Saying goodbye to Yiannakis Liasi in Agia Triada…

Saying goodbye to Yiannakis Liasi in Agia Triada…

Sevgul Uludag

caramel_cy@yahoo.com

Tel: 00 357 99 966518
00 90 542 853 8436

We start early, at eight o'clock in the morning on our way to Agia Triada in Karpaz… Today is the 12th of July 2014, Saturday and we are going to the funeral of `missing` Yannakis Liasi in Agia Triada… He is the first Greek Cypriot `missing person` to be buried in the northern part of our island, at the place he was born, in his hometown, in his village, in the place he grew up and played and looked at the sea and climbed the hills. In the place where he learnt to walk and talk, where he learnt the alphabet, to read and write and to grow up as the only son of the family who had a sister, the only girl of the family Toulla… As he grew up, he did not know what life had in store for him, a young boy to go to study in Athens, Economics… He travelled to attend the university, young and fresh and eager to hold on to life – the only son of Maroulla and Savvas Liasi from Agia Triada…
But life was not simple and life was something that happened to us when we were making other plans…
In fact life had never been simple in Cyprus after `nationalisms` arrived in their colours of blue and red, painting everything, taking over the whole geography, dividing and ruling with the help of others from outside…
Yiannakis would come home and the coup would happen and then the war of 1974, the bloody war that spared only those who planned and executed it and the innocent would fall… So many innocent young men and young women and old men and old women would be executed, would be killed, their blood flowing and taking over the geography to be divided into two distinct parts… Karpaz would suffer, Messaoria would suffer, Famagusta would suffer, Kyrenia would suffer, Morphou would suffer… Tochni and Paphos would suffer and so would Limassol… It will only bring tears and misery and death, as well as a huge population movement forced or encouraged to leave for safety of life and human dignity… People would fled never to be able to return to their hometown, their village, their home where they grew up, planted trees, watered the vegetables, grew basil and mint… People would never be able to return to look at the sky under which they had prayed or laughed or
cried…
Some had remained despite harassment – in Karpaz, people would be harassed in order to `encourage` them to leave… Some Turkish Cypriots would go around in some villages trying to rape girls in order to push the Greek Cypriot families to leave and never come back…
The young boy, only 21, had been dispatched to go and fight the big war waged in Cyprus, the young Yiannakis from Agia Triada… The last time his family would see him would be 11th of August 1974 when he would tell them that they were being dispatched to Agios Epiktitos… This would be the last time they would look at his face, hear his voice, feel his warmth… He would be listed as a `missing person` and his father and mother would remain in Agia Triada and wait for their son to come back to them, just as they had sent him, alive, young and fresh, eager to live the life he had been promised by this earth…
But he would never come back… His sister Toulla would go to study art in Holland and would remain there…
Maroulla and Savva Liasi would stay in Karpaz and wait for news, any news, any sign of life from their son… Their son `missing`, their daughter emigrated to Holland, they would live a lonely life in Agia Triada in Karpaz, in the agony of waiting and waiting and waiting…
We reach Agia Triada and go to the church – two busloads of Greek Cypriots as well as others have come with their cars to be with the Liasi family on this important day… I see friends among the crowd… The little coffin containing the remains of Yiannakis, found in a mass grave of five Greek Cypriot `missing` found in Klepini four years ago and identified through DNA tests haven't arrived yet so we walk towards the house of the Liasi family – also packed with women in black crying…
I found Tasoula Hadjitoffi inside, writing her speech – Tasoula is working wonders trying to collect the stolen heritage of Cyprus, stolen and sold abroad… She has an association called Walk of Truth and has devoted her life in getting back the cultural and historical heritage back into Cyprus… She will be one of the speakers at the funeral…
Then I find Toulla Liasi, the little sister of Yiannakis, the artist, the painter, the photographer, the poet, the woman with a wounded heart – she gives me her book called `Rusted Evidence` - returning to Agia Triada after the checkpoints opened in 2003 she has photographed ordinary things, plates, pots, the sky, a hand-woven rug and turned them into beautiful art about her feelings towards this land and her pain of having a `missing` brother and her pain of being away from her enclaved parents… Yes, the evidence rusts and yet in our hearts the evidence remains intact and fresh, at one single sighting and one single touch memories come back rushing and bringing us everything as we remember it…
Finally the little coffin arrives and is taken inside the house for prayer… We walk towards the small church, fully packed now with people – I find a space to stand with my flowers…
The coffin then comes to the church and the priests start the ritual singing hymns – Maroulla, the mother of `missing` Yiannakis looks very fragile and a young teacher who is staying with them and teaching at Rizokarpasso is trying to keep her well by giving her water and wiping her face with a cloth… Is it easy at her age to look at that small coffin after 40 years of agony and to attend the funeral of her own son? I am afraid for her but Tasoula tells me that there is a doctor somewhere in the church…
Speeches began as the heat becomes unbearable in the small church… Tasoula Hadjitofi, a close friend of Toulla and the Liasi family speaks from her heart:
`In the House of God, we are all equal and therefore forgive me for ignoring the protocol today.
There are certain moments in our lives where silence is the best speech. Silent I am, as I watch the ordeal of the Liasi family. Silent I am as I observe the procedures for the funeral here at Agia Triada as well as all the things which needed to be managed in order for all of us to be here today to 'place' our Yiannakis 'to rest.'
Today, however, we are not only burying a hero who gave his life for all of us. We are first and foremost burying the son of Mrs. Maroulla and Mr. Savvas, the brother of our Toulla and the uncle of our Marou and Savvas. Although you never met your uncle, you still loved him dearly.
We, the Cypriots of Holland and all the Dutch and Greek friends from Holland who are here today, have been witnessing for 35 years the Odyssey of this family, who has been waiting for their son to return back home.
My beloved Toulla, all these years together in Holland we lived your agony to find your brother. Almost a month ago we heard the truth and then, your own Odyssey began as a modern 'Antigone' who has been looking desperately to find ways to take her brother back home.
Now is the time.
Your brother, your uncle, your son has returned back home today. My beloved Mr. Liasis. Dear uncle Savvas, today it is also your birthday. What a double gift this is for you. On one hand, a circle closes and we also bury the uncertainty as to the whereabouts of your son. On the other hand, we bury the hope that perhaps he is alive somewhere and that he will return.
My beloved ones, we bow in front of you today, I feel so small, you are such giants, 'leventes' and 'leventisses'. With your stance, integrity and way of life, you represent the excellence in every correct and peaceful human being and you are, role models to others.
I hope that the fact that so many of us who love you, have travelled from abroad to be with you, gives you courage that 'You are not alone'. Jullie zijn niet alleen. Dank U wel, Efxaristo.`
Then Toulla reads a poem she has written for her `missing` brother...

'No tomb, no wreaths, no funeral speeches'

Under the shade of the olive-tree
I looked at your watch
silently
and I saw time ceases.

On that eleventh day of August
your voice
fading away
under the stones of Pentadaktylos
your dreams
behind the grain fields, bushes and trees.

Here,
where the landscape
insists
tactfully
on unraveling
its beauty
here,
where the silence
imposes
cruelly,
among strangers
the meaning of loneliness
is defined
once more.

The final testimonies
speak without hesitations
a photo in a newspaper-cutting
and an assembled skeleton
are all that is left.

Heroes
outdated ideals
in old history books
literary recitations
of learned orators
idols of young students
in revolutions.

No tomb
no wreaths
no funeral speeches
anonymous medals
for those
who dare
die for freedom.

After the touching poem of Toula we lay our flowers, touching the coffin…
Yiannakis is buried in the place he was born, he grew up, in his homeland, in his village…
He is no longer laying down in an unmarked grave if that would be some sort of consolation to his family…
Rest in peace Yiannakis Liasi… Your friends have laid you to rest where you belong… And may the earth never give such pain to any family like this, to have someone `missing` and not knowing what had happened… And may we learn something from your ordeal, may we look at the past and learn something so it would not be repeated in the future… May our country learn to live in peace and harmony, instead of enmity, rivalry and blindness to what actually had happened on this island…

13.7.2014

Photo: Yiannakis Liasi

(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 27th of July 2014, Sunday.

From Amargeti to Maratha…

From Amargeti to Maratha…

Sevgul Uludag

caramel_cy@yahoo.com

Tel: 00 357 99 966518
00 90 542 853 8436

Giannakis had come home for just a few days on leave from the army in order to support his family and share their pain… It was right after the coup in Cyprus in July 1974 – his brother Athanasis had been killed in the coup – Athanasis Georgiou was stationed at the presidetial palace, he had been a policeman, from the guard of Makarios… Athanasis had only been 26 years old when he had been killed during the coup, on the 15th of July 1974 – the family was devastated. They were a family from Amargeti, once a mixed village until 1958… They had been a family with ten kids – five girls and five boys… Now one of them, Athanasis was gone…
When the leave of Giannakis was over and he was about to go back to his unit at the Tekke in Larnaka, his mother called all his sisters to come and kiss him and say goodbye…
`You never know what might happen` she had said, this woman with a mother's heart… `This is war and you never know what might happen so kiss him goodbye…` She had just lost a son and was probably deep down was very afraid of losing another, Giannakis…
All five of his sisters would kiss him and say goodbye… He would go back to the Tekke but sometime after, he would phone his mother…
`Mom, they have transferred us to Palekythro… Now I am right across the Turks!`
It had been the 12th of August 1974 and that would be the last call he would make to his family…
That would be the last time he would speak with his mother…
On the 14th of August 1974, when the second round of the war would begin, his unit would be woken up with an alarm at five o'clock and they would all take their defence positions… After that no one would see him – there had been only one witness from his unit who had testified that this had been the last time he had seen him and no one else would come forward with any sort of information…
From Palekythro they would get orders to take defence positions all the way to Mia Milia – at some point they would get orders to go to Aglandja and no one has told the family the exact number of `missing` from this unit of around 100 Greek Cypriot soldiers… Some of them `missing`, some of them killed, some of them arrested and taken to the elementary school of Palekythro. Some of them taken to Turkey as prisoners of war and later returned to Cyprus. Doesn't anyone remember anything or saw anything? Or is it like many other cases where some who had seen their friends killed would keep quiet letting the family to believe that they are `missing`? What had happened at Palekythro that no one remembers anything and it's like amnesia that cost so much pain to this family…
His mother would wait for any sort of news from her son – when she was about to die, she would not die – she would wait and wait and only when they would give her a photo of her `missing` son Giannakis, she would finally give up and rest forever…
His father would grow old and still wait for any news… He would die last year at the age of 96, without hearing anything about his son…
Perhaps the remains of Giannakis is in the laboratory of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee, in a box, waiting for DNA identification or perhaps in an unknown grave still waiting to be discovered and exhumed – we do not know that… All we know is that even if remains are found, the identification process is taking so long that mothers and fathers are dying without ever having a chance to find out about the truth of what had happened to their dear loved ones… They leave this earth with their untreated traumas…
Last week another relative of `missing` Ismail Mustafa Balci from Agios Andronikoudhis called me… Havva is devastated… Her father had gone `missing` on the 2nd of January 1964 and she and her sisters have been waiting for any news about their father… Her father had gone to buy petrol at a petrol station in Trikomo together with two from his village and have gone `missing`.
Last week Havva would call me and complain:
`My sister had cancer… She died two weeks ago… Perhaps I will die too without finding where my father's remains are… We have been waiting for fifty years… Still nothing…`
And yet in Cyprus things proceed slowly, without any rush…
Fifty years for Havva and forty years for the family of Giannakis…
Fifty long years without a father and forty long years without a son whose place no one else can fill… Only sorrow can fill their places, only sadness and life becomes paralysed with this endless waiting that turns into torture. And yet, no one really cares even about the treatment of these harsh traumas in all these years…
A boy who had remained alive from Maratha, hiding from the killers, Shafak Nihat, had found the mass graves of Maratha-Sandallaris while playing at the rubbish damp… He had seen a small hand sticking out from the rubbish and had discovered that this had been the mass grave where the women and children – many of his classmates – had been killed and buried. He never got any treatment for this horrible trauma he had gone through – first in hiding he had the shock of his life as the gangs of EOKA-B came in the house searching for him and his family, his heartbeats too loud he had thought, perhaps they would hear it and kill him… No, they did not hear his heartbeats and he narrowly escaped death only to discover the mass graves of Maratha-Sandallaris and be present when they were being opened.
He is an elementary school teacher now…
`I never feel nausea when children would vomit… I lost those feelings` he says… But our societies at large don't give much thought about what sort of suffering he or others like him have gone through…
Cyprus has been a war zone – there has only been a cease-fire and none of the traumas people went through in 1958, 1963-64 or 1974 have ever been treated on a systematic basis.
I remember a member who used to come to sit with my mother in the library and talk with her… He was always shaking all over… He had been ordered to kill some Greek Cypriots and his commander had told him not to waste any bullets but to do it with a wire by choking them… He couldn't do it… He had been punished… His commander would come and demonstrate how to kill in a stream some Greek Cypriot soldiers to his unit… From then on he had lost it – the shaking and the shivers would never stop and would mark his whole life… He would find some consolation by speaking to the librarian which was my mother and my mother would tell me these stories later…
I travel with a friend whose father had been killed and whose mother had been separated from her for many years… Her mother had been gang raped and barely escaped to go and live elsewhere… She would forever be afraid, having so many locks and bolts on her doors… She would forever be scarred and yet our societies would not think too much about what sort of suffering she must have gone through, as well as her children.
Having a `missing` father, once the son had told me that his treatment of his children would have been different if he did not have his father `missing`. He would not want to leave his children out of his sight, even if they went out for a few hours, he would be dead worried - `I can't help it` he had told me, `I simply can't…`
Cyprus has too many traumas at least from the conflict of the past 50 years… None of them have ever been systematically treated… You may think you can bury these traumas underground but one day they burst and then it might bring even more dramatic damage… No matter how deep you bury the traumas, they are bound to find a way out and get you…
I wish our communities lived without pretence and with enough courage and humanity to first accept without denying that we have deep traumas so that treatment of wounds that affect many generations can at least begin…

27.6.2014

Photo: Giannakis Georgiou

(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 20th of July 2014, Sunday.

From Maratha to Voni: Rapes as a weapon of war…

From Maratha to Voni: Rapes as a weapon of war…

Sevgul Uludag

caramel_cy@yahoo.com

Tel: 00 357 99 966518
00 90 542 853 8436

We gather at the inner yard of the British Council in the old town of Nicosia – we are participating at a `fringe` event, in connection with the biggest global gathering on `Ending sexual violence in conflict`, that is rape as a weapon of war… The day we gather at the British Council, there is a conference going on in London and the UK Foreign Secretariat together with UN Refugee Agency has organized it. The UK Foreign Secretariat has asked its embassies around the world to do `fringe` events on the same day as the gathering in London and I have been asked to speak – in fact I am the only speaker on the subject from Cyprus because the Greek Cypriot speaker has fallen ill and could not make it… Two Greek Cypriot theatre players will read some testimonies at the end of the event at the British Council.
At the end of the global gathering, they want to endorse a "Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict" – they want the summit `to create a sense of irreversible movement towards ending the use of rape and sexual violence in conflict.` They want the summit to identify specific actions by the international community in the four areas where they believe greater progress is necessary. These four areas are:
- To improve investigations/documentation of sexual violence in conflict;
- To provide greater support and assistance and reparation for survivors, including child survivors, of sexual violence;
- To ensure sexual and gender based violence responses and the promotion of gender equality are fully integrated in all peace and security efforts, including security and justice sector reform; and
- To improve international strategic co-ordination.
In fact it is the first time ever in Cyprus that we will discuss rape as a weapon of war publicly – each community in Cyprus sees itself as the `victim` so would never speak about what they themselves did to the others therefore this is in fact the first time that I will present the `picture` from both communities and speak about how rape and threat of rape has been used at least in the past 50 years in the Cyprus conflict… Since there is a time frame for my presentation, I had to `choose` those rapes connected with murders and disappearances or mass killings even though the rest of the information I gathered is no less important or no less painful and shocking… In fact as an investigative journalist, the shock of my life was discovering these rapes while investigating for the `missing persons`… After the opening speech of Matthew Kidd, the British High Commissioner and the speech of Damtew Dessalegne, the Head of UNHCR in Cyprus, as well as the
speech of Clare Seddon from the World Vision International, I take the floor with a power-point show, reflecting photos from Agia Marina, Maratha-Sandallaris-Aloa, Assia, Tochni, Palekythro on the TV screen while I tell the stories of rape I had gathered in the past 14 years… I want to share the highlights from my speech with my readers since I believe it is important to look to our common past if we want to build a common future where we can work together so that `rape as a weapon of war` or even as `a threat` would cease to exist… Here is what I say in the yard of the British Council:
"The two main communities of the island has never discussed `rape as a weapon of war` together since each side sees itself as a `victim` and only blames `the other side` for all the crimes, only talks about `what has been done to itself` and stays quiet about what it has done to `the other side` during the conflict. Since `rape` is still a `taboo` subject, people tend to avoid discussing it publicly anyway.
I have discovered `rapes as a weapon of war` while investigating for the `missing persons` and had the biggest shock as an investigative journalist when I discovered how common these were.
Due to the timeframe of my speech, I will not list all the rapes between 1963-1974 but only list those rapes connected with mass killings and the threats of rape.
A team of some Greek Cypriots from Kokkinotrimitia, after a mass killing of some Turkish Cypriots in Agios Vasilios (Ayvasili) village at the end of 1963, went to the neighbouring mixed village of Agia Marina where Turkish Cypriots and Maronite Cypriots lived together in peace and harmony. They wanted to kill the Turkish Cypriots of the village but the Priest of Profiti Ilias Church Pater Andreas was able to prevent this possible massacre. He said `This is a mixed village, we live peacefully with Turkish Cypriots and we have many common marriages. You cannot kill them, you cannot touch them, first you would have to kill me…` and was able to prevent the killing of Turkish Cypriots of this village. The team from Kokkinotrimitia was upset that they could not achieve this and one evening they took a few very young Maronites with them and went to some Turkish Cypriot houses in the village and attempted to rape some very young Turkish Cypriot girls… The
Turkish Cypriots left the village in order to secure their lives and could never return to this village. In 1974 this village became a military village and Maronites too could not return there.
In 1974, some EOKA-B teams from Peristerona Pygi and surrounding villages arrested all the men of Maratha-Sandallaris-Aloa, three Turkish Cypriot villages and sent them as prisoners of war to Limassol. From 20th of July until 14th of August 1974, they repeatedly raped the women and young girls of these three villages. On the morning of the 14th August 1974 when the second phase of the operation of Turkey began, they panicked and killed 126 persons, mass majority of whom were women and children – they did not want to leave behind any witnesses to their rapes and they did not even spare few months' old babies, killing all and burying them in mass graves.
In 1974, similar things happened in Assia – while the men and women were separated, some of the Greek Cypriot men were put on two buses and became `missing`. Women and young girls were raped by some Turkish Cypriots from neighbouring villages like Aphania and Mora. The poet from Assia, Christophoros Skarparis told us about these rapes during an interview.
In 1974, there were horrible rapes in the village Voni. Voni had been turned into a prisoners' camp and many Greek Cypriots were gathered here, in the beginning everyone was kept in the church. Some Turkish Cypriots raped young girls `in the most sacred place of the church` according to some Greek Cypriots I spoke to. 36 very young girls were sent to the southern part of our island for abortion since they had become pregnant due to rapes.
In Tochni in 1974, we see the same setup: Turkish Cypriot men were arrested and put on two buses and became `missing` while some young Turkish Cypriot girls were gathered in a house and raped by some Greek Cypriots. Under extraordinary circumstances and measures, women whose husbands went `missing` were taken to the northern part of our island and now live in the Vouno village. This village was known as the `Village of the Widows`… Remains of their husbands on the first bus was found in Gerasa and the second bus in Pareklisia – the exhumations continue in Pareklisia.
In Palekythro village, some Turkish Cypriots from Epicho village first stole the cows of the Souppouris family, then they came back and asked for money and they got some money. The Liassis and Souppouris families were gathered in one house. Next they raped the women and young girls and just like EOKA-B at Maratha-Sandallaris-Aloa, in order not to leave any witnesses behind, they killed everyone, majority all women and children. Behind this massacre again were rapes.
We know that there were a lot of rapes in Karpaz and rape was used as a threat to push the Greek Cypriot population to leave Karpaz.
Those who had committed rapes were never punished either in the Turkish Cypriot or Greek Cypriot communities.
I discovered all the information about rapes while I was investigating for the `missing persons`. I hope that with the support of the international community we can document these.
The famous English writer James Burke wrote, `Why should we look to the past when we are building the future? Because there is nothing else to look…` And this is our common past…"

16.6.2014

Photo: After the discovery of a mass grave in Maratha...

(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 13th of July 2014, Sunday.

From Komurdju to Yerolakko and Kaputi…

From Komurdju to Yerolakko and Kaputi…

Sevgul Uludag

caramel_cy@yahoo.com

Tel: 00 357 99 966518
00 90 542 853 8436

Together with the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee, Murat Soysal, Okan Oktay and Xenophon Kallis, we go once again to Komurdju near Aghirdagh to meet one of my readers…
With his help next to this stream we had found the remains of five `missing` Greek Cypriots a few years ago – he had shown us the possible place of a well where a `missing` Greek Cypriot from 1964 was said to be buried. This well has not been excavated yet…
The `missing` Greek Cypriot from 1964 was from Karmi – he had been kidnapped from his fields with his donkey and taken to Aghirdagh… In those times there was tension between a Turkish Cypriot from Aghirdagh and a Greek Cypriot from Karmi – the Turkish Cypriot would graze his animals in the fields of Aristoteles Hadjicosta and this would create tension…
Aristoteles Hadjicosta had gone `missing` on the 13th of January 1964 and a week after he had gone `missing` from around Agios Ilarion, his donkey and his dog would come back home without him…
I had gone to interview the 98 year old sister of Aristoteles, Ephtalia who kept his photograph and waited for any news from him…
Today we are once again in the area of Komurdju next to Aghirdagh and my reader has more to tell me on the `missing` Aristoteles…
`They spoke of another small well around the stream` he says and he shows us yet another possible burial site in this area…
`I heard them speak of him in the coffee shop – that he was buried in the well around here` he says…
Kallis as always investigates the whole area and finds something that looks like a well…
We take photos and coordinates of the possible burial site and thank my reader for his help again and say goodbye to him to go to Yerolakko where another reader is waiting with some witnesses about another possible burial site…
We meet in Yerolakko with my other Turkish Cypriot reader and he introduces us to two elderly Turkish Cypriot women who had been settled after 1974 from their village in the southern part of our island to Yerolakko.
The house is next to the football stadium of Yerolakko and it is at the end of the village…
When they moved to this house as refugees, they had noticed that there was a freshly dug area with heaps of soil that looked very suspicious to them. They show us the area where there might be a possible burial site.
Next to this house was a Greek Cypriot military post they remember and they had heard that in one house across this house there had also been some Greek Cypriot soldiers.
The house is not far from a `factory` they say – according to their description, this `factory` as they call it or maybe a big supermarket had a lot of pots and pans and plates and forks and everything that a refugee might need having moved with nothing but only with the clothes on them… All the refugees settled in Yerolakko would go to this `factory` in the village to get stuff that they urgently needed…
We thank our reader and the two elderly ladies for sharing all they know and say goodbye to them…
Soon after the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee does an excavation here but they find no remains… But it must have triggered something about Yerolakko that they start another exhumation further up…
Our next stop is Kaputi where a Turkish Cypriot reader of mine has arranged with one of his Greek Cypriot friends to meet us and show us the possible burial site of some Greek Cypriots in the area…
We meet them and they show us the area and tell us the story that they know… When there had been heavy rains there came out a burial in this area and they could see the boots…
In fact there has been extensive digging in this area by the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee without any results… Many of my Turkish Cypriot readers remember very distinctly this particular area – this is the area where you go from Morphou to Kapouti, on the big bend… This road has been built after 1974 but the old road is still visible down below… From early 2005 until now, many of my Turkish Cypriot readers told me that when they were being settled as refugees from villages from the southern part of our island to Morphou, on their way here they saw freshly dug burial sites, even some parts of the bodies sticking out since perhaps they had not been buried properly… But over the years, there has been too much trampling in this area: The military dig for optic lines, they dig for building new roads and according to some information the burial might have been removed from here…
My Turkish Cypriot reader calls another witness and he comes and tells us that as far as he can remember, after the rains years ago as the burial came out as the soil was washed away by the water, they might have removed this burial to the cemetery or elsewhere… We thank them all and go back to Nicosia…
Soon after the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee begins a fresh round of excavations in this area but again without results…
Perhaps one day we will find out what happened to the `missing` persons buried here and who took them to rebury elsewhere…
Meanwhile we will continue to investigate and see if we are lucky enough to find a witness who might know what had happened to the burial site on the big bend on the road going from Morphou to Kapouti…
I thank all my readers for having enough courage to break zones of silence about the possible burial sites of `missing persons` and want to encourage more people to speak up – this is the only way we can heal the wounds of the past… The more we remain silent, the wound would get bigger and deeper and never heal… The more we speak up, the more closures we bring to the relatives of `missing persons` so that they don't have to wait any longer for any news about their loved ones… This should be our priority in a country full of pain and suffering…

6.6.2014

Photo: The stream in Komurdju...

(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 6th of July 2014, Sunday.