go looking at the grave stones that said `unknown soldier` and discovering that these were among the `missing persons`…
These `missing persons` - Greek soldiers killed in this area - who would later be buried in the Lakatamia cemetery would be taken by Alekos Markides who had been an officer in the army at that time, according to one of my Greek Cypriot friends. And the Greek Cypriot `missing` who were returned who were killed in another area closer to this place were taken by the military music band soldiers and later buried in Lakatamia.
Was there any agreed principle about Greek and Turkish soldiers, about their return, dead or alive? After all, higher up, they belonged to the same military organization, that is NATO. In Izmir (Smyrni) or Brussels or Napoli or Germany, Turkish and Greek officers worked together in NATO military camps, together with officers from other nationalities. So was there an agreement for their return? I asked this question to the retired Staff Colonel Halil Sadrazam, a Turkish Cypriot writer who wrote four volumes of books entitled `The History of War in Cyprus` (three of them published recently, the fourth will be published soon) giving elaborate details about our recent history and the war of 1974. He said the following:
- ELDIK and TURDIK were in Cyprus according to the 1960 Republic of Cyprus Constitution.
- Some officials from TURDIK in those times were acting as commanders of TMT and they were moving quite freely after the inter-communal conflict of 1963, passing through Greek Cypriot areas – they were travelling freely and they knew that Greek Cypriots would not touch them and even if they were `caught` they would be returned to their own country.
- For instance the Turkish military commander of Larnaka was kept as a prisoner of war together with Turkish Cypriots between 20th of July 1974 and 14th of August 1974 – Sometime between those dates a Greek officer went together with the UNFICYP and saluted him. They had been working in the same NATO camp so they knew each other. He took the Turkish commander with him and returned him to the Turkish side, accompanied by the UN. The Turkish Cypriot prisoners of war of course remained where they were. In a similar way, I know of Greeks being returned to the Greek Cypriot side. The Turkish soldiers being returned were not always from TURDIK. In summary, both prisoners of war (Turkish and Greek) as well as those Turkish or Greek soldiers killed in the war were being returned.
- For instance after the war in September 1974, nine Turkish soldiers, among them officers were in a bus with their guns and lost their way around Mia Milia. Immediately the Turkish army in Cyprus asked for their return and in two days, they were returned. They were not touched.
- I also read about 19 Turkish soldiers being returned on the 13th of August 1974, in the book of Kemal Yamak.
I asked one of my Greek Cypriot friends, why Turks and Greeks were being returned when Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots were being kept as prisoners of war. According to my friend, the reason behind the return of Turkish soldiers might have been fear of retaliation from Turkey. `They were being questioned but later returned. Of course, there were some Turkish or Greek soldiers who were never returned, killed, `missing`… The whole thing I believe was random, not according to set agreements but according to the initiatives of whoever was there on either side…`
The little church stands still, a witness to what had happened in the area of the old Grammar School… Grammar School had been bombed and it still stands there, like a reminder to all of us, like a landmark to show that there had been a fierce battle here…
While going to the anthropological laboratory of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee, some years ago, I had passed from this area in a car with the relative of a `missing person` - her relative's remains had been found and she had asked me to go with her to the viewing of the remains… We had passed through this area as though passing through old times – vast, empty spaces, some old buildings, lots of trees… Lots of empty fields… It had been winter so we could see the green and the flowers – crows would laugh at us while we were passing, laughing at the Cypriots for being such fools of turning their own country into a big mess… For the crows, there would be no borders, no passports, no checkpoints, no property, no identity… For the crows, life would be a struggle to survive, to feed, to sleep, to have baby crows, to feed and help them to learn to fly… For the crows, this was simply a geography where they survived and they would not kill for pleasure, they would not torture for pleasure, it would only be a struggle for survival… Contrary to the Cypriots whether they spoke Turkish or Greek – crows would speak a universal language of the earth, they would move with the earth, they would be connected with the earth, they would live together with so many other different species of animals and would not necessarily hurt each other… Crows would find the best of the dates, the best of the walnuts and would go on with their own life, without necessarily hurting anyone or anything. But us, humans of this land have inflicted so much pain on each other that it is difficult to patch it up… We have a short life on this earth – let's just think about the crows and the swallows and the cats and the dogs and the moufflons and all the other beautiful creatures of our earth – if they can survive together, why can't we?
2-16.11.2013
Photo: According to one of my readers, there is a possible burial site near this little church...
(*) Article published in POLITIS newspaper on the 24th of November 2013, Sunday.
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