Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Tel: 00 357 99 966518
00 90 542 853 8436
I travel to Larnaka, Limassol, Oroklini, Nicosia, Pallariotissa, London to speak and to tell the stories of `missing persons` and victims of our `conflict`… I go with EDON to Pallariotissa, to Larnaka, to Limassol and we will continue with Paphos to speak to youth about what it is that I and my friends from the bi-communal initiative of relatives of `missing persons` and victims of war, `Together We Can` are doing… I go to speak about the humanity of my Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot readers, how they speak to me, how they show possible burial sites, how they open the way for the truth to come out… I go to speak of the pain and a life in paralysis of relatives of `missing persons`, how they have waited all these years, clothes ready, house ready, everything ready for the loved one to return who never has… I go to speak about these butterflies who lost their wings, who cannot fly, who cannot live, who cannot really continue their lives but sit
and wait in agony for news, for any news about what happened to their loved ones… I go to speak about 1963 and 1974, about how people had been kidnapped from their homes, from the roads, from the fields, from their working places, from their offices and how they have been executed in cold blood to end up at the bottom of a well or in a field or under a rubbish damp or in an abandoned farm yard… I go to speak about how women and very young girls had been chosen for rape, how everyone else were killed afterwards to cover up these rapes… The rapes in Maratha-Sandallaris-Aloa by some teams of EOKA-B and the rapes in Palekythro by some Turkish Cypriots from Epiho and Mora… I go to speak about the rapes in Assia and Aphania and Karpaz area and how rapes have always been used as a systematic tool by both some Turkish Cypriots and some Greek Cypriots… I go to speak about mass graves, I show photographs of these mass graves in Neachorio Kythrea,
Galatia, Maratha-Sandallaris-Aloa, Palekythro, Masari, Paralimni, Gerasa, Pareklisia… I show photographs of burial sites in Kythrea, Dikomo, Polemi, Polis, Trikomo, Koutsovendi, Chatoz, Livadia next to Komi Kebir, Epiho, Lyssi, Sinda and all the other places where we have found, with the help of my readers, remains of `missing persons`…
I go to speak and to listen and to answer questions…
I don't go to television shows, I rarely speak to the press, I just like to speak at such gatherings where people will feel both the evil and humanity existing side by side on this island. Where their hearts and minds would open up to this knowledge, where I can tell the stories and I can listen and where relatives of `missing persons` can speak and talk about their own feelings and how it feels to work together to end the agony and how it makes sense to connect the dots in order to understand what actually happened on this island…
I go to a lyceum in Nicosia to speak to a class of young students of 16 years old. With the initiative of their history teacher they have gone to make a joint project on `missing persons`, each gathering an aspect of the `missing` and also my work on `missing`. They made a small booklet with their findings, binding it and even creating a cover drawing themselves… They have also created a billboard with photographs and articles about my work and about `missing persons`. It is a Turkish Cypriot lyceum of high standards and I feel touched with the effort of their teacher and the students themselves… Some of them have some relatives `missing` and one of them tells me that they will have a funeral soon… The remains of their relative have been found in Machera and now it is time for the funeral… It is the funeral of the `missing` Fahri Ahmet Hudaverdi from Pervolia, Larnaka who had gone to Nicosia to sell vegetables – with him was Abdullah Hashim who
was married to his sister Munevver… There had been rumours that they were kept at Livadhia – there had been rumours that a team from Larnaka known for their ruthless activity had kidnapped them – they had kidnapped others and the black Mercedes that some from this team had been driving had stopped and `searched` other Turkish Cypriots travelling around Larnaka… One of those in the black Mercedes was from Mazotos and would also be involved during the coup in 1974…
There were other rumours that Fahri Ahmet Hudaverdi and Abdullah Hashim had been taken to the Kofinou police station at the time of their disappearance but all remained just `rumours`… Until his remains have been found in Machera – here the remains of seven `missing` Turkish Cypriots from 1964 have been found…
Fahri Ahmet Hudaverdi was from Pervolia, he had been a rising star… His father had been from Kalavassos but Fahri Ahmet had settled in Pervolia, Larnaka. His father's name was Ahmet Hudaverdi, also known as `Shinyari`… Fahri Ahmet had fields and was planting okra, artichokes, watermelon and melon and other vegetables… He was a farmer and had around 10-15 workers and sometimes 20-25 workers working in his fields… He had won the bid for providing vegetables to TURDIK and he would always be taking vegetables that he grew to Nicosia… He had six children, three boys and three girls… He had been married to Melek Hanim from Agios Theodoros near Kofinou…
When things started getting rough among the two main communities of our island back in 1963, he would carry his family to Agios Theodoros in order to ensure their safety… He had a car, a blue van with which he carried his vegetables to Nicosia. He had gone to Nicosia and on his way back, there were rumours that he had been kidnapped together with Abdullah Hashim around Lympia-Koshi… There were rumours that they had been taken to Larnaka for questioning and that they remained there only for a night…
He had actually been arrested twice before but his Greek Cypriot friends had saved him… You might think, `Why didn't he stay home then to be safe?` Would it have been easy to survive with six kids by staying at home? Most of those – particularly Turkish Cypriots – who `disappeared` from the roads had been either merchants or djambazis or those who got out of their village to travel to other places for work: They had no choice but try to survive, taking vital risks in order to bring some bread home for their kids…
When he had been kidnapped, Fahri Ahmet had a lot of money on him – some of those kidnapped and who `disappeared` had money because they were the `businessmen` of those times… Fahri Ahmet had bought 30-40 donums of land in a bid against Greek Cypriots of the village in those times – according to his son, this land has been used to build social housing for refugees in Pervolia… There had been some `jealousy` around Pervolia because Fahri Ahmet was a hardworking, well earning person and was buying considerable amounts of land which did not make some Greek Cypriot `nationalists` happy… According to his son Kemal who had spoken to me about the disappearance of his father, perhaps Fahri Ahmet was seen as a `threat` in Pervolia because people respected him and he was known for his generosity and helping other people in need – he was becoming quite influential in and around Pervolia… `Those who knew my father in Kiti and Pervolia felt sorry for
what happened to him`, Kemal Tutku had told me… He had gone to Kiti and Pervolia and had met his father's friends… `They did not approve of what had happened to my father – in these villages live left wing people who want peace on this island…` He has good friends in Kiti and Pervolia…
The six kids and the wife of Fahri Ahmet would remain in Agios Theodoros after his disappearance on the 4th of March 1964. Fahri Ahmet was only 33 and his wife was only 31 years old. They would first live with relatives, two or three kids sleeping in each bed… Later on they would be given a `refugee house` to live in…
Now Fahri Ahmet will have a real grave – from the Machera forest where his remains were found by the exhumation teams of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee – thanks to the efforts of Xenophon Kallis from the Committee for finding this burial site – he will be taken by his family to be buried in Agios Sergios where they live now… These butterflies who lost their wings because of the disappearance of their father will now find a little peace of mind… May he rest in peace and may we continue to tell their stories so that our youngsters will know what happened on this island…
12.5.2015
Photo: Fahri Ahmet Hudaverdi...
(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 7th of June 2015, Sunday.
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