Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Tel: 99 966518
Kyriakos Contanti Hadjisoteri was born in 1918 in Komi Kebir – in 1974 he was barely 56 years old – a farmer with three children… In fact, he was an uncle of Christina Pavlou Solomi Patsia – when I asked, Christina would explain:
`He had 3 children, 1 daughter (Salomi) and 2 sons (Takis and Kostakis). His wife was called Maria and she was first cousin to my mother. Kyriakos was a brother of my uncle Antonis Kostanti Xadjisotiri (he was missing and we found him in the group of Apelandros and he was buried 18 April 2008). His wife is my mother's sister. He was a farmer, as all of the people in Komi Kebir. His daughter left for England after 1974 and now she is few months there and few months here. His sons are living in England.`
Kyriakos was tending to his business and waiting to see what would happen when one day on the 22nd of September 1974, a Turkish Cypriot from his village, a co-villager stopped by. This Turkish Cypriot went to the house of Kyriacos in order to steal his cement machine (tsiakkilomihani).
Kyriacos protested:
`Don't take it, I paid for this cement machine` he told his co-villager.
But that Turkish Cypriot would not stop…
`If you don't bring it back I will go and complain to the police` said Kyriakos.
Perhaps he never got the chance to go and complain to the police since that day a few Turkish Cypriots from his village who were `running the affairs` like `cowboys` in the village at the time came to his house and took him away. He went `missing`…
I would find out that his remains had been identified from my dear friend Christina Pavlou Solomi Patsia.
His remains had been found in a well in Livadia – a village close to Komi Kebir…
In fact it was a well that together with my readers, we had shown to the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee…
First it was a reader from Galatia who had shown this well to me and had told me the story. There were rumours in the area that a priest had been buried in this well. We did not know at the time that it was not a priest but Kyriakos Constanti Hadjisoteri who had been killed and buried here…
The well was among some plantation of vines… Nearby was some fig trees… And a very special pear tree with tiny but very tasty pears…
I had gone there with another reader from Galatia and he too had shown me the same area…
Together with the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee I had gone there two or three times to show them this area and tell them what I had heard from two different readers from Galatia village… This was five years ago, that is in 2010…
After a few years when the excavations began in the field with the vines, one of my Turkish Cypriot readers whom I did not know would call me – she would tell me that one of her close relatives knew the exact location of the well – the well had been closed from that time so when you looked in the field you would only see the vines, not a well… She was afraid but still conjured enough courage to call me and tell me that she wanted to help… We agreed that one person from the team of archaeologists could visit her and ask for water and this way she would get a pretext to take her close relative to the field in order to bring some water to the archaeologists. I would call one of the archaeologists, Arzu, to ask her whether she could go and visit my reader's house and ask for water and Arzu would willingly do that – finally things would work out and my reader would go to the field with her close relative and tell her relative, `Look how hard they
are working under this burning sun, looking for the well! We must help them…` and her relative would show the exact location of the well… Her relative had nothing to do with the killing of Kyriakos but he had seen where they had buried him…
Finally during the exhumations, remains would be found… We still did not know whose remains these were and would have to wait for DNA identification to find out… And finally I would find out from Christina who he was: Her uncle who had been killed for a cement machine…
It is rare that I would find out who had been found in the areas we have shown to the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee with my readers and with witnesses because no one would inform me about the identification of the remains. Only if I had found out through my own investigations who might have been buried there and tried to follow it up, perhaps I would know in order to go and visit the relatives and to attend the funerals… Most of the time, the relatives of `missing persons` whom I had helped to find the remains would inform me about the results of the DNA identification and they would invite me to attend the funerals… I would be grateful since I too would be closing a chapter by attending the funeral – it would bring me release from working hard to find the remains of a `missing person` when I would actually go and attend the funeral and be present when we would all say our last goodbyes to that person who had remained at the bottom of a well
or in a ditch or in a field scattered around or on top of a hill for 40 or 50 years and now finally we would bury them properly… From time to time I would enquire from the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee about this or that burial site we had shown and where remains had been found to see if DNA identification have been finalized and when there would be the funerals – sometimes I would find out and sometimes not…
One incident that made me very sad was the story of a skull – one of my readers had given me a skull to give to the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee – he had found this skull of a `missing person` while hunting and had kept it at home… After so many articles every single day, this reader had been `sensitized` and bold enough to call me and give back the skull he had kept for so many years at home. On the same day that I got the skull, I would also take him to the area in Koutsovendi to show us where he might have found it during hunting many years ago. He would show me and the archaeologists the rough location of the possible burial site. On the same day I would give the skull to the Committee for DNA analysis…
The skull had made a big impact on me: He was a young person, `missing` who had been shot from his eye… Part of the skull was destroyed from a bullet that went through the head… But his teeth – it was amazing how beautiful teeth he had… There was no fillings, no scratches, all white and shiny and intact… His teeth were perfect, showing me how young he had been… I wanted very much to find out after the DNA analysis who this young `missing person` had been, having held his skull in my hands…
Of course no one would tell me – I would find out accidentally two weeks after his funeral who he had been… He had been a very young man, 23 years old, married – he had been from Alambra village… I would ask the psychologist of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee, Katy Mangerdjian to see if the family would accept to see me… After a few months I got a note from Katy that his wife would meet me if I go to visit her in Alambra… This, I want to do very much in the coming weeks… My heart still holds on to that skull I held in my hands and I would also tell my reader who had given me the skull that we finally found out who this person had been… He too, would appreciate that information… In this way, we would be giving a name, a face, a story to an `unknown` skull that he had found on the slopes of Koutsovendis during hunting one day…
And of course I will go to Larnaka in order to attend the funeral of Kyriakos Constanti Hadjisoteri on the 7th of February 2015 Saturday and meet his children… We will go together with my friend Christina… I will also tell my readers from Galatia and my woman reader from another village in the area who this person was that they helped to find the remains… They too would appreciate that information…
I thank all my readers who are helping in this process with the information they bring… May all those we have found with their help rest in peace and may we work more to find if possible all the others who still wait buried under a road, at the bottom of a well, on a hilltop, in a field…
25.1.2015
Photo: Kyriacos Constanti Hadjisoteri...
(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 1st of February 2015, Sunday.
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