Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Tel: 99 966518
On the 20th of December 2013, Friday we are on the roads again, at my beautiful Messaoria… Living in Nicosia, I am always nicely surprised with the flat beauty of Messaoria, the simplicity of its traditional houses, the land stretching for miles with nothing, giving me the feeling of endless space, all the colours of Van Gogh in autumn and all the colours of Matisse in springtime… It has its own quiet beauty, whispering to us its tales of past centuries if we have the patience to uncover… Buildings of mud brick, simple minarets or mosques or tiny churches, it is covered with the footprints of civilizations that have passed from here but no longer exist…The group of eucalyptus, standing next to lonely, romantic palm trees… The silhouettes of farms where the master and his fiefs worked, the Catholics, the Jews, the Maronites, the Venetians, the Genovese, the Albanians, the Ottomans, the Turkish Shamans, the Greek Orthodox, all mingling in this
dusty soil, the Tekkes of Alevites, the Hodja who had been kidnapped in 1958 and killed and supposedly burned in a gamini, the blood and the tears and the early morning stars and late night darkness existing together on this land… Here in Messaoria, the eternal poverty of the simple folk, the eternal richness of the `masters` and the struggles the people waged to survive on this beautiful soil just to survive under `masters` of an ever-changing nature – at some point in time each and every one living on this soil would become `vulnerable`, in a fight for life when `masters` would change, when their religion or ethnicity would become a `sin` and they would have to change to adapt to new conditions, otherwise they would be wiped out completely from this land. The land would become `hybrid` like a chameleon with ever-changing colours of adaptation – under the Venetians, the Greek Orthodox would be `vulnerable`, under the Ottomans the Venetians would
have to change `colour` and adapt to other colours, since they would lose everything, including their homes and land and this would be an eternal struggle for every single ethnic or religious group on this land with no one to spare – perhaps the best word to describe our `civilization` would be `vulnerability` - `vulnerability` because of ever-changing conditions and ever-changing `masters` who would invade or conquer or buy this island and the eternal struggle of ordinary persons to keep what little they have…
Our first stop is right outside Strongylos where there had been some information or suspicions about a possible burial site… We are together with the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee, Xenophon Kallis, Murat Soysal and Okan Oktay… We are meeting a family from Strongylos who have some `missing persons` - the place we stop I recognize it from some years ago… This well, I had shown to the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee some years ago back in 2009 - that is almost five years ago - as a possible burial site, to be investigated. We had come here together with Panayiotis Poyrazis and his wife Angelou… Panayiotis was the son of the `missing` mukhtar of Strongylos, the kind hearted, humanitarian Stavros Poyrazis… I had met Panayiotis Poyrazis back in July 2009 when we had honoured those who had saved each other during the time of war and the `missing` Stavros Poyrazis was one of those to be honoured on the night of 22nd of July
2009 at the `Peace Hall` on Ledra Street, Nicosia. We had honoured some Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots, some of them `missing`, some of them deceased, some of them alive – these Cypriots were `role models` for our communities – they had done acts of courage and humanity under the most severe conditions – they had saved the lives of other humans from other communities during the time of war and conflict… Their acts of humanity would illuminate our path, if we had eyes to see and ears to hear… Just like Stavros Poyrazis, we had honoured the `missing` member of parliament, the only `missing` Cypriot Member of Parliament in Cyprus, Cengiz Ratip from Polis – he too had saved a busload of Greek Cypriots from being executed and he too has been `missing` since 1964… Cengiz Ratip too, had done acts of courage and humanity, going out of his way to negotiate the release of `hostages` from both communities during troubled times…
So on the 20th of December 2013, we go to Strongylos to meet a family who have `missing persons` - Strongylos is like a thorn in my heart – near the well we start talking about the past: How Hasan the Desteban from Vatyli while coming to Strongylos on his bicycle had been ambushed and killed at the entrance of Strongylos and how he has been `missing` since then, about the mukhtar of Strongylos, Poyrazis and how he had helped to save Turkish Cypriots of his village not only once but twice, that is both in 1963 and 1974 but how he ended up to become a `missing person`…
This is a well made of stone – it is not far from the `Cave of the Horses` and `The Cave with Columns` where a big group, gathered by some Turkish Cypriots from Sinda and a few from Strongylos had been taken to be executed – the group suspected to be around 19 or 21 `missing persons` were killed in those caves and later buried elsewhere… According to information from my readers from this area, there had been a `military operation` to empty the graves and bury them elsewhere… One reader had come forward with information that they had been buried in the Abalestra Chiftlik, in a well… After this information from a reader from Messaoria, during the exhumations of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee, remains of some `missing persons` had in fact been found in the well in the Abalestra Chiftlik outside Sinda.
We say goodbye to the family from Strongylos and continue to meet another reader and his uncle from Sinda. His uncle through one of my readers had helped to find six `missing` Greek Cypriots from Lyssi and two other `missing` Greek Cypriots I don't know from where… I had gone and met him and he had shown us two burial sites that later we would show to the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee and they would find, just as he described the remains of the six and the two `missing persons`.
Today we meet him again with his cousin. In an area called `Pallirodi`, he shows us a well where some Greek Cypriot shepherds `missing` since 1974 might have been buried. We had been working on this for the past few years when one of my readers, Shevket, had pointed out two other wells closer to Kontea with the same story…
Mr. Shevket had been a kind hearted soul – born in Houlou, he had become a refugee three times – twice in 1963 and once in 1974, ending up in Lyssi. Although he was not from the area but from Paphos, he had tried to help us through one of my readers from Sinda.
There had been five or six Greek Cypriot shepherds with their flocks of sheep trying to leave – they had been caught by some Turkish Cypriots from Sinda – according to my readers there were around 900 sheep… Three of them were killed and buried in a well in this area and two or three with the help of some other Turkish Cypriots had managed to survive and escape and remain alive… The flock had been shared among the killers.
Now that we stand on the edge of this well in Sinda, the old man who had helped us previously reminds us of the story with the shepherds supposedly buried in this well: Sometime after they had been killed and buried in the well, a Turkish Cypriot shepherd came to water his flock but his sheep would not drink the water from the well – it was stinking so bad… Shevket had told us the same story… So the shepherd took his flock elsewhere, later on finding out that there were `missing persons` buried in that well, that's why the stinking water… This well is not so far, I find out from the well that we had shown where another `missing` Greek Cypriot, Strouthos might have been buried… We will investigate more to find out more details about what actually happened in this area and whether this is the actual spot the `missing` shepherds have been buried.
The old man and his cousin want to show us another possible burial site so we go to the area outside Sinda called `Kırk donum` meaning `Forty Donums` - this had been the road to Nicosia from Sinda since the Lusignan times – it is a dirt track, no longer used since we have new, asphalt roads, long forgotten except by those who live in this area…
The old man shows us a well and tells us the story: Two Greek Cypriot soldiers, trying to escape in 1974 had been hiding in this area and they were discovered by some Turkish Cypriots and killed and supposedly buried in this well…
We thank the old man and his cousin from Sinda for their kindness, for trying to help to uncover possible burial sites, for trying to help those they don't know, that they never met… Another act of courage and humanity from Messaoria because barbarism and humanity in an eternal struggle still exist on this land and my readers choose humanity instead of siding with `evil` on this beautiful but painful island…
5.1.2014
Photo: Murat Soysal and Xenophon Kallis, officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee at one of the possible burial sites that my reader has shown us...
(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 19th of January 2014, Sunday.
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