Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Tel: 00 357 99 966518
00 90 542 953 8436
I want to go away to the sea, to walk on the beach, to feel the winter breeze, the salt, the fresh air, to look at the birds, the cats, the dogs, all the animals and all the flowers and all the trees – I want to stroke the head of all the cats, all the dogs, I want to touch each and every flower, smell the jasmine, the rose, the daisy, I want to touch each pine tree, each walnut tree, each olive tree.. I want to connect with the stars and the moon, with the galaxy and the earth, I want to find a way out of this sick country that would heal my heart…
Humans can endure so much and my heart proves this – it has been broken so many times… Just last night and today as I was speaking with the sons of a `missing person` whose remains were found in a well in Kokkinotrimitia I feel how much joy they have and how deep their sorrow is at the same time… They will have the funeral on Monday, the 9th of February 2015 and I will go… Their mother Ayshe's heart could not survive to see the day her husband's remains would be found and returned to her – she had died on the 9th of February 2002 – 13 years later on the same day that she died, her children will bury her beloved `missing` husband next to her grave in Gaziveran. I will go and be with the two sons and the daughter who has never seen her father. Ayshe had been pregnant when her husband went `missing` on the 28th of December 1963 – in fact he did not just go and `disappear` - he was a policeman serving in Peristerona and some Greek Cypriots
went to the police station in Peristerona and took him by force, together with Ahmet Osman Chavush… Those Greek Cypriots would take Ozer Ekrem Emin and Ahmet Osman to Kokkinotrimitia and they would keep him in the police station there for a few days, as I would discover years later during my investigations… The policeman working at Kokkinotrimitia, Hasan Nural Djevdet would also be kept there by the same `team` of Greek Cypriots. Another Turkish Cypriot who had gone from the area of Lefka to Nicosia to sell his oranges would also be stopped and put in the police station at Kokkinotrimitia… And some more others… They would be executed and buried in the chain of wells (`laοumi`) just on the edge of Kokkinotrimitia, around `Nea Horko`… One Greek Cypriot reader would tell me the story and I would publish it – I would go to see these chain of wells where they had been buried… I would go with my dear friend Maria Georgiadou from Kythrea and we
would be both shocked at what had happened in this village… I would even see the truck of the Turkish Cypriot that he had used to sell oranges – it had been changed and used for many years by one of the perpetrators… I would take photos of the truck… Such arrogance would freeze our hearts, both Maria's and mine and I would go around with a broken heart for many days to come afterwards… We would meet the guy who was not from this village but who knew the chain of wells and he would show us and also give us a map… I would share all this information both with my Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot readers, as well as the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee back in 2009… Six years ago… Six years ago, what had happened in Kokkinotrimitia in 1963 would break my heart…
Ozer Ekrem Emin had two sons when he went `missing` - Huseyin was barely seven years old and Raif was five and a half… His wife was pregnant and would soon give birth after her husband went `missing` to a lovely little girl that she would call Sherife…
In 2010 Raif Yucelten would call me and we would speak about my findings… I would send him everything I wrote about Kokkinotrimitia… Few days ago we would speak again about the funeral… Yesterday the elder son of the `missing` Ozer Ekrem Emin, Huseyin would call me and we would have a long conversation about his father, about what had happened, about how he felt now…
He still had his wedding ring on his finger when they found his remains in the well in Kokkinotrimitia… The buckle of his belt remained… The buttons from his shirt remained… His socks remained… His sweater remained… He tells me that they will bury these together with his remains on Monday…
I had found a Greek Cypriot friend who loved Ekrem and he would tell me about him as we sat in a coffee shop in Astromeritis… They had been friends while the Greek Cypriot was working for the electricity company – Ekrem was well dressed and could sing songs and they would sit and Ekrem would play his saz (a musical instrument) and sing songs as they ate and drank… After Ekrem `disappeared`, his wife Ayshe had sent word to one of the Greek Cypriots who worked with Ekrem to go and see her – she wanted to ask some questions… But this person would not go and the Greek Cypriot friend of Ekrem would ask him why…
`What shall I tell her? That they came and took him away?...` the guy would answer…
The family would continue to look for him and try to follow what had been happening… Huseyin, the son of Ekrem who had been seven years old at that time knows and remembers every single case of `disappearance` from the area and he asks me about Veysi from Akachi, about this and that person…
`We used to try to follow what was happening in order to see if we can also find out something about my father… I have names… I have gone to Kokkinotrimitia… I even visited ……. while he was dying to see if he would have mercy to tell me where he buried my father… But he did not speak…`
The person he visited in Kokkinotrimitia was someone who had been involved in the killings of Turkish Cypriots in Agios Vassilios (Ayvasil) as well as those in Kokkinotrimitia…
`We have a nice kind of anxiety for the funeral` he says, `although we are sad, we are sort of happy at the same time that finally we would bury him next to our mother, on the anniversary of my mother… We would also put a plaque on the monument with his name, the monument we have in Gaziveran for all those who died… Afterwards? I don't know… Shall we take it to court?`
Huseyin would never stop looking for any information about his father…
`Please come on Monday to the funeral… I want to thank you because you are the backbone of all the investigations` he says… `If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't be where we are…`
I go with my husband on Monday to the funeral to lay flowers and be with the three kids who never stopped looking for their father…
I hug the little girl born after her father's death, who only saw her father in photographs, beautiful photographs in black and white, a father whose warmth she could never feel… I pass on all my warmth to her so that she would know she is not alone… Perhaps this would heal my heart a little bit, sharing this pain and sharing this moment…
6-7.2.2015
Photo: Ozer Ekrem Emin...
(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 1st of March 2015, Sunday.
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