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.
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