Stories from Peristerona, Kyrenia, Athienou…

Stories from Peristerona, Kyrenia, Athienou…

Sevgul Uludag

caramel_cy@yahoo.com

Tel: 99 966518

`We were at a place and he had been sitting next to me… I did not know him… He was around 72 years old, born in 1943… He could speak Turkish… So we conversed in Turkish…` one of my readers told me last night… He had taken notes and brought these to me:
`This guy was from Peristerona as he said… He told me that Peristerona was a mixed village and they had very good and friendly relations with Turkish Cypriots. He told me the following: `We had never been afraid of each other and we never believed that such things would happen… But I lived through one thing that was very painful` he told me… I asked him what it was and he told me that it was like a rock sitting on his heart… Back in 1963-64 there were some Greek Cypriot `patriots` in an organization but we stayed away from them… We knew who they were. We knew that such an organization would not last too long… That's why they did not like us… One day they had brought a Turkish Cypriot family to the village, there was a woman, one or two kids and the husband of the woman… The woman was crying out loud… Their hands were tied… They were taken to the spot behind the coffee shop in the centre of the village… I had heard gun shots and
heard that there was killing there… We heard that they buried some people behind the coffee shop… They told the villagers that if they speak about this, their end would be no different so we never said anything to anyone… I had a wife and kids… I never spoke about this to anyone… But my heart is deeply hurt… I apologize from God for this…` So these were the things he told me and I took notes to give to you for investigation…`
`But as far as I know` I tell my reader, `there is only one young Turkish Cypriot woman, Ilkay, who is `missing` from Peristerona… The remains of other `missing` have been found if I am not mistaken… Still we need to investigate every single thing to differentiate fantasy from fact… Perhaps we can try to find some friends from Peristerona to see if they remember such a thing…`
I thank my reader for sharing this information to investigate…
Another reader sends me a note:
`I heard this two years ago but now I remember to write about it to you and I am enclosing a google map so you can see…
There is a shooting range in Kyrenia and this place before 1974 was a military unit of the Greek Cypriots, they were the artillery unit if I remember correctly… I heard that here some Greek Cypriots had been buried… The local Kyrenians and those from Templos should know about this. I am talking about the new ring road going from Kyrenia to Karavas, just the north of this is a university… The place I am talking about is about 400 meters towards the east…
There is this person called….. but he is no longer alive but his son is alive… If you find the son, they might have more detailed information about this…`
I thank my reader for this and for the map he has sent me…
Another reader from Kyrenia writes to me to say what he used to hear from his father about the `Hirondelle Junction` in Kyrenia…
`My father used to tell me how he had seen a Greek Cypriot tank burnt down and 4-5 dead Greek or Greek Cypriot soldiers behind this tank… It is quite well known in Kyrenia that there were mass killings more than once next to the wall of the English cemetery…
If those who had been killed were thrown in the streams, no one is able to find them… But if they buried them there, perhaps their remains can be found… From what my father used to tell me, the possibility of a burial site there is very high…`
Another reader comes to sit and speak with me about something I didn't know:
"You know the Turkish Cypriot village ……?` he asks, giving me the name of the village…
`Yes I do… They found the remains of some young Greek Cypriot soldiers there, buried in a well…`
`I know… But do you know what actually happened in that village?` he asks…
`Tell me` I say to him…
`Well, some Greek Cypriot soldiers based in Athienou attacked this Turkish Cypriot village and took some prisoners of war – among the prisoners were also families, civilian I mean and of course women… From what my parents and uncles have told me, they kept them in a house for some days… This was 1974… I heard that they raped some of the women… So you see, you can understand why some people from that particular village turned sort of `violent` afterwards… They were trying to take `revenge` but of course, from the `wrong` people! Those who came from Athienou – I don't know if they were from Athienou or just happened to serve there – got away and nothing happened to them while other innocent youngsters paid for the price of those rapes…`
Rape during wartime is something so deeply hidden in both communities, it is extremely difficult to understand why this or that group of people would all of a sudden turned so `violent` - when you know that in certain villages there were rapes, you begin to `understand` - definitely not accept but understand – why they all of a sudden had gone `crazy`…
No one has ever spoken to me about the rapes in that particular village… So when one relative of a `missing person` whose brother had been found in the well in that village, asks for help to get back perhaps the golden cross that his brother had on him when he had been killed and to ask these villagers for help, this is when I come across the hidden story of rape in this particular village.
My reader who had been trying to help me only explains to me the rapes and despite his efforts, cannot get his villagers to cooperate…
The sister of the young `missing` Greek Cypriot whose remains were found in a well had explained to me that there had been nothing on them – that they were stripped of their rings, watches, golden crosses and if she could get back the golden cross of her brother, this would mean so much to her…
Unfortunately I would encounter a wall of silence instead of cooperation and when we look underneath this silence, we find out that it is the rapes that have caused this silence…
There are many things that we do not talk about as Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots as well as other communities of this land – we are not willing to talk about what went on, how the silence of the many helped the few well organized, well trained, well equipped to get their way that would lead all the way to the partition of our island… The few `patriots` who had protection on their own sides, managed to lead the events, with the help of outsiders to the point of almost no return… Not only that but the partition of the minds, the silent walls, the ignoring of the other, the suspicions, the fears, the concerns… All of these we need to deal with because it is the only way forward… Otherwise silent suspicions would be fed with fears and this would hinder the reconciliation of our communities on this island…

26.9.2015

Photo: A series of paintings by Turkish Cypriot artist Nilgun Guney about `missing persons`…

(*) Article published in POLITIS newspaper on the 25th of October 2015, Sunday.

Stories from St. Hilarion, Famagusta, Limassol…

Stories from St. Hilarion, Famagusta, Limassol…

Sevgul Uludag

caramel_cy@yahoo.com

Tel: 99 966518

One of my readers come to visit me at the newspaper where I work and we sit down to talk… We had visited him years ago together with the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee and he had drawn up a map of `gamini` and where the remains of some Greek Cypriot `missing` were buried at St. Hilarion. Now he comes to say that if the CMP can get permission to go into this area at St. Hilarion, he is ready to accompany them and show them the exact location of the `gamini` and the burial place of the remains of some `missing` persons.
He had been serving there at the St. Hilarion military camp when he had accidentally come across the remains of some `missing` Greek Cypriots. It had been a `gamini` where soldiers were using as a place to throw trash… As he ordered some soldiers to cleanse out the trash, there came out the remains of the `missing` Greek Cypriots who had been buried in the `gamini`. This accidental find ended up him having the soldiers remove the remains and bury further up... He had provided with detailed information about this incident to the officials of the CMP when we visited him and had drawn up a detailed map…
`You know` he says, `using this map, they accidentally found another `gamini` where the remains of some other `missing` Greek Cypriots had been buried, much further down… Actually the map served quite well but in a completely different way! A `gamini` in Boghazi was found because of that map… Some people looking at that map found that `gamini` and incidentally some other `missing` were buried there but the `gamini` on the map is actually not that one, but the one in the military camp… This is a humanitarian task and I am ready to show this place that I have provided the drawing to the CMP… I consider this as a humanitarian duty… To go and show I mean… Because just as Turkish Cypriots want the remains of their own `missing` persons to be found, the Greek Cypriot relatives also have the same right… Now it is time for humanity to speak up… Those who know any information should also speak up…`
Another reader writes me a note:
`During my lyceum education at the Namik Kemal Lyceum in Famagusta, our teachers used to tell us that in the front garden, under the pine trees, some Greek Cypriot soldiers killed in the war in 1974 had been buried there and used to say `If you dig one meter deep, you can see the bones…` These were I believe sincere confessions… But due do our age, we did not really take these confessions seriously at the time… But I believe that there are people who had been buried there… Now I feel much better that I gave this information to you…`
Another reader has other information about a `missing` Turkish Cypriot…
He had called me a few years ago and told me a story about a `missing` Turkish Cypriot from the area of Limassol.
In 1974 he had been serving as a soldier in Limassol…
`One day, there came some very angry Greek Cypriot soldiers in a landrover` he said, `at the back of the car was a rope… Apparently they had tied a wounded Turkish Cypriot soldier behind the landrover and on the way to Limassol the rope broke and the body of the Turkish Cypriot soldier remained wherever the rope broke… They had been extremely agitated and angry since they had attacked a village around Limassol and there, had lost 3 or 4 of their friends… They had also killed some Turkish Cypriot soldiers during this fight but one remained alive but wounded… It was this guy they took and tied to the back of the car… I did not know who these soldiers were but if you like you can make some investigation to see whether you could find which unit they were serving since we know which village they attacked at the time…`
I actually know which `missing` Turkish Cypriot he is talking about and despite the search for him, his remains have not been found yet… The brother of this `missing` Turkish Cypriot calls me all the time to see if there is anything new… There was some digging at a possible burial site but no remains were found – perhaps they had removed the remains to another place or perhaps as this reader is relating what he heard, they actually tied him at the back of the landrover… Difficult to believe – could be true, could not be true, no one knows except those present who took this young wounded boy from where he was and he `disappeared` from the earth…
He also tells me about an elderly Greek Cypriot who had been involved in the murders of Turkish Cypriots from Tochni and Zygi…
`He is very old now and he is very sorry for what they did…` he says…
`Isn't it a bit too late to feel sorry for what they did?` I ask him…
`He says they were young and they did it… But now he feels sorry…`
We agree to meet with him to talk more in detail and to see how we can go about to do more investigations…
Another reader from another village calls about a Turkish Cypriot `missing person`…
`It was in 1974… Our village had come under attack from Greek Cypriot soldiers… Half of our village was occupied by Greek Cypriot soldiers… Our village moved to another Turkish Cypriot village… Only some Turkish Cypriot soldiers remained in half of the village… One day an officer was laying down as a Turkish Cypriot came to that military post and said to the officer `What are you doing, laying down like a woman there? Get up and let's go and fight the Greek Cypriots! They occupied our village!`
The officer was really pissed off but did not say anything, he just said, `Ok, let's go…` But after a few meters, shot this Turkish Cypriot at the back… I can give you a name who were present and were witnesses to this shooting. Everyone was shocked! The officer after this incident left the village very quickly…`
I thank this reader and promise to call the name he gave me to find out more details about this `missing` Turkish Cypriot…
As we go along, people remember an incident that happened that they had been witness to or what they heard from their parents… The `missing` Turkish Cypriot supposedly shot by the officer, my reader heard from his father and says the whole village knows but they keep silent, afraid not to get into any sort of trouble…
There is information everywhere, if you are ready to investigate… There is no `cut` from information flow – so long as you have an open mind and an open line of communication with people, they would always tell you things that they have never told others before… The idea is to open a door for truth to come out, the door that would be safe enough where truth can come out… The door that would allow people to speak up without necessarily disclosing their identity… And this we provide to our readers and that's how we find out things we never knew before that were kept hidden for almost half a century under covers…
Any of you can call me and tell me your stories – with or without your name – at my mobile number 99 966518. The more we know, the more we will be able to clear our path towards our common future on this island…

20.9.2015

Photo: Burying the victims of the massacre of Tochni...

(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 18th of October 2015, Sunday.

Little Andreas teaching us a lesson of humanity…

Little Andreas teaching us a lesson of humanity…

Sevgul Uludag

caramel_cy@yahoo.com

Tel: 00 357 99 966518
00 90 542 853 8436

The story of the six month old Andreas found in a mass grave at Trachoni together with his mother, three aunts and his grandmother really scorches the hearts of my readers… I had been there when baby Andreas had been found in a mass grave in Trachoni – we were coming back from showing a possible burial site to the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee and had stopped at Trachoni where exhumations were continuing…
The archaeologists who had been working there were devastated because of the finding of the remains of little Andreas…
Having translated the article of Vassos Vasiliou from Phileleftheros last week about the planned funeral of little Andreas and his family, my readers find out that he had been buried with his pacifier… It is a great shock to learn the details of his killing and quite unacceptable for my Turkish Cypriot readers at the YENIDUZEN newspaper… I receive many messages, telling me how their heart revolted to such news…
One of my readers in his note to me says:
`Dear Sevgul, I was devastated with this news today… It is impossible to be human and not feel sad with such news… How could we become so violent? Didn't that soldier have any wits or any conscience? Wasn't he human? Didn't he have a commander to tell him that what he is doing is wrong? How can these be done to innocent people?...`
Another reader sends another note:
`War is the dirtiest game of the grown-ups… Children die in this game where even the winners lose…`
And another reader thanks me for sharing the story of little Andreas… He lives in Trachoni and he is shocked to find out that such terrible crimes have happened in this village… `What terrible crimes have happened in Trachoni… Thanks Sevgul for telling us` he writes…
Sami Ozuslu, one of the journalists in YENIDUZEN and the director of SIM TV writes an article about little Andreas… The title of his article is `Lament to the six month old baby…` He says:
`Your name was Andreas, you little baby…
That's what the newspapers said…
If you lived, you would have been 41 years old now…
Who knows how you would turn out.
Would you be tall or short?
Would your eyes be green or brown?
We don't know any of this…
You never lived!...
***
They say you had your pacifier in your mouth.
You under the soil with your mother and your aunts… All of you together there… In darkness… No one knew… No one could know… For a whole 40 years you had been `missing`. They even made you `missing`! Our humanity is `missing`… We are all `missing`…
***
Andreas you had only been six months old…
Maybe in that short life of yours you only said `Aghuuu`…
You might have cried a lot, when you had been hungry or when you had a tummy ache…
But you could not utter any other word in this life…
They did not allow you, they did not let you to say your words…
Probably they could not look at your face as they were burying you in the `mass grave…`
Probably they couldn't look in your face…
How can any `human` look at the innocent face of a baby as they become its murderer?
And now we cannot look at your face Andreas…
***
Who knows what sort of a human being you would turn out to be if you had lived…
What sort of games would you play as a child?
Lingiri or the long donkey?
In those times these were the most popular games Andreas…
And pirilli…
You would have probably liked all of it…
And you would like the balls…
And you would like the spinner…
They did not allow you to live your childhood…
***
How many girls would you make fall in love with you in your youth?
And how many times would Eros would knock on the door of your heart?
How would you recover from your adolesence full of tension with acne on your face?
With whom would you be friends and with whom would you have rifts during breaks at school?
Would you like mathematics or literature?
Would you go and study at the university or would you be a farmer in the village?
Would you aim to be rich in life or would you run after your ideals, wherever your heart would take you to?
Would you get married and have kids?
Would you love kids?
They did not allow you to love Andreas!...
***
Your name was Andreas, you little baby…
Your name could have been Ali or Ayshe or Panayiotis…
What difference does a name make?
Which baby knows its name with its pacifier in its mouth?
Which baby is aware about where it's born, which colour it is, its nationality, religion, beliefs?
And which baby deserves to die with its pacifier in its mouth, without having said `Mama`, without crawling, without taking its first step, without its first teeth coming out and without getting to know its environment?
Which conscience can give its okay for such a murder, which heart can survive such pain?
***
Your name was Andreas, you little baby…
The baby who could not grow up…
The baby who was not allowed to grow up…
That there was not even a photo of yours left behind…
Thank God that you don't have a photo Andreas…
If there was, how would we look at your face?
Thanks heavens that you don't have a photograph!`
Cyprus has become a mass grave for babies, youngsters, men and women, old people… The violence of humans on this land has had no limits: They have killed even six month old babies without a flinch…
As we sit down under cloudy skies with our group `Together We Can`, the bi-communal group of relatives of `missing persons` and victims of war, the subject turns eventually towards little Andreas…
One of our members, Erbay Akansoy, whose relatives were killed in Maratha in 1974 says, `Some people have said to me that babies were also killed in Maratha… But it is not appropriate to try to make a comparison like this… A baby has been killed. There is no pretext to killing a baby… The person who killed the baby is a killer… That's it…`
What he means actually is not to try to make `comparisons` and try to `measure out` or `weigh` the devastation…
A baby has died… A baby was killed… A six month old baby who could not live and grow and sit with us now, be amongst us to enjoy life…
And whoever killed the baby is a baby killer… Whether in Cyprus or Afghanistan or Iraq or Northern Ireland, whether in Trachoni or Maratha, a baby killer is a killer. No excuse. No pretext.
When Christina from our group had posted something on Facebook about Maratha recently, one Greek Cypriot reacted and claimed that `They were to blame because they did something…`
So Christina answered this person, `Who did? These children and babies? What could they do?`
Little Andreas and all the other little babies who have been killed in Cyprus are creating waves when news is coming out about the details of their death: They open a path for us to become human again, to try to feel the devastation of war, to try to see how inhuman things get when there is a war and to try to learn from this…
Little Andreas is teaching us a lesson of humanity because of his age…

3.10.2015

Photo: Digging at Trachoni in October 2011...

(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 11th of October 2015, Sunday.

*** The first grave monument for both Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot `missing persons` is built in Mari… Historical day for Mari…

*** The first grave monument for both Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot `missing persons` is built in Mari…

Historical day for Mari…

Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Tel: 99 966518


On the 5th of September 2015 Saturday in the afternoon we go to Mari, the village of Leyla Kiralp whose husband had been killed in the Tochni massacre and whose remains were found in Gerasa together with the other `missing` Turkish Cypriots on the same bus as him… Leyla's husband Ahmet had been from Zygi and were taken by some Greek Cypriot policemen from his house and `disappeared` along with two busloads of Turkish Cypriots from Zygi and Tochni… The remains of those `missing` Turkish Cypriots from one bus were found in Gerasa and the remains of those on the second bus were found in Pareklisia… The relatives of those on the second bus are still waiting for DNA identification but those on the first bus were identified with DNA tests and the remains were returned and buried by their relatives… Leyla had buried the remains of her husband in Famagusta, along with other relatives of `missing` Turkish Cypriots from Zygi…
Leyla wanted to build a monument-grave in memory not only of her husband Ahmet Mustafa but in memory of all Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot `missing` persons in Mari. Why Mari? Because this is where Leyla is from and before 1974 Turkish Cypriots of Zygi did not have a cemetery of their own and used to bury their deceased in the Turkish Cypriot cemetery in Mari.
Leyla would set out with her own funds she has collected through the sale of her wonderful biographical book published in Turkish and Greek to finance the building of such a monument-grave. She would visit the Ministry of Interior and take the necessary permissions to do that. She would visit the Mukhtar of Mari, Ms. Maria Georgiou and tell her about her plans… The ministry would allocate her the space of one grave where she would build this symbolic monument-grave… She would work for six months with all the relevant authorities in order to ensure things to run smoothly. On the monument-grave is a photo of Ahmet Mustafa, his birth date and the date he went `missing`: 14.5.1949-14.8.1974. Underneath is written `In memory of all missing persons of the Cyprus tragedy…
You were not there but your absence has always remained inside us…`
In order to ensure safety during the opening of this monument-grave, Leyla has visited the police in Nicosia and Larnaka and was in contact with the Kaymakamis of Larnaka as well as with the mukhtar of Mari. Police takes measures during the opening and we stand next to the monument while all around us people who come with peace in their hearts, Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots, coming all the way from Paphos, Limassol, Famagusta, Kyrenia and Nicosia…
First Leyla speaks and tells her feelings on this important day:
"Thank you everyone for coming here today… I wanted to build a symbolic monument-grave in memory of all missing persons of the Cyprus tragedy with the income I got from the sales of my first book entitled `The White and Wet Handkerchief That We Shared…` I am peaceful that I have achieved that and thank everyone who supported me in this aim. I want to thank everyone who is working for the finding of our missing persons, to the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee and to my dear friend journalist Sevgul Uludag.
I am one of those who struggle voluntarily for peace and for the reunification of our country. When my first husband Ahmet Mustafa was taken from our house in Zygi on the 14th of August 1974 as a prisoner of war and executed, he had only been 25 years old… Just like the bitter fate of thousands of Cypriots who had been, like all of them without a gun and innocent. They gave us in a small box, his bones that were found after 40 years from his disappearance. It is impossible for me to tell you what I have gone through and what I felt during those 40 years. Even the most prominent poets cannot describe this pain. Doctors too cannot cure this pain. Only those who live with this pain know this pain…
Not only those `missing` persons but their relatives also suffer living in a whirlwind of deep trauma. And they pull their families in this trauma. I had got married a second time. But just like me, both my husband and my son lived through this trauma for many years… This trauma lasts long years and is passed from one generation to the next.
Our relatives had gone `missing` but the pain of their absence was always inside us… It was impossible to ever fill that absence…
I struggled with myself for many years. I tried to understand why our relatives had been killed. We were the victims of the war and we were the ones who suffered. What remained for us was to mourn… Those who enjoyed the interests they got after they set out this war were the ones rejoicing, not us…
I lived through dilemmas inside myself… Despite the fact that I lived through this tragedy, the only result I deducted from this is that we owe bringing peace to this country in order to stop such pain from being lived again in the future.
We can't forget what we have lived through but we can forgive those responsible… After struggling within myself for many years, I forgave those responsible for my tragedy and I called on them to question their consciences.
My first husband Ahmet Mustafa was from Zygi (Terazi) and I am from Mari (Tatlisu) village. We had met and got married in this village. Our marriage ended in less than a year due to war, with his death…
I wanted this monument-grave in memory of my first husband Ahmet Mustafa and in memory of all missing persons of the Cyprus tragedy to be in Mari. Because Mari is where I have been born and it is every single breath I take…
We did not lose only our loved ones after 1974. We also lost our homes, our land, our country. With pressure they built the illusion of `our side` and `their side` and wanted us to forget our houses, our towns and our villages. How can one forget the house that a grandfather had built with his own labour, how can one forget his or her past or his or her memories?
Dear friends, I am very emotional today… But I am happy that I see you here. You give me pride and strength. I ask all of you, particularly from my new villagers in Mari to protect this monument-grave.
Last but not least I hope that the remains of all `missing` Cypriots would be found soon and I embrace the relatives of `missing` with love. I thank also Christina Pavlou for being here on this emotional day with me, Maria Georgiou, the Mukhtar of Mari for her help, Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Cyprus for allowing me to build this monument…`
Next is Christina Pavlou Solomi Patsia from Komikebir – both her father and brother are still `missing` and she speaks in the name of `Together We Can` - The Bicommunal Initiative of Relatives of Missing Persons and Victims of War… She says:
"I feel very privileged to be asked to say few words, in this symbolic gathering, here in the Turkish Cypriot Cemetery in Mari...
A Cenotaph is erected in memory of Ahmet whose life was cut short at the age of 25...
He was among a group of Turkish Cypriot men from Zygi, Tochni and Mari, who fell victims to acts of hatred and terrible revenge, by Greek Cypriot men in August 1974.
Today 41 years on, Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots, together, are paying an overdue tribute, not only to Ahmet, but also, to those who died, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.
All of them were ordinary people with parents, brothers, wives and children…
They had the right to have dreams of a prosperous and peaceful life, with their families but they were not allowed to fulfil any of their dreams...
Today it's an occasion, to reflect on the turbulent years of our past, which led to the loss of innocent lives, causing deep pain and divisions amongst both of our communities.
We are standing here today, before Ahmet's Cenotaph, with resolute commitment...
To bury deeply fanaticism, ethnic hatred and nationalism...
To work for peace and better future for our children and grandchildren...
Together We Can!"
Next is the son of Leyla, Shevki Kiralp who says in summary:
"I believe that sooner or later we will realize that we are from the same land and will live in peace on this island. Today there is a friendly atmosphere where the two leaders and progressive circles are working for peace sincerely. I want to stress that politicians from both sides generally when they speak about missing persons they say `I hope that they are found…` but I do not hear of any steps taken for this or for the relatives of missing persons. I am sad to say that it is not sufficient to `wish` for the remains of the missing persons to be found. The politicians from both sides must work together to see how they will reinstate the relatives of missing persons who have gone through the greatest tragedy in Cyprus, they should develop common formulas and both sides must apologize from the relatives of missing persons and make more concerted efforts for the remains of missing persons to be found. This is their historical responsibility and their
debt vis a vis the Cyprus people and humanity…`
The academician Niyazi Kizilyurek also says a few words at the opening, pointing out that symbolically this is a very important monument-grave. And then I say a few words:
"Both Leyla and Christina are our heroes. Because despite the fact that they lived through hell, they managed to put aside their horrible pain and took a step forward. They make an effort not only for their own `missing` but for all the `missing` to be found. Not only Leyla and Christina but all those relatives of `missing` who work bicommunally in `Together We Can` voluntarily are showing us how we should be acting…
Today history is being written in Cyprus because this is the very first monument in Cyprus built in the memory of `missing persons` from both communities. Only if we listen to Leyla and Christina and those like them, can we really reach peace in Cyprus…`

Photo: From the opening of the monument in Mari...

(*) Article published in POLITIS newspaper on the 4th of October 2015, Sunday...