Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Tel: 99 966518
Michalis Michaelides was born in Ay Yiorgi in Famagusta, a small village near the Karaolos camp… He grew up in that village, going around with his father in their truck selling watermelon and other vegetables to the villages around Famagusta… His father, a PEO member had many Turkish Cypriot friends in different villages and also in Famagusta. In Famagusta, he had one friend called Mustafa and Michalis's father would visit him often, they would eat and drink and little Michalis would play with the children of Mustafa: Huseyin and Ayshe…
Years would pass by peacefully for his family and in 1971 he would get married to Spathariko… In his wedding not only Greek Cypriots but also the Turkish Cypriot friends of his father would come to eat and dance and celebrate the young boy's happy day… Mustafa and his family was there…
After his wedding the young, 18 year old Michalis went to do his military service. He was serving at Diorios and was on leave when the war broke out in 1974 – Michalis had had a minor operation and that's why they had given him a leave of two weeks… His leave ended on the 20th of July 1974 and that was the day the war struck our island… He went to report back to the army in Famagusta – his wife had washed his uniform and it had not dried yet so he went in civilian clothes… He had no gun, no uniform… Telling all this to our dear friend, journalist Huseyin Halil (who does the only bicommunal, bi-lingual TV programmes in Cyprus for RIK called `Under the Same Sky` together with his colleague Chrystalla Avgousti), Michalis thinks that not wearing a uniform probably saved his life…
`They put us on trucks and sent us outside the walled city of Famagusta` he says… The war planes were bombing Famagusta but where they were stationed, it was more quiet. They were being shelled and they were firing back… Then his sergeant gave orders for the group to go towards the new Nicosia-Famagusta road – the road had just been built and it was new as Michalis remembers… They were a group of 13 soldiers, Michalis Michaelides the only one not in a uniform. So they went on the new road to see if the Turkish army was coming… They saw tanks coming towards Famagusta… On top of one tank was a Greek flag – they were surprised and started being suspicious since they had heard nothing on the radio or wireless about any Greek tanks… `At that time we could not think clearly on that` he says and as the tanks approached, they saw the Turkish soldiers behind the tanks… The Turkish soldiers arrested them and Michalis says they were beaten up real
hard, that he would never forget the beating of that day… They were using their guns to beat them and Michalis still carries the scars on his legs from those beatings…
They took them to Varosha – Varosha was deserted as Michalis remembers:
`They had gathered a lot of prisoners of war` Michalis says, `Old and young, civilian and military… Then they surrounded them and started separating them – old people on one side, soldiers on another side… They took the ones with me to the gardens of Perchanas – we heard gun shots soon after… I did not see with my own eyes them being killed but I heard the shots… Then afterwards we heard the noise of the bulldozers… I don't know… Because I was wearing civilian clothes, they had put me together with other civilians… That's how I was saved. They put is in cars and sent us to the Pavlides garage in Nicosia… We started waiting there – there were many others in that garage… We didn't know what would happen to us… I don't remember how long we stayed there… After a very long time some trucks came to Pavlides garage and they started loading us on the trucks – there were rumours that we were going to be taken to Turkey… I
was in the last row… We were the last to be loaded to the trucks and then a Turkish Cypriot officer who was about my age started saying something to the other officer there in Turkish. I could understand Turkish a little bit – after the Turkish Cypriot officer's intervention, the other officer took me by the collar and took me out of the line… I turned around and looked at him but did not recognize him. He had said that I had killed his mother and father and he wanted to kill me with his own hands! Then two soldiers grabbed me and put me in a landrover that belonged to the Greek Cypriot army – they had taken this landrover over. My hands had been tied and they threw me in the landrover like a bag of potatoes… The landrover moved, the soldiers wanted to get in the landrover as well but the Turkish Cypriot officer told them that he didn't need them. The landrover moved… I was wondering where we were going to… The officer did not speak a
single word to me. He was driving the landrover and I was sitting at the back. I was wondering where we were going to… I had a thousand thoughts in my mind… I was thinking of my family – we left Nicosia and were almost entering Famagusta that the officer stopped the car. I said to myself, `Oh my God! This is the end of me!`
He opened the back door and took me out of the landrover.
`Don't kill me` I said to him, `I have family…`
He turned around and looked at me:
`Who said anything about killing you Michali mou…` he said.
He took his cap off his head and when I looked at him I realized this was my friend Huseyin, the son of Mustafa who was a close friend of my father… The one who was saving me was my childhood friend Huseyin…`
If the father of Michalis was not friends with Mustafa, a Turkish Cypriot from Famagusta, their children would never meet and play pirilli in Famagusta, would never spend time and would never become childhood friends… If the father of Michalis did not make any friends from the Turkish Cypriot community, perhaps there would be no one to save the life of Michalis…
What Michalis Michaelides told in 2011 to Huseyin Halil from RIK is important if we want to draw any lesson from the past – since I watched the video I have been thinking about it:
Unless our children start getting to know one another, we cannot build a culture of peace on this island…
4.1.2015
Photo: Michalis Michalides talking to Huseyin Halil on RIK TV...
(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 18th of January 2015, Sunday.
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