`My heart always stayed in Kyrenia…`

`My heart always stayed in Kyrenia…`

Sevgul Uludag

caramel_cy@yahoo.com

Tel: 00 357 99 966518
00 90 542 853 8436

Goksel Kemal, born in 1961 in Kyrenia was the youngest of the five kids in his family. His father Kemal Hasan was quite a well-known fisherman in the Kyrenia harbour, his mother was Asiye. They were one of the oldest Turkish Cypriot families from Kyrenia, their roots going back more than 200 years in Kyrenia…
Since Kemal was a fisherman and they lived one hundred meters close to the sea, little Goksel had learnt to swim at the age of five at `Karakiz`, a beach after the Kyrenia Castle. In those days the street leading to his house was called Lambros Katsonis… He loved the sea and fishing and spent his days at the harbour. Why was this area called `Karakiz`? According to legend, a dark girl had drowned here hence the name `Kara` (`Black`) `Kiz` (`Girl`)… When Goksel was a small child and wanted to go to the `Karakiz` beach his mother would frighten him saying `Maybe the `Karakiz` might take you away!` in order to keep him off the beach!
While Goksel was three years old in 1964, some Greek Cypriots would kidnap the fisherman's boat of his father outside the harbour and had burnt it, making Kemal lose his tool for winning his bread. He had become `unemployed` and would go here and there to find odd jobs to work. Goksel's elder brothers Moral, Hasan and Doghan would build a `periptero` from bamboos and would start selling sandwiches, cokes and kebap there in order to help their unemployed father. Goksel too, from a very early age would go to the beach behind the fort to sell sandwiches and coke to help his family. They continued doing this until 1967… Meanwhile Kemal had started working with a very kind hearted Greek Cypriot in the harbour called Charalambos, going fishing or renting boats. The first Greek words that Goksel would learn would be "Varga gia peripato!` meaning `boat trip` and little Goksel would shout this out loud in order to attract customers.
Having worked hard, the children had saved some money until 1967 and gave this to their father to get a small boat with a one and a half litre horsepower engine… People swimming could actually pass this boat but the family was happy that Kemal was slowly going back to his profession: being a fisherman… This is what he had loved to do…
In 1970, a Greek Cypriot called Sotiri from Karakoumi would build a bigger fishing boat for Kemal and Kemal would sell his small boat to a Greek Cypriot who had a bar at the Kyrenia Harbour. The bar owner would cut the boat in half and put it at his bar…
Goksel's life in the Kyrenia Harbour had begun in 1968… Because he was blond, they used to call him `Sari badadez` (`Yellow potato`) but one day when his father's boat was in front of the Corner Bar, Goksel had slipped and fell into the water – he had had an ice cream cone in his hand, when he came out of the water, the ice cream and the cone was intact so everyone in the harbour started calling him `Pagoto` (`Ice cream`).
I met Goksel Kemal through the Facebook and asked him to kindly write his childhood memories of Kyrenia… Since 1979 he has been living in London but he took Kyrenia in his heart with him, the town he was born in, the town he loves and it is clear from the way he wrote his memories, how much he misses Kyrenia…
Goksel Kemal wrote:
`The best days of my childhood were spent in the harbour, playing hide and seek with Greek Cypriot children, the day the Kyrenia Ship was excavated and brought to the surface, I had been there… Andrew who could not speak properly always had a bucket in his hand, going around the harbour. In the old days of festivities (panairi) I would sit on the stones by the old lantern, watching in excitement to see who would be able to pick up the flag from the masts covered with oil… The owner of the bar who had bought my father's small fishing boat had a son Tony and one day he would slap me without any reason, I would run crying to my father… Or while going home to `Karakiz`, collecting konnara on my way… Or the smell of the soil after the rain – I can still feel that smell…
While staying at `Karakiz`, I would hear the sound of the engine of my father's fishing boat and would run to the harbour to help him… All these things remain in my memory as though it had happened yesterday…
On the 15th of July 1974, my father had just returned from fishing – he was in the harbour and we were going to take the boat out and paint it.
My mother had told me and my brother Doghan that morning around 09.00-10.00 to go together `To help out your father`… And from `Karakiz` we had started walking slowly towards the back of the Kyrenia Castle. As soon as we passed the `Tavshan Tepesi` (`The Rabbit Hill') we heard shots and when we looked we saw a speedboat pulling out of the harbour and some people shooting at the boat from the Castle.
At that moment someone would shout at us:
`Goksel! Doghan! Go back home!`
When we looked at who was shouting we saw our brother Hasan, coming back home from near the hospital. We ran home and did not get out from our house until 19th of July Friday. That morning, my father sent me and my brother Doghan to Nicosia…
On the morning of the 19th of July while I was going to Nicosia with the bus of late uncle Djafer, Husnu Mustafa had got on the same bus wıth us and he had got off at the Boghazi to go up to St. Hilarion. When I would return some weeks later to Kyrenia, I would hear that he had been killed in the war there…
We came back to Kyrenia after two or three weeks.
When I came back to Kyrenia I felt a big emptiness. There were no people on the roads, everywhere was dead still. It was as though everyone had deserted Kyrenia… And when I went down to the harbour, it was the same… A few days after, I would hear from the elderly about who had lost their lives during the war, names of both Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots who had been killed in the war.
They had settled the Greek Cypriots of Kyrenia at the Dome Hotel and during weekends, they would take them out for a walk at the harbour in groups. I had seen the son of a Greek Cypriot called Fani and he had asked me whether I had seen his father Fani. I had heard that his father had been shot but I could not say this to him, I said, `No, I didn't see him…`
I think both Fani and Alex were shot…And I think they are `missing` but I am not hundred per cent sure…
There had been a Greek Cypriot woman called Eleni who had a small market on the way from the courts towards the hospital, on the left. Mrs. Eleni had been a good friend of my late mother Asiye. Fani and Alex were her son and her son-in-law. I am not sure if they are `missing` or not but when my mother had heard that they might be `missing` she would be crying for them…
All of these were like a dream, like an adventure, as though I would wake up suddenly… The harbour was quiet - The children I had played with had suddenly disappeared…
The best days of my childhood before 1974 were over now…
I saw two dead persons in Kyrenia. One of them next to the old 23 Nisan Elementary School and the other one, on the road to the stadium outside a house, buried in the sand…
I settled in England in 1979 and my heart always stayed in Kyrenia…`

14.2.2014

Photo: Goksel Kemal with his father at the Kyrenia harbour in his childhood days...

(*) Article published in POLITIS newspaper on the 23rd of February, 2014 Sunday.

Return of glasses after 40 years…

Return of glasses after 40 years…

Sevgul Uludag

caramel_cy@yahoo.com

Tel: 00 357 99 966518
00 90 542 853 8436

The day is sunny and nice and we are all excited about what we are going to do… We have been preparing for this meeting for the past week and we all cross our fingers that it would go smooth… Because we all know, deep in our hearts that it would be an emotional day… It is Saturday, the 1st of February 2014…
A Turkish Cypriot friend, author of stories of `missing persons` from Messaoria, a gynaecologist currently practicing is Ankara, is flying in today just for this purpose... My readers would remember his stories that we have published on these pages, the touching stories of Dr. Dervish Ozer, who had been a 10 year old kid in 1974, living through the shock and trauma of war, a bomb falling where they were hiding away from their village, his mother being wounded from her hand and losing some of the fingers of her hand… Little Dervish on that day deciding to become a doctor, the ten year old boy, in order to help his mother. He would keep his promise to his mother, the little ten year old boy and in fact would become a doctor. His mother would be sent to Varosha to Dr. Hadjikakou to be treated and he would treat her so well that she would forever be grateful to the late Dr. Hadjikakou… I would get Dervish in contact with one of the daughters of Dr.
Hadjikakou because Dervish also makes sculptures and he has made a sculpture of Dr. Hadjikakou who had treated her mother so well and he wants to erect this monument as a symbol of friendship, somewhere on the Green Line where both communities can see…
The whole story starts with him actually, the stories he would listen from his elders, the stories he would eavesdrop in coffee shops and he would follow them up, learning details, doing research, going out and speaking with more people as he would grow up. One day he would call me and we would meet and he would share with me what he knew of the area… We would continue to speak through the phone or when he would come for quick visits to Cyprus… He and his family would try to help for me to understand what actually happened in this area back in 1974 and he would also show me possible burial sites, telling me their stories… I would ask him to write these down as stories from his childhood and he would begin writing and I would publish these stories on my daily page in Yeniduzen called `Cyprus: The Untold Stories` and he would be happy and I would be happy and encourage him to write more… I would translate some of those stories and we would publish
them in POLITIS as well, the stories of the 10 year old kid from Ebicho who saw too much for his young age, traumatized by war… As he would write more and more, I would know that the poison of the trauma would go away, at least some of it and he would feel better… Finally I would tell him to prepare his stories and we would help to publish him the book of his stories called `Say hello to him`, stories of war and `missing persons` from Khora Publications in Nicosia in Turkish. Hopefully one day we would have an opportunity to publish all of them in Greek and English as well since these stories are written in such a humanitarian way without taking any sides, only speaking of the feelings of `missing persons` and their close relatives, of days of war through the eyes of a child…
So he would hear the story of the glasses and he would follow it…
In 1974, a Greek Cypriot soldier with a goatee beard would go to Ebicho and seek refuge with two or three UN soldiers there in a house – on the wall had been written `UN`. The village, having come under attack from Greek Cypriot soldiers had been evacuated from the 20th of July 1974 and the Turkish Cypriot villagers would only return on the evening of 14th of August 1974. They would hear of one or two Greek Cypriot soldiers who had taken refuge with the UN inside the village and would go and surround the building and ask the UN soldiers to give the Greek Cypriots to them. During this whole fuss, a jeep with some Turkish soldiers with a Turkish Cypriot driver would appear and one of the Turkish officers from the jeep would kick the door in and would take the Greek Cypriot soldier with the goatee beard and glasses from the house. Someone would hit him in the face and his glasses would fall to the floor. The jeep would take him away and only his glasses
would remain behind.
Someone would pick up the glasses and would give to a Turkish Cypriot from the village whose glasses had been broken when trying to escape the war and he would wear them for many years, being thankful that they fit…
Having learnt the story of the glasses, Dervish would go after more information. Could we find the person to whom these glasses might belong? I would write the story and publish in POLITIS in 2011, together with the photo of the glasses but we would get no response.
Sometimes life works in funny ways so one day, through a friend I would meet Despina who had been looking for information about a Greek Cypriot `missing person`, the husband of the best friend of her mother's. We would start investigating and soon it would be clear that the glasses might in fact belong to him. As Dervish Ozer would come for his book launch, I would arrange for them to meet and talk. Despina would provide a photo of the `missing person` and we would go to the village of Dervish to meet the guy who wore the glasses for many years. Dervish's sister would cook lunch for us and we would sit talking about what had happened in that village. Despina and the family of the `missing person` would provide some photos so Dervish could show in the village to see if it is him. Dervish would go round showing the photo to those who had seen him being taken away from the UN building and they would recognize and confirm that it's him. We would agree
that Despina would tell the wife of the `missing person` about the glasses, prepare her for this and Dervish would come again from Ankara in about a month to meet her and to give her back the glasses.
So off we go to Ebicho, Despina, her mother, her mother's best friend who is the wife of the `missing person`, the brother of the `missing person` to Ebicho to meet Dervish and his family. We have also invited the Permanent Secretary of the UN at the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee, Mr. Florian von König because we want the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee to do further investigation about this `missing person`.
Dervish greets us and we go to his sister's house. Mr. A. who had worn the glasses for some years is there to greet the relatives of the `missing` Greek Cypriot. The meeting is very emotional as the wife of the `missing` Greek Cypriot takes the glasses and opens the box to touch them… This is the first thing, the first news after waiting for exactly 40 years… Both Dervish and Mr. A. explain to her what had happened, me translating to English, Despina translating to Greek so everyone in the living room would understand… Mr. A. would give a gift of `tesbih`, `beads of patience` as we would call in Turkish to the wife of the `missing person`. The family also prepared a letter to the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee and they give it to Mr. Florian who is also very much touched by this emotional encounter. It is like a scene from a movie but a movie based on reality, not fiction…
Mr. Florian tells the wife of the `missing person` to keep the glasses, a photograph would be enough… His humanity touches our hearts and we thank him for this…
We sit to eat with the family of Dervish and then we go to see his father and mother in their field where they have planted broad beans, broccoli and spring onions… They collect vegetables for us to take back with us… The mother of Dervish, Mrs. Mine cries as she talks about the war to Mr. Florian…
`We have seen pain, we have seen war, that's why we want to help` she says… Having lost two fingers during the bombing, she shows her hand to Mr. Florian saying, `This is nothing, you see, she has lost her husband… Such things should never happen again in Cyprus… That's why we try to help stop this pain and suffering…`
The wife of the Greek Cypriot `missing person` will not sleep, his brother will not sleep, I will not sleep tonight, perhaps Despina too and her mother will not sleep… We will all not sleep since the day has been so powerfully emotional…
We are happy to return something that belonged to a `missing person` but we must not stop there – both Dervish, myself and Despina, we will all work to find out more details about what happened after he was taken away from the UN building and to try to give more answers to the family…
The wife of the `missing person` will keep the glasses, the glasses that found their way to her house after 40 years, the glasses that her beloved husband wore… If this is not some kind of `miracle` of humans working towards peace, I don't know what else is… It is because of Dervish that we managed to get them back to where they belonged – his humanity would stop at nothing, would encounter any obstacles and would work with a human heart to stop the pain of the relatives of `missing persons`, having experienced war at the early age of ten and having seen things that no child should ever see…
I thank Dervish and all who helped the return of the glasses – they all give us a lesson of humanity of how much can be done on this island, if only we care a little bit about each other…

2.2.2014

Photo: The glasses that were returned to the relatives of the Greek Cypriot `missing person` after 40 years...

(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 16th of February 2014, Sunday.

From Ebicho to Komi Kepir…

From Ebicho to Komi Kepir…

Sevgul Uludag

caramel_cy@yahoo.com

Tel: 99 966518

Surrounded by cypress trees, the big cavity looks like a small picnic area, all green, glowing in the warm winter sun… It has the shape of a rectangle, my reader calls it `The hollow with the cypress trees…`
A lot of soil had been taken from here and probably sold or used in constructions or in gardens and that's how this rectangular shaped big cavity came to be. Later on, cypress trees have been planted towards the edges inside the cavity and they would grow to provide protection from the winds of Messaoria…
The old man from Ebicho (Abohor, now called Cihangir) is showing us this place – he is the father of one of my readers… My reader is abroad and I call him to ask where in this cavity we should be looking for…
`Check the north-eastern corner` he says… `It has to be between the edge and the cypress trees… Two `missing` Greek Cypriots had been buried there…`
Already Xenophon Kallis has gone down the deep cavity to explore – he stands 2-3 meters below, checking the ground where my reader is describing through the phone… We are together with the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee, Xenophon Kallis, Murat Soysal and Okan Oktay… This is our first stop today, on the 21st of January 2014, Tuesday and we will continue to investigate and to show some other possible burial sites…
According to my reader the two `missing` Greek Cypriots who had been killed and buried here back in 1974, had been trying to escape – they were in the group of 45 Greek Cypriots captured in Voni, in Frosso Dimou's house. They had been arrested and taken on foot towards Beykeuy, a neighbouring village.
A group of Turkish Cypriots in command around this area would execute them but during the execution, the automatic gun they were trying to use would get stuck and some of those from the group – maybe around eight or ten persons – would try to escape towards these fields… A chase would begin on foot, to try to catch and kill them… My reader, who had been a ten year old kid back in 1974, would hear the stories about this group, about the chase and he would grow up to investigate the details and tell us about what happened in this area… So the two would be caught and killed and would be buried in this spot… This possible burial site would have to be investigated to see if their remains are still there or whether they have been removed while taking big amounts of soil from this spot. The person who had chased and killed and buried them with his own shiro (bulldozer) would tell my reader the story so in a way, we have `first-hand information`
through my reader…
We take photos and coordinates of the area and we move to another old cavity outside Ebicho (Abohor) – we want the old man to show us the exact location of the huge cavity that once existed in the trash damping ground there. It has been partly fenced in order to prevent trash being thrown… Close by is a shooting range used by the military from time to time…
The old man, the father of my reader shows us where the cavity had used to be and shows us where its contours had been… Once upon a time, the British had taken havara soil from this cavity in order to build the road close by… In 1974, one of my readers had seen some Greek Cypriots being buried in this cavity… The hole had been 20 meters by 30 meters and its depth went as far as 3-4 meters at some points…After the war in 1974, having collected the dead bodies from around Palekythre and Ebicho, one of my readers had witnessed to the burial of 8-10 Greek Cypriot `missing persons` here. Later on this havara hole would become a rubbish damp and tons of rubbish must have been thrown in the hole, not just this hole but to the whole area where we are standing now… Finally the authorities of the village would try to fence it off in order stop people from throwing rubbish here… Kallis had found photos from 1963 of the area and on another visit, I had
shown this photo to the old man, to be sure of the exact location of the possible burial site and we had come before to explore with him. Now he is showing the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee, the exact location of the havara hole…
He is around 80 years old and moves like the `Atomic Ant`, short, skilled, energetic… `I'm okay, at least I can find my way back to my house!` he jokes with us…
`Back in the old days, there used to be around 700-800 Turkish Cypriots in our village and there was only one sick person with cancer` he says… `Nowadays, everyone in the village suffers from something… Life has deteriorated, what with the things we eat, the pesticides and hormones and so on… Thank God I am healthy and can still move around and do my own stuff…`
He points out someone who had come and stopped further up…
`See? That man over there, he has cancer…`
We thank him and leave for Karpaz area. This family is so precious for me – they have been helping to uncover all the details of what had happened in this area during the war and helping us to locate possible burial sites. A beautiful family I hold close to my heart because such families are becoming extinct from Cyprus – they have an open heart, they always welcome you and offer you whatever they have, showing hospitality like it used to exist in old times…
Our next stop is the Famagusta Boghazi where we meet two Greek Cypriots from Ephtakomi… Together we go to Galatia and just outside Galatia (Mehmetchik as it is called by Turkish Cypriots) on the road to Ephtakomi they show us a little bridge where they say some `missing` Greek Cypriots had been buried. There are three small bridges on this road and two have been excavated by the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee…
Back in August, one of my readers had also shown a possible burial site on this road but further down…
We say goodbye to the two Greek Cypriots and go to Komi Kepir to check on a well that had been filled during the disappearances of the Greek Cypriots of the area… The well is just outside Komi Kepir… We meet the owner of the land and although in the beginning he had denied that there in fact had been such a well in his field, now that he sees Christina Pavlou Solomi with us whose father and brother are `missing` since 1974 and he recognizes her, he says, `In fact, there is a well, it is in this field…` When he looks at Chirstina and sees all the pain in her eyes, something gives way in his heart and now, he tries to locate the well in the field… Kallis already has a map and shows this to the owner, telling him that the well is marked on the map… Years ago, Christina's mother, Panayiotou Pavlou Solomi had visited Kallis and told him that in this field a well had been closed abruptly just when some people had gone `missing`. Her husband and son
were being kept as prisoners of war in Galatia together with the others from her village and surrounding villages. The villagers had got suspected about why an open well would be closed… `Katirci's well` as it is called is somewhere here – Kallis, Murat Soysal and Okan Oktay are investigating the field now with the owner… It is Christina's presence here that made the difference – although it is extremely difficult for Christina to come back to this village and to stand in this field, she has made a tremendous effort in order to help find the `missing`… She has a few tears in her eyes and I hold her hand, she is like an angel on this earth, like a saint, going beyond her own pain and suffering to help to stop the pain of all other relatives of `missing persons`… She has taken a big step and not everyone can do that – it takes a lot of guts and courage to be able to do what she is doing, despite her own suffering… Her tears pass
through my heart and I am grateful to have her as a friend in my life… She is so precious for me, a gem, a jewel, shining her light through the things she does…
On our way back Christina shows us the Agios Afxentios Church, a very old church where renovation work is just beginning… She shows us her house, her grandmother's olive oil mill… Time to say goodbye to Komi Kepir for now but we will come back again, hoping to help to have better days for our children…

25.1.2014

Photo: A possible burial site in Ebicho (Abohor)...

(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 9th of February 2014, Sunday.

Stories from Silikou and Limassol…

Stories from Silikou and Limassol…

Sevgul Uludag

caramel_cy@yahoo.com

Tel: 00 357 99 966518
00 90 542 853 8436

We set out early morning around 08.30 from Nicosia with two cars on the 15th of January 2014 Wednesday to go to Ipsona together with a Turkish Cypriot witness from Silikou village… The witness is an old man with health problems and he needs to be back at 12.00 o'clock since he has to go into dialysis every day on that hour… Still he comes all the way from Prastio Morphou (it is called Aydinkeuy by Turkish Cypriots now) to show us a possible burial site…
We pass Ipsona and take the road towards Kouris dam… The roads have changed but once we find the right road that the old man remembers, he is happy… At a junction we stop the cars and get out… He shows us an area where there might be some `missing persons` buried. One of his Greek Cypriot friends had seen the burial place and had told him about it and now he is sharing it with us.
We start chatting about his village Silikou and talk about how the father of Nicos Anastasiades, ` Chrysanthos ` as he calls him had saved the lives of his Turkish Cypriot villagers… I had written about this before, one of his villagers, Pembe had told me the story and later on the Turkish media had `discovered` the story… Now the old man tells me more details of what had happened:
`I was the muhktar of the village at that time but could not get out of the village` he tells me, `so we sent Ibrahim Dayi to Chrysanthos Anastasiades to tell him that some Greek Cypriots from outside our village had come and our lives were in danger… Uncle Ibrahim was old so they would not touch him while he travelled to find Chrysanthos, the father of Anastasiades… Chrysanthos was coming from a very poor family and the family of Ibrahim had helped him survive when he had been a child, giving him bread to eat and money… So when Ibrahim would contact Chrysanthos who had been chief of police in Limassol at that time, Chrysanthos would immediately call the Greek Cypriots who came with bad intentions in our village and would send them away, telling them they cannot touch the Turkish Cypriots in Silikou… Some of these Greek Cypriots who had come to our village from outside were from Platres, Trimiklini, Pera Pedi…`
Probably they were some of the EOKA-B teams of the area…
The old man continues to tell his story:
`Chrysanthos was from our village Silikou but he had married to Pera Pedi and had been staying there. After the phone call from Chrysanthos to them, telling them off, they came and apologized and then left. They were afraid of Chrysanthos, that's why they apologized… But this way, our lives were saved…`
We look at the possible burial site on the way to the Kouris dam and then say goodbye to the old man – he will pay a short visit to his village Silikou and then head back in time for his dialysis.
But we have more work to do because I want to show the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee another possible burial site so we head back to Limassol together with Xenophon Kallis, Murat Soysal and Okan Oktay. Here we meet my friend Christina Pavlou Solomi Patsia from Komi Kebir – she has been helping voluntarily the search for the `missing persons`.
We stop at the entrance to the `Turkish Mahalla` of Limassol, `Ayanton` as the Turkish Cypriots call it. We walk towards the north, taking behind us the mosque and the church of the Ayios Antonios neighbourhood. I show the officials of CMP the place shown to me by some Turkish Cypriot witnesses where some Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot `missing` from the 60s might have been buried. The information was that some `missing` Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots are suspected to be buried in the well of the toilet of the `military` building where they might have been kept as prisoners for some time. We walk around the buildings and some Greek Cypriots using these buildings now help us to locate the actual building used as a prison, the toilet itself and show us where the wells are – they are behind the building, they point out four wells but the biggest one, closest to the toilet, might be the possible burial site.
It is said that unknown persons, Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot might have been buried in the toilet well or in the shooting practice area in those times.
Next we try to locate the entry to the underground shooting practice area, some tunnels built underground since there were rumours that some `missing` might have been buried there…
One of my readers who had served here had told me that some `missing persons` had been buried in a well in the underground shooting range.
It is Kallis who discovers the entry – inside a house here, in the kitchen, was a big well and from the well they could enter the tunnel for shooting practice. It is covered now but when the Greek Cypriot refugee family moved in this house, they had discovered a big well, open, inside the kitchen! The well was very clean, no water, no trash – if this was the main entry, that's understandable… We find out that the tunnels stretched under the Turkish neighbourhood, were elaborate and might have had other entrances… Perhaps this had been the main entrance… I have a Turkish Cypriot reader who had served his military service here and I will arrange to take him here so he can tell us more about the secret tunnels and what had happened in these former military buildings of Turkish Cypriots… The refugees living in these houses offer us coffee – they are from Famagusta and very kind, reminding us of the hospitality of our people once upon a time
in Cyprus…
There is yet another secret shooting range underground in Larnaka that we still need to locate – we know from testimonies of my readers that some people were tortured and probably killed, still `missing` until now…
We say goodbye to Limassol with its secrets gradually unfolding before our very eyes… With some more help from readers, I am sure we will discover more about what happened in this neighbourhood back in the 60s and perhaps find the possible burial site of the `missing persons` from around Limassol…

18.1.2014

Photo: Possible burial site outside Limassol around Kouris dam…

(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 2nd of February 2014, Sunday.