Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Tel: 99 966518
A Turkish Cypriot reader calls in the evening telling me that he has a Greek Cypriot friend who had been around 10 years old in 1974… As a child, this friend of his had witnessed the burial of four `missing` Greek Cypriots in Varosha…
`Can we go there so he can show?` he asks…
`I think first you should take him and see if the possible burial site he is mentioning is within the closed, fenced area of Varosha or if it is outside… If it is within the open area of Varosha no problem…`
`Okay, I will do that soonest…`
`And then, we take it from there… But I also have to tell you this: They had killed and buried some Greek Cypriots in the gardens of Perdjana but later emptied this area… I wrote about that many times… There was some information that they had reburied them somewhere in the gardens of Namik Kemal Lyceum – there was some digging by the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee but nothing came out – I don't know if they were digging the exact area or not…`
`Now you say that` my reader remembers, `when I attended the Namik Kemal Lyceum in 1975, our teachers wouldn't allow us to go and play football at the football field behind the Lyceum… When we asked the reason why, some of our teachers told us that they had buried some Greek Cypriots there and that it was shallow burials and that bones might come out if we went and kicked around… I remember that the football field at some point had been fenced… And some time later, they put loads of soil on top of the field… Maybe this was a possible burial site?`
`Maybe… Let's try to investigate and see…` I say to my reader… `Another place they were mentioning was the parking lot of the Anit Gazinosu outside the walled city… Supposedly they buried some people under the parking lot – from the emptied mass grave of Varosha… They did some digging somewhere around there but not at the parking lot. I think they found the remains of a single `missing` person under a tree…`
I say goodbye to my reader and we agree to meet after he goes with his Greek Cypriot friend to check around Varosha the possible burial site…
A Greek Cypriot reader calls and tells me that he is working on finding the possible burial site of some `missing` Turkish Cypriots… I wish him luck and we will call each other again…
I meet another reader in London who has some information about Avraam Sophokli from Gardana (Sakarya) Neapolis in Famagusta. Back in 2008, that is seven years ago I had investigated the disappearance of Avraam Sophokli and I had written about him in POLITIS in November 2008:
`It was the morning of 6th of May, 1964 when Hasan Mustafa Barbacholli was stopped by two Greek Cypriot policemen from the Salamis police station. Barbacholli was a young man of 22 of Famagusta, was on his way to the Sakarya (Gardana) area…
The two policemen asked to see the insurance of the car and as Hasan was showing these papers, one of the policemen shot and killed him…
Meanwhile Avraam Sophokli of Sakarya (Gardana)-Neapolis (Yenishehir) had gone to his work in Famagusta on the 5th of May, 1964 in the evening. He was a worker but in the past month, they had told him that he would be working at night for a short period, as a night-watchman. This would be his last night on this earth because in the morning, as he finished his job and was trying to go home, he would be kidnapped in Sakarya (Gardana) and then killed by some Turkish Cypriot fighters, as a `revenge` of the killing of Hasan Mustafa Barbacholli. He would be one of the `missing` persons of 1964.`
A Turkish Cypriot reader, who was a friend of the son of Avraam Sophokli would call me and show me some possible burial sites… I would also meet the son of Avraam Sophokli and interview him about his father's disappearance… I would also meet the wife of Barbacholli and interview her…
I would arrange back in 2008 to go to Sakarya (Gardana) area of Famagusta to show to the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee some possible burial sites for the `missing` Avraam Sophokli. They would dig the floor of one house but would not find any remains… The other places we had shown, they have not excavated yet as far as I know…
So my reader in London tells me of a possible burial site close to the house where the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee had excavations…
`He is buried in the garage of ……` he says.
`We actually showed this place to the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee as a possible burial site` I tell my reader from London, `but they haven't dug yet as far as I know…`
`He was actually killed in the house where they dug – this was a military post for Turkish Cypriot soldiers… But he was later buried in that garage not far from this house…` my reader tells me…
He has also questions for me:
`In 1974, they had brought three busloads of Greek Cypriot prisoners at the football field of Magusa Turk Gucu (MTG) Football Club… I want to know what happened to them…`
He has some information about a restaurant in Protaras, that some Turkish Cypriots `missing` from 1964 had been buried under the restaurant and cement was put on top… I would have to investigate that as well to see if it is true or not…
Another reader calls me to tell me how he heard one Turkish Cypriot talking about killing 20 Greek Cypriot prisoners of war from the Pavlides garage… He gives me the name of this guy…
`It was maybe 10 years ago and we were sitting and he was telling us stories, this guy…` he says… `That one day they ordered him to take 20 Greek Cypriots from among the prisoners of war kept at the Pavlides Garage in Nicosia… He was supposed to take them to Ledra Palace for some sort of prisoner exchange but he told us that he never took them there… That he took them to the Pentataktilos where there are some quarries and he killed them there… I thought you should investigate this…`
I thank this reader – more to investigate…
Another reader writes me a note about Samanbahcha… Samanbahcha area in Nicosia belonged to Evkaf and these were tiny houses built for poor persons around a hundred years ago. According to my reader, in the renovation of these houses, in one of the wells the remains of a `missing person` had been found – he still had his cross on his neck… The well was closed and cement put on top… These tiny houses had tiny gardens behind each house and a toilet well each… I would have to investigate more to see what to make out with this information…
Another reader tells me about how her father had buried a Greek Cypriot `missing` soldier in Lapithos in a well…
`When we moved to Lapithos after 1974, my father saw a Greek Cypriot soldier lying dead under one of the trees. He buried him where he had found him… But after some time the garden was given to someone to do some sort of work there so my father got worried that this shallow grave might be disturbed. He opened the grave and took the remains out and buried him further up in a well…`
Her father is no longer alive but her mother is… I would have to go and visit her mother and see if we can locate the well…
I have my work cut out for me for the next several weeks: Investigate, investigate, investigate… I thank all my readers for doing this: Giving me the humanitarian task of working more for those who have been killed and who have no voice – my readers are the voice for those killed, both Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots… Together we do everything humanely possible to find out and to heal the wounds of those living left behind…
6.6.2015
Photo: View from Varosha
(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 28th of June 2015, Sunday.
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