Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Τel: 00 357 99 966518
On the 12th of November 2013 Tuesday morning, together with the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee, Xenophon Kallis and Murat Soysal, as well as the Coordinator of Exhumations Anthropologist Okan Oktay, we go together to investigate various possible burial sites I would like to show them.
Our first stop is the rubbish dump area of Ebicho (Abohor – Cihangir as the Turkish Cypriots call it). I want to show the fenced area of the rubbish dump of Ebicho to the Committee since I have found a Turkish Cypriot eye witness from 1974 who had seen some Greek Cypriot `missing persons` while they were being buried here. He had told me back in August this year that from the British times, there had been a huge hole where the British had taken soil for building the road back in the 40s or 50s. He said:
`When you go to the rubbish dump of Ebicho, on the right hand side at the entrance, there is a fenced area. In this area there used to be a big hole. This whole was 20 meters by 30 meters and its depth went as far as 3-4 meters at some points. The British had taken from this place soil while building a road passing next to the rubbish dump. We were even using this hole for shooting practice as young kids since bullets could not get out accidentally…
In 1974, when they were burying some `missing persons` in this hole, I was there. I was a young kid then… It was after the war. The bulldozer operator of the village – he died many years ago – had collected from around Palekythro and Ebicho, the ones killed in the war. I remember that he had buried here at least 8-10 `missing` Greek Cypriots.
These `missing` Greek Cypriots had remained out in the open for many days so their colour had turned dark. As a young boy, I had thought `Were they all black? I didn't know that Greek Cypriots had black people…And their hair had fallen out…` not realizing that their skin had turned darker, due to staying out in the open, in the sun…
In this havara hole, the bulldozer operator of the village had buried `missing` Greek Cypriots that he had gathered from around Ebicho and nearby villages. After some time, this hole had become a rubbish dump. Whoever had a dead animal would throw over this hole or whoever had a construction, the remains he would take here and dump it. But if there are excavations here, you would find the remains of at least 8-10 `missing` Greek Cypriots at the bottom of the pit. This hole has never been touched, has never been excavated. The only thing done was dumping rubbish over it. And finally, in order to stop people from dumping more rubbish, the municipality put fences around it.
Each time I pass from this area, I feel bad because I remember those people buried here… Please try to help and inform the Committee so that this place can be excavated and the remains returned to their families to be buried…`
Now we come to the rubbish dump and take photos. From the description of my Turkish Cypriot reader, we roughly find where the hole might have been. I thank this reader for his humanity…
Then we go to Assia to meet a Turkish Cypriot relative of a `missing person` from 1964. His father had been `missing` from Assia and recently a Greek Cypriot had come and shown two possible burial sites and he wants to show us these. We go to the first possible burial site, a well and on our way back we stop at the Panagia Church dating from 11th century. The Panagia Church is below the level of the road so according to my readers, it is sometimes submerged in water when there are heavy rains. There had been information that some burials might have taken place in 1974 in the yard of the church so we investigate the yard… There are two big cavities that look as if they were dug with a bulldozer. Some say that around 30-40 `missing` persons were buried here.
Then we go to the other possible burial site outside Assia and the relative of the `missing` Turkish Cypriot shows us this place – it is another well…
Then we say goodbye to him and go back to Aphania…
We pass by the burial site of the Englezou family, the youngest was barely 11 years old, little Georgakis Englezou… On the 16th of October 2013, I had gone to his funeral in Limassol. His other brother, Christakis, 14 years old is still `missing`…
Then we go to the site where back in mid-90s, Americans had done some exhumations in order to find the remains of a `missing` Greek Cypriot American citizen, Kasapis… Together with him was one more, young Greek Cypriot so his remains might be in this area…
When we reach the burial site, I feel shocked – there are many aloe vera plants, in Turkish we call them `Sabir Aghaci`, meaning `Trees of Patience…` - they look like from the ages of dinosaurs and they surround a water well…
It brings back bad memories of a story I had heard in this village… A Greek Cypriot woman from Assia or Aphania was taken by two Turkish Cypriots from Aphania, raped and killed and buried next to some aloe vera trees… We had been looking for these aloe vera trees… Could this be a simple coincidence or are these the trees we had been looking for?
No one knew about the story of the woman buried next to the aloe vera until these two Turkish Cypriots, years later had a big argument about something else in the coffee shop and they started shouting at each other and accusing each other of killing that woman… All those in the coffee shop heard and found out the details then…
Further down, Kallis shows us another well…
The whole area is silent, eucalyptus trees standing and showing their beauty… Messaoria has its own quiet beauty – I had missed that, I realize now since I have not come to this area for a long time now…
I go back to Nicosia with a heavy heart – there is no cure to pain except enduring it… Sadness is everywhere, as well as the happiness of the sunshine and the birds and the trees and the bees… Our happiness is always shaded with the sadness of all these true life stories of what we have done to each other… And yet, we survive and whether our heart is heavy or light, we try to move on, to create something better than our past… Perhaps the only way to endure this pain is to move on and keep on doing things that will bring more happiness to this country in order to overcome the sadness of the past…
16.11.2013
Photo: The rubbish damp outside Ebicho...
(*) Article published in POLITIS newspaper on the 1st of December 2013, Sunday.
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