The `missing` boy with his red bicycle…

The `missing` boy with his red bicycle…

Sevgul Uludag

caramel_cy@yahoo.com

Tel: 00 357 99 966518
00 90 542 853 8436

It all started with our dear friend Katerina Antona creating a Facebook page on `missing persons` - both from 1963 and 1974 – both Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots… Katerina's young brother Christakis Antona was `missing` from 1974 and his remains were found, together with other `missing` Greek Cypriots at a well in Agia Kepir…
Although Katerina found the remains of her brother, she did not stop searching for information for other `missing persons`… She is one of the unrecognized heroes of this land – she takes that extra step to make life more bearable for others… She goes further than others in order to ensure a better future for all of our children… That is why she created a page on Facebook for `missing persons` - this she does from the heart, as an ordinary citizen of this land, as a humanitarian task… She does not receive `funding` or `project money` to do this – she does this totally voluntarily, as a humanitarian gesture… How many people do you know who do things like that nowadays around you?
So on Katerina`s Facebook page on `missing persons` of 1963 and 1974, we would all try to contribute with information and articles and news and I would get to know the story of a young `missing` Greek Cypriot from 1964 Kypros Kyprianou, through this page of Katerina on Facebook…
She would draw my attention to this particular `missing person` and I would ask her to get me in contact with the brother of the `missing` young boy, Andreas Kyprianou and finally we would agree on a day to meet with him to learn more…
Andreas Kyprianou was born on 1938 at Mousoullita village, a small Messaoria village… He would attend a commercial school which would become a lyceum and he would be living in Nicosia with his grandmother at Pallouriotissa. Every Saturday and Sunday he would be going back to his village to his family. He would graduate in 1954-55 and when he would learn that CYTA was looking for workers he would apply and get a job… He passed examinations and had a course for the installation of telephone exchanges. He would be trained and would do the wiring and checking and repairing of all the telephone exchanges all over Cyprus.
He began working in CYTA in 1956 – at that time CYTA was managed by the British and they were doing cable as well…
Andreas was one of five brothers… His father from Pyrga, Costas Kyprianou had been married to Agathi from Mousoulitta and that was where their home was… They had five children, all boys: Andreas, Panayiotis, Sotiris, Kypros and Kyriakos…
The last exchange they installed to Turkish Cypriots was in Kyrenia in 1962-63, Andreas remembers…
`We installed telephone exchanges at Lapithos, Agios Epichtitos, at Kythrea, at Lefkonico and Yialousa, at Rizokarpasso and Paphos… CYTA had a Toyota car and I would go with my team to build exchange cables, to wire them, to check and repair all the faults. Then we would give the exchange to the authorities there and go… I worked in Polis as well…`
His brother Kypros Kyprianou would go `missing` on the 3rd of February 1964…
Kypros had only been 18 years old and he had graduated from the lyceum in Famagusta and had come to Nicosia to find a job. Their grandmother had died by that time and Andreas who had been married to Latsia had a house there and sometimes his brother Kypros would come to stay for a few days and then take the bus to return to Mousoullita.
On the day Kypros went `missing`, he had come to the shop of their brother Panayiotis who had a souvenir shop at the end of the Ermou Street, near the old Olympiakos building. He had met a friend of his and got his brother's bicycle… The friend of Kypros, Theodoros was going to sit in the exams to become a policeman and asked Kypros to accompany him… The exam would be at the Paphos Gate in Nicosia. Theodoros went inside for the examination and had told Kypros to wait for him there since it won't take him so long…
Andreas thinks that maybe Kypros tried to pass from the Paphos Road where four Greek Cypriot policemen were caught by some Turkish Cypriot policemen that same day. They were caught at the Chappa Building near Paphos Gate and kept some time and some of them were tortured as I would find out years later… So it was the same day that there were troubles in this area that Kypros also went `missing`…
`My brother had told my mother that he intended to go to a doctor because he had some stomach pains` Andreas says… `But that day he didn't go to the hospital…`
When did they realize that Kypros had gone `missing`?
`He didn't come back to my brother's shop to bring back the bicycle… I went to the police next day and to the UN – I begged the UN soldiers to search for my brother… I showed the UN soldier my brother's photograph and also gave him the photo – nothing came out of this. Another time I went to the UN again and the UN soldier told me `I saw this young man in the garage of Pavlides… Maybe this was your brother…`
My father Costa was searching for my brother continuously… And he was trapped by some Greek Cypriots to get his money… One Greek Cypriot had told my father that he knew some Turkish Cypriots who would help him to find my brother Kypros Kyprianou… So on 11th of October 1965 my father started to go from Pallouriotissa to Tymbou on his bicycle to meet this guy and at the Zoppas crossroads, one truck coming hit my father and my father was wounded on the head and on his chest. That day I was passing by chance from there and someone stopped me and said, `Andreas your father is in hospital…`
I ran and he was alive – there were 5-6 doctors around him and they said there was no cure… Five minutes later my father died… He had had 500 Cypriot pounds with him…
My father was a very energetic person. He did not have a piece of land but he worked hard to have his children study… He was running everywhere when my brother had gone `missing`. After he died, the police told me he had 500 pounds in his pocket.
I went to find the Greek Cypriot who had trapped my father – I wanted to ask him `Why did you do this?` When he saw me, he ran away… He is dead now…
After my father died, a year later my mother Agathi also died from a heart attack… Of course you can understand our pain, our mother's pain…
My brother was a very nice person, very quiet. We are a family who never hate people, we like people… I had a friend working with me at CYTA. His name was Ahmet Cevdet. `Mastro` he said to me one day, `what will happen if there is a war and you see me in front of you?`
`I would shoot up, in the air` I said.
`I would do the same` he said… Unfortunately I couldn't find him. He used to work at CYTA, later he became a soldier in Nicosia.
From Gonyeli, there was another Turkish Cypriot working with us in CYTA, his name was Veli Mehmet. He was more `political` though – not like Ahmet Cevdet…
The day my brother went `missing` he was wearing grey trousers and a white shirt.
He disappeared with the bicycle – the bicycle was a coffee / red colour and it was a new bicycle - `Ranch`…`
These are the words of Andreas Kyprianou…
I sense that perhaps the bicycle is the most important clue for us to follow – perhaps with the help of my readers, we might find out what had actually happened to this young, innocent boy of 18 years old who had nothing to do with any `conflict` but was merely on his brother's bicycle – perhaps he took a wrong turn and he passed accidentally to the Turkish Cypriot side of Nicosia at a day where `conflict` was brewing…
One of my Turkish Cypriot readers from London, years ago, had called me about a young boy who had crossed by mistake with his bicycle and was caught and was taken to a house near Ledra Palace… This was the house of Dr. Mangoian who had died and his wife Haysmig was living downstairs and upstairs was a military post for some Turkish Cypriot soldiers. According to this reader of mine, this young boy was questioned in the garage of this house and killed there…
`They had even shared his clothes amongst them, those who had killed them` he would tell me…
This reader of mine was serving at that military post and that's why he had been a witness…
`They buried him in the garage` he would tell me.
I would show this possible burial site to the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee but so far there has been no excavations there. The garage is no longer there… The house also had a basement and perhaps this needs to be explored, as well as the garden…
The owner of the house, Haysmig Mangoian would later be killed by a Turkish Cypriot in her house… The same Turkish Cypriot would kill another woman, a Turkish Cypriot, in the same street and finally would be imprisoned…
The Mangoian house would for many years be used by the military – years later they would give this house to journalists from Turkey to use as their association's offices and the downstairs and the garden at the back would be hired to different people to be used as a restaurant – but all of them would fail…
With the help of my readers we need to explore whether my reader from London was talking about the `missing` Kypros or someone else…

12.11.2015

Photo: Kypros Kyprianou...

(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 29th of November 2016, Sunday.

`Does human life carry as much weight as property?`

`Does human life carry as much weight as property?`

Sevgul Uludag

caramel_cy@yahoo.com

Tel: 99 966518

Leyla Kiralp was supposed to attend the conference in Brussels where Secretary General of AKEL, Andros Kyprianou and leader of CTP, Mehmet Ali Talat were speakers. She did not notice until she was about to get on her plane from Larnaka to Brussels that her Cypriot identity card had expired! She could not get on the plane and go to Brussels. She had been asked to say something about `missing persons` at that meeting in Brussels so she had written her speech. Although she could not go to the conference, AKEL MEP, our dear friend Takis Hadjigeorgiou, read excerpts from her very powerful speech at the conference.
I want to share her speech with you because I think it reflects the feelings of many relatives of `missing persons`, both Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot.
This is the speech of Leyla Kiralp:
`Prior to 1974, many Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots were taken from their homes, from the roads and from the fields, executed and buried in unknown places, making them `missing persons`. In the war in 1974, the number of `missing persons` increased even more. Many people were executed en masse and buried in mass graves. The burial sites of many of them are still not known… According to the figures given by the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee, 2001 persons went `missing` between 1963-74. Until now the remains of 603 `missing persons` were found and around 1400 `missing persons` are still `missing`. Relatives of `missing persons` from both communities have been through unbearable traumas. And these traumas still continue…
My first husband, my relatives and villagers from Zygi, as well as tens of Turkish Cypriots from Tochni were taken as prisoners of war by some Greek Cypriots from EOKA B in 1974, they were executed and went `missing`.
After 40 years, the remains of my husband and some of my relatives were found. And a year ago, the remains that were found were given to us in small coffins to be buried. We buried our relatives after 40 years. We went through the traumas we had been experiencing over 40 years, every day, again. But at least now they have graves and we find condolence in the fact that we can visit them any time we want.
After 1974, the politicians from both communities tried to show that their own community have `missing persons` while denying and hiding the fact that the other community too had `missing persons`. Turkish Cypriots did not know about Greek Cypriot `missing persons`, and Greek Cypriots were unaware of Turkish Cypriot `missing persons`.
When the two communities started coming closer, the fact that both communities have `missing persons` came to the surface. Especially after the checkpoints opened in 2003 and as the relations of the two communities developed, we became face to face with the reality of `missing persons`. With the work of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee, remains of many `missing persons` were found and their fate became known. I want to thank again all those who help to find the remains, particularly to the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee and journalist Sevgul Uludag.
What does it mean to live as the relative of a `missing person` for 40 years? Can you understand that? A whole life of 40 years spent between hope and hopelessness, a life you go through with politicians who don't care about what sort of life the relatives of `missing` are living but only interested in using the `missing persons` and the pain of their relatives for their own political propaganda. 40 years is a whole lifetime and unfortunately it passed with deep traumas and psychological and biological illnesses connected with these traumas. Some of those relatives of `missing persons` who struggled against these illnesses with their own means managed to stay alive until now but many of them died young, being sick from these illnesses created by the traumas.
After 1974, I had anger and feelings of vengeance in me. Living like that made me sick. I got treatment with my own means and got my health back. I managed to put love and tolerance, instead of the anger and hatred in me. Was doing this easy? Of course not…
As I got my health back and as the anger and hatred subsided, I started thinking in a more healthy way. I managed to forgive those who have put me through this trauma in 1974. And I called on them to face their own conscience.
It is not possible to forget what we have lived but it is possible to forgive.
Those who manage to forgive primarily give themselves peacefulness and to those around them as well…
I remarried seven years after 1974. In 1986 my son was born. But they too were swept by the `Traumas of the Missing Persons`… This is such a trauma that it continues passing from generation to generation.
Think of a child who has lost his bicycle and think of his family buying him a newer and more expensive one. The child misses his old bicycle. But how about the children who have `missing` fathers? Who they will put instead of their father? What about those mothers and fathers who have lost their sons or daughters? Who can replace their children? How can they cover such a loss? Having someone `missing`, that is having someone killed and buried somewhere unknown is the heaviest and most destructive situation a human can experience.
The political leaders of the two communities have not put forward any document on the negotiating table about `missing persons` or the relatives of `missing persons`. Beyond that, the issue of `missing persons` is not even on the table of negotiations!
But a peace process is a process of reconciling people with their country. A peace process where the relatives of `missing persons` who have lived through the heaviest aggravation in the Cyprus tragedy are not involved, is an incomplete peace process.
The most basic and the most sacred human right is the right to life. The right to life of the `missing persons` has been taken away from them and the rights of their relatives left behind is not even mentioned in the negotiations process – and if you compare this in line with the universal human rights and democracy such a process is incomplete.
Policies towards `missing persons` and their relatives must be the priority of the peace process. Many countries who went through internal wars like South Africa, had a Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up. Such a commission must also be set up in Cyprus. The political leaderships of both communities must apologize to the relatives of `missing persons` of the other community. The perpetrators must be encouraged to come out and admit what they did and show the burial sites of the `missing persons`. Negotiations are being done on how to compensate on the issue of property. Doesn't human life carry as much value as the property according to the two leaders? Is it possible to trade and exchange human life? Is it possible to trade and exchange the years spent going through traumas of the relatives and families of `missing persons`? Why is no policies are being negotiated at the negotiations table concerning the `missing persons` and their relatives until now?
How do the two leaders think that they can build peace without mutual apologies? In order to ensure that the events that happened prior to 1974 and during 1974 don't happen again, as the two communities we must first forgive each other.
Having lost at a very young age my husband, my relatives, my villagers, my house and my village, as a relative of a `missing person`, I have long ago forgiven those who have made me go through this pain and I extended my peaceful hand to my Greek Cypriot citizens for the peaceful future of my country and my people.
Thousands of friendly hands reached out to me. Even if we did not understand well each other's language, we agreed in the language of peace and friendship. We walked through this difficult and long road step by step, making a lot of headway… All of the people of Cyprus must continue to walk on this road and go hand in hand for peace to come to our country urgently. But for the federal state to bring peace in the real sense of the word and for it to be real democratic and in line with human rights, bicommunal policies must be produced and implemented about `missing persons` and their relatives…`


30.10.2015

Photo: Leyla Kiralp together with Christina Pavlou Solomi Patsia...

(*) Article published in POLITIS newspaper on the 22nd of November, 2015 – Sunday.

Mass graves where nothing grows because of lime…

Mass graves where nothing grows because of lime…

Sevgul Uludag

caramel_cy@yahoo.com

Tel: 00 357 99 966518
00 90 542 853 8436

It is during a cigarette break at the 9th Global Investigative Journalism Conference that I get to meet an investigative journalist who had worked in Morocco…
I cannot find my lighter and he lights my cigarette and we start talking… After a few minutes, our conversation turns to `missing persons` and `mass graves`…
`Our ones are more `clever` than your ones` he says…
`Why is that?`
`Because of lime` he explains… `They put so much lime on the bodies they buried in the mass graves that not even a single piece of grass can grow on top! They planted trees on top of the mass graves but they would not grow because they put so much lime! A French journalist has taken photos from the sky and has managed to show where these mass graves are because nothing grows on top of them!` he says…
They would plant orange trees on top of the mass graves in Morocco but these would not grow because of so much lime…
`You would not believe this but even in the most expensive areas in Casablanca and Rabat, there are mass graves like that… But no one cares…`
We have had some contact with the relatives of `missing persons` from Morocco through FEMED – FEMED is the organization that brings together such associations of `missing persons` and `forced disappearances` throughout Northern Africa and the Mediterranean in general. Last year and this year, the human rights association from Morocco had some activities in Morocco and in Cyprus with the association of our friend Achilleas Demetriades, `Truth Now!`… In these activities our association `Together We Can` where relatives of `missing` and victims of war – both Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots – also participated…
A few years ago some sort of `Truth and Reconciliation Commission` had been founded and I find out from our journalist friend from Morocco that it did not quite work out in the real sense of the word…
`They contacted the relatives of missing persons from before and told them not to say the names of the perpetrators, the killers!` he says.
So the relatives of the victims were banned from saying out loud the names of the perpetrators!
Even the `Equality and Reconciliation Commission` itself were banned from identifying and saying out loud the names of those officials responsible for making people `disappear`!
`What is more` he says, `some of those responsible are still working at some official levels I believe…`
The commission that was supposed to work on finding out the `truth` was also banned from making investigations about `torture`…
The commission would make various public meetings in various towns to help the relatives of `missing persons` to speak up and then drew up a set of recommendations. But whether and when these recommendations would be implemented is still a question mark if I understand correctly…
We finish our cigarettes and go in to continue to participate in the networking sessions, in the panels and in the seminars of the Global Investigative Journalism Conference…
Our association, International Women's Media Foundation IWMF has developed an application for the safety of journalists called REPORTA… I go to listen to Anna Schiller from IWMF who introduces us this tool called `Reporta`. It's an application that can be downloaded free and offered free of charge - The International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) designed Reporta to empower journalists working in potentially dangerous conditions to quickly implement their security protocols with the touch of a button. `It is free and a comprehensive personal safety app for iPhone and Android devices that journalists working in potentially dangerous environments can utilize to quickly implement their security protocols. The app is designed specifically for journalists worldwide and available in six languages – Arabic, English, French, Hebrew, Spanish, and Turkish.`
"Journalists covering conflict zones, working in repressive environments, or reporting on sensitive or highly charged issues are too often the targets of attacks," said Elisa Lees Muñoz, Executive Director of IWMF on the website introducing Reporta. "Reporta was developed with the goal to harness the power of the one piece of technology that most journalists use every day – a mobile phone. Now more than ever, it is critical to equip journalists with a free tool to help them stay safe and best positioned to continue to tell the significant stories of our time."
Reporta's launch comes at a time when violence against journalists is on the rise. The last three years have been widely reported as the deadliest period on record. Too often, journalists reporting on corruption, conflicts, and other illegal or sensitive activities face threats of harassment, abduction, or even imprisonment. In addition, IWMF research found that nearly two-thirds of women in media had experienced intimidation, threats, or abuse as a direct result of their work…`
Anna Schiller explains to us how it works… I start thinking that this tool is not only good for journalists working under dangerous conditions but it could also be used by women under threat from violence or anyone who might encounter violence…
So what happens is you `check-in` at times when you decide – let's say two or three times a day. If you fail to `check-in`, the application sends you a reminder. If you still don't check-in, it notifies your designated contacts.
It has an SOS button that if you push for three seconds – showing you are in grave danger – it locks down the application completely and immediately alerts the contacts you have chosen to be alerted in case of danger like your editor or your friends or your family, telling them that you are in danger and giving them your last location… Or if you have sent a video or photos or sound showing what sort of danger you were in…
This tool will be particularly useful for investigative journalists working in dangerous zones…
We go to listen to journalists working under dangerous conditions… A journalist from Palestine speaks:
"I live 20 minutes away from Jerusalem but I cannot enter Jerusalem… I cannot do journalism in 80% of my country…`
All those journalists coming particularly from the Middle East, you can tell how hurt they are from their eyes… You can see the scars in their eyes… I have been participating in international conferences for so many years and always and always, the desolate Middle Eastern journalists can be recognized from their eyes – even if you don't know where they come from, you can tell from the pain that you can read in their faces that they are in fact from the Middle East…
Since I have known myself, Middle East has been on fire and even more so now with Syria…
The Asian journalists, on the other hand are much more at peace with themselves, more calm, more peaceful…
The African journalists, despite the grave problems of their land are more merry and more peaceful…
The most hurt are from our area, the Middle East…
Perhaps they have seen more deaths, more `missing`, more war… Perhaps the light of hope has been extinguished over and over again and like the Phoenix bird, they have had to recreate hope from their ashes and they have done this so many years that they are tired and hurt… Their eyes are sort of helpless, crying out loud with pain… The wounds of their hearts are reflected in their eyes – desperation and it is like a feeling of getting stuck in a one way street…
Shall we ever see how their wounds would be treated and how our whole area will reach calm and peace?
Today this seems so far away… The whole area of Middle East and North Africa would need hundreds of years of reconstruction, rebuilding, restoring and treating the wounds of all the losses of those who have remained alive from the whole turmoil…

23.10.2015

Photo: Palestinian journalist saying he cannot do journalism in 80 percent of his country...

(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 15th of November 2015, Sunday.

11/17/2015 5:32:41 PM

11/17/2015 5:32:41 PM

Notes from the Global Investigative Journalism Conference…

Notes from the Global Investigative Journalism Conference…

Sevgul Uludag

caramel_cy@yahoo.com

Tel: 99 966518

I go to Norway to attend the Global Investigative Journalism Conference… I am the only investigative journalist from Cyprus going there and on my name tag it says `YENIDUZEN and POLITIS newspapers` and I am proud of that – it shows that I come from `both sides`, not just one…
In preparation to the conference, the organizers had created a world map to show which countries we were coming from and apparently they would show only the northern part of the island but I would intervene and work with the organizers in order to fix this in order to show the whole of Cyprus, not just one part… After all, as an investigative journalist, I do not write about only `one side` but `both`… And in my heart, I refuse the division of my country – for me Cyprus is a whole and cannot be divided…
Seven years ago, I was here at Lillehammer, an Olympic town two hours by train from Oslo, again for the same conference… This year the conference runs between the 8th to 11th of October 2015 at Radisson Blue Hotel in Lillehammer in Norway…
Lillehammer is a quiet town with such stunning beauty of autumn that it is breath-taking! The colours of the trees have turned into all shades of yellows and oranges and the air is crispy, cold, maybe around 6 or 8 degrees – coming from a Mediterranean island, I really feel the cold. We are not used to cold weather, we don't know how to handle cold, we don't know how to walk in snow, we don't know how to hold an umbrella and walk in the rain because we actually don't have to if we live in Cyprus… So I bring warm clothes with my fear of the cold!
Lillehammer had become famous for winter Olympic Games – and later on, a fantastic TV series called `Lilyhammer` would make it even more famous… Set in Lillehammer, a New York mobster goes into hiding in rural Lillehammer in Norway after testifying against his former associates. Starring Steven van Zandt as `Johnny`, this comedy series reflects the cultural differences between the USA and Norway – but I think it is more than that… I find Norway refreshing with its quiet beauty and its very kind people… Norwegians sitting on top of the world have created a country with such beauty and such culture that it is extremely difficult to find in today's world such a place… They are a welcoming people, sharing what they have with others – and Cyprus has been part of it… They have set up PRIO in Cyprus and the main funding for Home for Cooperation in Nicosia in the buffer zone comes from Norway…
No, it's not something `symbolic`, it is more than that – it is the curiosity instilled from an early age towards `others` and the respect and kindness towards `others` - in order to respect `others`, first you have to respect `yourself` and that's what I see in Norway… Outside my hotel, I see a group of kids, around 8 years old with their teachers and they call me and say hello. I stop to talk to them – it is a group of around 15 of them and almost all of them speak perfect English… They are learning to become boy scouts and they are trying to make compasses and we speak of Cyprus and they become happy! Their teacher asks them if they know where Cyprus is and at least 6-7 hands shoot up, all smiles! They have all gone on holidays in Cyprus and say `Cyprus is very nice!` I leave the little Vikings on their task of making compasses and trying to find their ways in the forest with a big smile on my face…
Every two years, investigative journalists from all over the world gather at this conference to share their investigations and to learn the new techniques and trends in investigative journalism.
Seven years ago, again it was here, at Lillehammer – and now again back to Lillehammer… SKUP, the Norwegian Investigative Journalists' Union is our host, as before… SKUP had been the target of the Norwegian far-right terrorist Anders Behring Breivik when SKUP was having its congress but since he could not finish the bomb he was making `in time` he changed the target and on 22 July 2011 killed 8 persons by setting off a bomb in Oslo and then he went and shot 69 youngsters at a summer camp of the Workers' Youth League. He was convicted of mass murder and terrorism in 2012 and is now in jail… From Norwegian colleagues we learn that his initial target of bombing was the SKUP congress – he hated journalists and he wanted to kill journalists but since he could not finish his bomb `in time` he changed his target… Police would find among his notes that the original plan of bombing was the SKUP congress…
Our conference is the ninth conference of the investigative journalists of the world and we come from 120 countries, around 900 investigative journalists… I share the hotel flat with two other journalists: One from Azerbaijan and one from Tadjikistan… At the conference, I meet journalists from diverse regions – we sit down with journalists from Mongolia to share experiences and they give me their money as a gift where there is the picture of Djengiz Khan – they are proud of him… We speak of the weather and life in Mongolia and in Cyprus…
There is a surprise in for me at this conference: I was awarded with `Courage in Journalism` by the International Women's Media Foundation in 2008. I find out that this year, `Courage in Journalism` Award goes to the Honduran journalist Lourdes Ramirez and she is here, at the conference! We meet and hug each other and talk about the award and our lives… A journalist from Paraguay, Mariana Ladaga Pereyras translates for us…
Because of her investigative work on crimes of the gangs Lourdes came under threats from some gangs and she had to flee for some time to live in America but then she went back to Honduras… One of the most violent countries in the world, only 2 per cent of crimes are solved and police corruption is widespread… After Norway, Ramirez will fly back to Honduras and then to Washington, New York and Los Angeles to attend the award ceremonies of IWMF… I wish her luck…
The most interesting discovery for me is not only the journalists from Mongolia and Honduras but also Faroe Islands… I had never heard of Faroe Islands and here I have an opportunity to learn more from Sveinur Tróndarson… He speaks at a global networking session and soon, together with a Catalan journalist, we get out to speak about Faroe Islands…
Faroe Islands are somewhere between Iceland and Norway – they come under the `rule` of Denmark although Faroe people are not Danish. They are an `autonomous country` under Danish Kingdom. According to Wikipedia, `Between 1035 and 1814, the Faroe Islands were part of the Kingdom of Norway. The 1814 Treaty of Kiel granted Denmark control over the islands, along with two other Norwegian regions: Greenland and Iceland. The Faroe Islands have been a self-governing country within the Danish Realm since 1948. The Faroese have control of most domestic matters; areas that remain the responsibility of Denmark include military defence, police, justice, currency and foreign affairs.`
I learn that `Faroe Islands` mean `The island of sheep…` Even before the Vikings arrived there, there had been people living on these islands… Their population goes back to Faroese, Scottish and Norwegian/Scandinavian…Their culture is a Nordic culture…
And weather? Out of 365 days, 260 days are rainy… People speak Faorese language, as well as Danish language… The Faroese language dates back to `Old Norse` language spoken in Scandinavia in the Viking Age… According to Wikipedia, `Until the 15th century, Faroese had a similar orthography to Icelandic and Norwegian, but after the Reformation in 1538, the ruling Norwegians outlawed its use in schools, churches and official documents. Although a rich spoken tradition survived, for 300 years the language was not written down. This means that all poems and stories were handed down orally... These were eventually written down in the 19th century.`
They have few trees but lots of seabirds… They have seals and sometimes whales visit Faroe Islands…
What do they eat? They eat meat, seafood and potatoes… Goat meat is the basis of many meals and one of the most popular treats is `skerpikjot` just like our `tsamarella`… They also eat whale meat and lots of fresh fish, as well as seabirds and their eggs… Dried fish is also commonly eaten…
They too face similar problems like us: Youngsters moving to Denmark or elsewhere and as in the words of Sveinur, `We have same problems as you…`
The main bulk of their budget comes from Denmark and they have self-rule, except in foreign affairs… 49 thousand people live on Faroe Islands and 95 per cent of their economy depend on fishing… `That's why Faroe Islands said NO to membership to EU` explains Sveinur, because it would limit their fishing… So not a member of EU, its main budget coming from Denmark, there is always discussion about whether to become `independent` from Denmark or to stay as they are we learn…
Going out of Cyprus brings me information that I would not come across otherwise… I will continue to share my experiences from the Global Investigative Journalism Conference next week as well…
(To be continued…)


Photo: With journalist Lourdes Ramirez from Honduras and journalist Mariana Ladaga Pereyras from Paraguay…

(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 8th of November 2015, Sunday.

Killed in the basement of the Communal Chamber, buried in the Gardens of Tekke…

Killed in the basement of the Communal Chamber, buried in the Gardens of Tekke…

Sevgul Uludag

caramel_cy@yahoo.com

Tel: 99 966518

One of my Turkish Cypriot readers, while talking of another subject, all of a sudden has the urge to tell me something shocking… He must have kept it in him for half a century, without being able to tell anyone and now he has found the opportunity to talk about it…
He says:
`It was after the troubles between the two communities began in 1963-64 but I can't remember the exact date… It could have been around 1964-65... A Greek Cypriot had passed from the Greek Cypriot side to the Turkish Cypriot side of Nicosia from around Ottoman Bank – yes there was the Ottoman Bank once upon a time, near Lokmadji barricade, that is the beginning of the Ledra Street…
He was a well-built youth, maybe around 25 years old. He was tall and strong. There is the famous bicycle of our famous kebab house owner Anibal, you know with the front to put things, right? Well, he had one of those bicycles and I remember he always used to pass to the Turkish Cypriot side in Nicosia and would go around. I believe this kid was a baker or was working in a bakery…
That day he was wearing what we old people call `fanella`, that is what the men used to wear under their shirts, the white `fanella` because it was summer and it was hot…
He had come from the area where there are the Chappa buildings… He must have crossed from the Paphos Gate and turned right towards Lokmadji where there was the Ottoman Bank…
I remember that day that there was a fuss at the barricade… The commander responsible for the Lokmadji barricade was having a heated argument with the UNFICYP Commander… This UNFICYP Commander was a very tall guy, I think he was from India… The UN Commander was saying, `You put this barricade too far, you have to take it back` etc. and there was arguments between him and the Turkish Cypriot commander.
This young guy with the bicycle came at that moment, I remember him very well… He had big muscles on his arms and he was well-built…
While the scuffle at the Lokmadji barricade was continuing, some Turkish Cypriot soldiers caught this young guy and took him to the cellar of the Communal Chamber and killed him there.
They had killed him there, at the basement of the Communal Chamber… Later on they buried him at the Tekke Gardens in Nicosia… The body of this young Greek Cypriot `missing person` is also there…
If they ever dig the area of the Tekke Gardens one day, they will find the remains of this `missing` Greek Cypriot there… You know very well that both Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot `missing persons` were buried in the Gardens of the Tekke in Nicosia and I could never understand the `stubbornness` of the Turkish Cypriot side for not allowing to dig there… Why this stubbornness? Because sooner or later this place will be dug and the remains of some `missing` will be found in this area… Those who were buried here are not inside the cemetery – I heard from one of those who knew that they had been buried next to the wall of the cemetery… This must be investigated by the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee and excavations must be done in that area…
Years later as I was speaking with my friend, the Turkish Cypriot commander who had been arguing with the UN Commander that day, he said to me, `You know what I feel sorry about most? That boy that others took away and killed in the basement of the Communal Chamber while I was arguing with the UN Commander… I feel most sorry for this kid…`
I want to tell you something else that I remember now… We had passed from Exometochi right after the war and there were so many dead bodies lying around… I believe they must have been buried there… Too many bodies and they were all deteriorated for staying out in the open for some days in that heat… Please investigate this as well…`
The Communal Chamber my reader is talking about had been where the late Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash had his office. Because my sister's husband, Kutlu Adali - who would be killed later on in 1996 by sinister forces on this island – had been his private secretary, I used to go to these offices as a child and I remember very well that they had offices also responsible for education, for lottery etc. This was the seat of the Turkish Cypriot administration…
I could never understand why I would feel goose bumps while entering this building – ever… Now it starts making sense… You must know the feeling when you pass from somewhere or when you visit a place and you have an eerie feeling for no clear reason at all… Now it makes sense: There must have been some sort of bad energy left there due to this killing in the basement… And we don't know what else happened there…
I would go to the Communal Chamber to see my sister's husband and my sister at work – my sister Ilkay Adali was working in the finance department and was responsible for drawing the lottery… All the women civil servants, on certain days, would line up outside to draw balls from a revolving machine to declare the winning ticket and my sister, young and beautiful, would be one of the women civil servants making the draw…
Under the Communal Chamber (Kıbrıs Türk Cemaat Meclisi) were a variety of shops: There was a famous shoe-maker, Bahcheli – the grandfather of our journalist friend Simon Bahcheli – who would make shoes for my sister… There was two confectionaries – one of them the famous Tatlici Shukru and the other Sozer Confectionary… So as you approached this Communal Chamber, there would be the wonderful sweet smell of cakes that would hit you and you would want to stop and buy some marzipan or some other delicacy… The reason I constantly went to the Communal Chamber, more than anything else, was the bookshop at the entrance of this building: Ozker Yashın Bookshop… Ozker Yashin was the father of our famous poet, our friend Neshe Yashin and although I grew up in a library since the age of three – and I would leave no books unread in the library – I still had an account with the bookshop that my sister's husband Kutlu Adali had opened for me at
the Ozker Yashin Bookshop. I would go and buy books from there and at the end of the month, Kutlu Adali would be paying for this… In the end he gave up since he could not cope with me, as a child, getting so many books and devouring them! I would get the series Tintin from Herge who was my idol at the time and many other books… Adali loved books, he lived with books, he lived for books – he too had a huge library and he liked binding his own books in his free time. He made his own bookshelves and spent most of his wages on books, newspapers and magazines…
After my reader's information about the killing of a Greek Cypriot youngster in the basement of the Communal Chamber and burying him in the Gardens of the Tekke in Nicosia, I would consider myself lucky when I would come across some photos I had never seen of the Gardens of the Tekke… I would be on FACEBOOK when one famous photographer, Dervish Guryel would share some very old photos from the burials there… I would take these photos and notify the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee… I would also speak with Mr. Dervish Guryel who would tell me that a guy he did not know from before, some days ago contacted him and gave him a bunch of photos as a gift… That these photos were taken by the Turkish Cypriot PIO in those days, back in 1963-64…
Why were these photos so striking? They were striking because it shows that the burials were not in the place where the cemetery is today at the Gardens of the Tekke…
We must do more investigations about the Gardens of Tekke and see what sort of progress we can get… These photos that I share with you today – that I also shared with my Turkish Cypriot readers when I printed them on my page in YENIDUZEN newspaper – is a step forward towards solving the puzzles in the Gardens of Tekke and bringing us a step closer to finding the burial sites of both Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot `missing persons` buried there…
I thank my reader for all his information about the young `missing` Greek Cypriot and I also thank Mr. Dervish Guryel for sharing these photos…

14.10.2015

Photo: The way Gardens of Tekke were… Photo: Courtesy of Mr. Derviş Güryel…

(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 1st of November 2015, Sunday.