From Kokkinotrimitia to Nicosia: The stolen life of a young man…

From Kokkinotrimitia to Nicosia: The stolen life of a young man…

Sevgul Uludag

caramel_cy@yahoo.com

Tel: 99 966518

I go to the cemetery in Nicosia, to attend the funeral of a young man of 25 years old, so young, so fresh at the time he was killed: back in December 1963… He had been a young policeman, his first job, his first post in Kokkinotrimitia where Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot policemen served together. Hasan Nural Cevdet had a brand new Volkswagen to go back and forth to his job and to his fiancee in Malia village and to his family who were at Ayianni, Paphos… When his father passed away with a heart attack and his family was in difficult conditions financially, he had decided to become a policeman to bring income to the family…
His mother had said, `No, my son… Don't be a policeman…`
But he decided otherwise…
It was his first post that would be his last post… Due to the 1963 intercommunal conflict…
Although he was not involved in any way in the conflict, an innocent person who only thought of his fiancee and his family, he would become a victim of the beasts of Kokkinotrimithia – the `nationalist` beasts who would take him in Kokkinotrimithia, put him together with other Turkish Cypriots whom they `caught` elsewhere and after some days, they would execute them in cold blood and bury them in the `laoumi` just outside Kokkinotrimithia…
Tall, handsome, innocent, thoughtful and clean, that's how his little sister Meral would remember him. She had been 15 years old when her brother, Hasan Nural Cevdet `disappeared` from Kokkinotrimithia – he had been only 25 years old! A young man who was planning to be married with his fiancee from Malia…
He remained young because dead people don't grow up…
He would have been 77 years old now, if his life had not been stolen from him…
His fiancee would wait for him for 10 years to return… Then his fiancee's father would find out that he had been killed. His fiancee's family would force her to marry again… She would marry…
But the memory of Hasan Nural Cevdet would live on among his family…
`One day he had come with his new Volkswagen and he told me that we would go for a trip… The Volkswagen was a light green… We would go… In those times, you remember, everywhere there was streams and water… He would stop somewhere and tell me to get out of the car… He would put a pillow for me near a stream and tell me to sit down and enjoy the view… `I want to wash my car here` he would tell me, `because it got dusty in Kokkinotrimithia…` And he would wash his car… He was so neat, so clean…
When I went to the viewing of his remains, they insisted I go to the next room to look at his remains. I did not want to go in but I was sort of pushed to go in... As soon as I went in and I saw the big hole on his skull, I started crying and wailing… I could not stop… I will never forget that… I will never forget the pain we have gone through…`
The father of Hasan Nural Cevdet was from Avdimou – Mr. Cevdet had been a policeman… He would get married with Ms. Emetullah from Ayianni… They would have five kids: Kamuran who would later become the head of customs in Famagusta, Sevim, Hasan Nural, Chetin who would become a doctor and Meral…
Mr. Cevdet would pass away with a heart attack in 1957… Hasan Nural Cevdet would `disappear` from Kokkinotrimithia in 1963… Kamuran would pass away in 1996… Chetin would pass away some years ago and the mother would pass away too…
Only Sevim and Meral, the two daughters would remain alive from the family to take back his remains to bury him…
Sevim is now 80 years old and she was very sad at the funeral… So was Meral, the youngest of the five brothers and sisters…
Their pain would revive itself on this day of the funeral and they would say `There is no medicine to cure this pain…`
I had gone many times to Kokkinotrimithia due to a Greek Cypriot reader who had told me the story of what happened in the village and with the help of my dear friend Maria Georgiadou from Kythrea whose mother, father, sister and brother are still `missing` from 1974, we would go and see him and speak with him… He would show us the burial site of the `missing` Turkish Cypriots – the `laoumi` just outside Kokkinotrimithia… He would introduce us to a person who knew the chain of wells and he would give us a map of the wells… I would share this information with the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee… This was back in 2009 I think…
There would be exhumations of the chain of wells in this area and in 2012, in one well they would find the remains of five `missing` Turkish Cypriots from 1963 – one of them being Hasan Nural Cevdet… In another well, they would find the remains of two `missing` Turkish Cypriots who are waiting for DNA identification…
The `gang` in Kokkinotrimithia had killed them as they killed some Turkish Cypriots in Agios Vasilios village and a teacher from Gonyeli who was teaching at the elementary school of Agia Marina… They would also loot the animals and even the `gandjelli` of the houses of Turkish Cypriots whom they had killed from Agios Vasilios village.
This `gang` must have had `protection` since it would not be easy to `arrest` and kill and make people `disappear` - you would need some sort of `infrastructure`, as well as `protection` from `higher authorities` to hide these crimes…
We would bury Hasan Nural Cevdet and I would share photos from the funeral on my FACEBOOK page and in the evening I would get a call from a Greek Cypriot reader from a village close to Kokkinotrimithia…
`Now that you published something about his missing Volkswagen, I remember something` he would say…
`Tell me…`
`I was in a coffee shop some years ago and they were discussing the Turkish Cypriot `missing persons` from the area and I remember an old man in the coffee shop, more than 70 years old, telling us that they had actually buried the Volkswagen in order to hide evidence… He had told us that there was a small church called Mana ton Paidon between Meniko and Paliometocho villages – this was the Acheras area… There was nothing there in those days, it was completely empty, save for this little church. This little church was for those who wanted to have children and who could not have children and they would go and light a candle there and pray… The old man told us that people in the Volkswagen were killed and then the Volkswagen was buried somewhere in this area…`
I thank my reader for telling me this but I have grave doubts about this since a Volkswagen in those times was something very valuable – either they would use it or break it into parts and use or sell the parts… So perhaps if anyone from the area of Kokkinotrimithia who remembers a new Volkswagen – it was light green when it was taken, with the number plate BA214 – can tell us, we can also find out what happened to the car of Hasan Nural Cevdet in those days…
In this village, I was told that a Turkish Cypriot who was taking oranges with his truck to Nicosia from Lefka was `arrested` and killed and his oranges were distributed to the villagers. The truck remained where it was for some days… The Turkish Cypriot who was taking oranges to Nicosia also had a young Turkish Cypriot boy with him to help him. Both are still `missing`… But the truck? The truck was not `missing` as I found out – it was changed and used and I would see this truck, in the middle of the village with my own eyes! We were with Maria Georgiadou and we were both so shocked that we could not speak at the site of this truck who my reader said, belonged to a `missing` Turkish Cypriot from 1963!
So the `gang` was so arrogant that I don't believe they would bury the Volkswagen – if my readers remember something, please call me and tell me so we can learn more details of this tragic story… My number is 99 966518 and I do not need to know your name if you don't want to say it… You may remain anonymous… What's important is for the truth to come out so that we know what happened in our tragic past in both sides of the dividing line…
Last but not least I want to thank wholeheartedly my reader from Kokkinotrimithia who told us the stories and who showed us the `laumi` where `missing` Turkish Cypriots were buried… And I thank my dear friend Maria Georgiadou for all her help in our investigations on this humanitarian task…
May Hasan Nural Cevdet and all other innocent victims – both Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots – rest in peace… I share the pain of their relatives…

28.11.2015

Photo: The pain of all relatives of "missing persons" is the same…

(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 20th of December 2015, Sunday.

Waiting for Godot…

Waiting for Godot…

Sevgul Uludag

caramel_cy@yahoo.com

Tel: 99 966518

One of my dear friends, Fatma Azgin, in an article entitled `The hopes for a solution are decreasing` in YENIDUZEN newspaper analyses the current atmosphere and points out that the `hopes for a solution are eroded…`
For those of you who do not know Fatma Azgin, she is a peace activist, a political columnist, a feminist active in politics and throughout her activism, she has always tried to create alternative ways towards the solution of problems…
Throughout her life, she has particularly supported young women… As a peace activist she has always tried to open paths for alternatives that the politicians would not see or would rather not see…
Having known and worked with her in various bi-communal peace and women groups, she has always been an `idol` for me, someone who speaks up and tells the truth long before others would throw away their fears to say it!
A pharmacist by profession, she had been the leader of the Turkish Cypriot Pharmacists Union and she is one of those rare Cypriots who is practicing what she preaches…
As a woman of this country she enjoys `both sides` of our island, she has close friends from `both sides` and currently does a TV programme on current affairs but again trying to raise alternative voices…
Last week in YENIDUZEN newspaper where she has a weekly column, she wrote:
`As Cypriots we know quite well that excitements for a solution have quite short lives and that each time not using our old experiences, we try to put old points of antagonism on the negotiating table and we knock down the `negotiating table`. Despite this each time we are `surprised` and disappointed.
We have become such `maestros` in this that we try to convince those who do not believe that there would be a solution and finding thousands of pretexts we become successful.
It is true that candidates and political parties in both sides during elections believe that stressing `the solution of the Cyprus conflict` would bring in more votes.
The deceased Turkish Cypriot leader Mr. Denktash would use posters saying `A solution without Denktash is impossible!` during elections.
The deceased Greek Cypriot leader Mr. Clerides too did the same: What he could not achieve during his presidency, he asked from others to fulfil and in the next elections, again he had promised a solution.
AKEL had said `No` to the Annan Plan. In the next elections Christofias had won the presidency and those who believed that he would find a solution with his counterpart Talat would get tensions ending up with `blame`…
First Talat was gone and then Christofias. Now AKEL is supporting Anastasiadis but we heard that they have `red lines`. If a solution is signed perhaps AKEL might say `No` again. Because in May 2016, there are parliamentary elections. They might want to strike a balance of those who would say `yes`, as well as those who would say `no`….
`Leaders` and political parties take stands during election times, according to the anger and disappointments of their communities. `The solution` would be remembered only after the elections!
The positive atmosphere created by Akinci and Anastasiades six months ago are quickly becoming cloudy. They could not even get a clear solution on the Confidence Building Measures. They could not agree on even one of the subjects they have been discussing like property, territory, population, guarantees and governance. Unfortunately there is nothing concrete apart from the lukewarm and respectable impression they have created!
If from the way they work and the way they meet not so often has not brought any compromise to the problems they are responsible for solving, at this tempo and `apathy`, we cannot get a solution neither by next March, nor in a few years…
Recently the Turkish Cypriot side is pushing forward at the negotiating table the demands they had before 2000, before Cyprus had become a member of EU. There started an effort to make the two zones `ethnically clean` within the context of property and population. Proposals are being made for creating `a two nation states` instead of building a federation.
Knowing that such demands are not in line with international or EU law and principles, they are trying to service `derogations`.
Ali Erel who is a specialist on issues of EU is explaining in today's newspapers, what it would mean and what it would cost these `old proposals` developed by the Turkish Cypriot side that can destroy the possibility of a solution.
I want to draw to your attention the last paragraph of the statement of Ali Erel – here he explains what cannot be part of a solution of the Cyprus conflict – the Cyprus that is a member of EU:
`Now it is time for making a choice. The truth is to work for an early solution within the EU values without dragging one's feet and without pushing for impossible things. Either to choose a life with EU values of respect for democracy, human rights and freedoms or instead of hiding behind a finger to come out openly and declare to Turkish Cypriots and to the world that the northern part of Cyprus would like to stay outside the EU rules, that it is good like that. This is what needs to be done!`
I would also like to say this: It is time to create the internal dynamics of the community that has not been felt so far… There is a very urgent need for the civil society to show the energetic and impressive activities it did in the past defending EU norms and standards and for demanding to live the democracy, for asking to become (to live in) a state within international law, for defending peace and reconciliation…`
Picking up on this last sentence of the article of Fatma Azgin, I want to share something I witnessed last week: Last week having the chance to meet with experts from South Africa who had been part of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and who had been part of the whole process of reconciliation 20 years ago, having known Nelson Mandela, they would be shocked to find out that the civil society was completely out of the picture of the current negotiations for a solution.
For couple of days these experts were in Cyprus and met with different sections of civil society – from political parties to trade unions to NGOs of all colours…
Explaining to us what sort of process they went through 20 years ago in South Africa, we learnt that they refused any outside help be it from America or the UN or anywhere else. They wanted to do this process by themselves. So there was `ownership` of the process.
28 political parties would sit around a table to discuss 33 principles of what sort of a South Africa they wanted for the future… This would take a couple of years and then the new constitution would be in line with these principles. The new constitution would be widely discussed and more than 1 million proposals for the constitution would be taken from citizens before it would be finalized…
They too were shocked that the civil society was not involved in the peace negotiations in Cyprus…
Perhaps we as Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots prefer to wait for Godot, rather than do it ourselves…
Or perhaps we as the Cypriots of this land prefer to `play it safe` rather than stick our necks and get hurt in the process!
Perhaps we are so busy `saving the day` that we lose our prospects for our common future…
Actually there is no real infrastructure to support the reunification – all those efforts by civil society who sincerely work for reconciliation and peace on this land is not sufficient because there is no support from the mainstream politics and mainstream structures in the `two sides`…
Despite this those of us who want to create a peaceful future in this country we work knowing that our voices, our hearts, our souls would make a difference…
It takes five minutes to destroy something but it takes years of hard work to build something…

15.11.2015

Photo: Fatma Azgin at a peace demonstration (on the right) back in 2001…

(*) Article published in POLITIS newspaper on the 13th of December 2015, Sunday.

Searching for stories of friendship…

Searching for stories of friendship…

Sevgul Uludag

caramel_cy@yahoo.com

Tel: 00 357 99 966518
00 90 542 853 8436

I discover the lovely stories of Stephanie Jacobs on Facebook shared by `Tales of Cyprus` and through a friend, Zoe Piponides and today I want to share with you part of her fantastic research on our island… She says:
`I am currently a PhD candidate in the School of History and International Relations at Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia.
My PhD journey began in April 2013; I was motivated to write the hidden chapter of Cypriot history: that of inter-communality, cooperation and friendship between Greek- and Turkish-Cypriots.
My topic was inspired by the loving friendship between my Greek Cypriot pappou (grandfather), Costas, and his Turkish Cypriot best friend, Mehmet. Pappou Costas continues to provide me with inspiration through his love and thirst for knowledge.
Title: Memories of a Cypriot Belle Époque from Cyprus and Australia; intercommunality from the 1930s to 1950s.
My grandfather moved to Australia in 1947 but before then, he lived in Agia Irini, a harmonious, multi-ethnic village in the Kyrenia District in the north of Cyprus. He told me stories of how he and his brothers would play with Turkish-Cypriot children, that it was common to speak both Greek and Turkish, embrace each other's cultural and religious customs and attend each other's events. This was normal life in Agia Irini, and many parts of Cyprus, until civil unrest broke out in the mid-1950s.
The aim of my interdisciplinary dissertation is to record and examine, first hand, oral history accounts of the relationships between Greek and Turkish Cypriots in several former mixed villages of Cyprus, before civil unrest broke out on the island. My study uses interviews conducted by myself, of elderly Greek and Turkish Cypriots in Cyprus and in Australia, which capture their childhood and early adulthood stories from several mixed villages, to explore Christian-Muslim relations in Cyprus from the 1930s-1950s. So far, I have conducted 24 interviews in Australia, spanning 6 different states and territories, and 40 interviews in Cyprus, spanning the north and south.
The four central research objectives are:
1. To capture and explore the childhood and early adulthood stories of friendship and intercommunality of those Greek and Turkish Cypriots who lived in mixed villages of Cyprus during the 1930s-1950s;
2. To investigate the experiences of the Cypriot diaspora in Australia, how each group settled and with which communities they engaged;
3. To examine how the memories of the 1930s-1950s differ between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, between those who migrated to Australia and those who stayed, and between those who migrated to Australia before civil unrest erupted in Cyprus, and those who lived through the civil unrest and migrated later;
4. To understand how religious, ethnic and national identities formed and evolved amongst Greek and Turkish Cypriots in both Cyprus and Australia.
On May 20th 2015, I flew to Cyprus to spend two months conducting interviews of Greek and Turkish Cypriots from three formerly mixed villages, spanning the north and the south of the island. One village (Akdeniz, formerly Agia Irini) had a Turkish Cypriot majority; another (Polis Chrysochous) had a Greek Cypriot majority, and the third, Alaminos, had close to a 50/50 split throughout the 1920s-1960s…`

And here is one of her stories that was shared on FACEBOOK that I want to share entitled "A loving encounter in Northern Cyprus":

"This is how we used to live", my Pappou (grandfather) said to me, wiping tears from his eyes, "Greeks and Turks together". We had just eaten some freshly-made haloumi cheese, standing outside Pappou's old house in Agia Irini, Cyprus. Pappou (Costas) migrated to Australia in 1947 as a 21-year old and had not visited his village in the north of Cyprus since 1972. His two brothers, who remained in Cyprus, both live in the south since the Turkish military intervention in 1974 displaced them and, although the border between the Turkish Cypriot north and Greek Cypriot south was opened in 2003, neither had visited their village since the day they fled from the Turkish military in 1974.
It was very significant that Costas was in Cyprus in July 2013. It had been twenty years since he last visited and he had not expected that he would return to his homeland in his old age. At 87, Costas wanted to make the most of his visit. He was determined to make the journey to visit his old village. Much to our surprise, Costas's brother Andreas decided to come, too. Their younger brother Iordanis was adamant that he would not travel north, as, like many Cypriots, he feels that the experience would be too traumatic and heart-breaking; we understood and respected his decision. Two of his children, however, decided to join us. Costas made the trip accompanied by his two sons, three grandchildren, his brother, a nephew and niece, a daughter-in-law and a sister-in-law. We were a party of eleven (seven from Australia) sharing the two old men's journey back in time.
On Saturday 13 July 2013 we travelled from Polis (in the South of Cyprus) to Agia Irini (Saint Irene), now known as Akdeniz (the white Sea). The village looked very old and worn – underdeveloped. At first, Costas and his brother Andreas were rediscovering their village like two excited little boys; they reminisced about their childhood and giggled with delight. Soon they decided to go down to the old church, where their own Pappou had been the priest. Pappou and his two brothers had felt deeply connected to that church. We followed them as they led us to the small church of Agia Irini, at the edge of the village. It looked quite neglected and as we entered the mood changed very quickly. We realised that the church had been ransacked decades earlier. All of the icons had been ripped from the walls; everything was gone except for the beautiful floor tiles, which were covered in a thick layer of dust. After inspecting the church for a few minutes, Costas broke down sobbing; he was very distraught. His brother Andreas was also shocked and devastated but he reacted positively, defiantly, saying, "I am going to restore this church!" We left the church in a sombre mood.
We saw a car driving towards us in the distance and as it came closer we saw my mother, who had become separated from the rest of us shortly after we arrived in the village, sitting in the passenger seat. My mother got out of the car and announced, "I have found Mehmet!" The sombre mood was broken. While we went to the church, my mother had walked towards the mosque, asked for help from some workmen she met, and been directed to, "Go to coffee shop – good English!" She had been trying for a few days to contact Costas's oldest friend, Mehmet. My family all knew that a reunion of the two men would be the fulfilment of a dream. The kafenion (café) owner, Erol, had responded to her query about an old man who used to live in the village, saying, "Mehmet is my wife's mother's brother!" He showered her with hospitality and then went to fetch Mehmet. When mum encountered difficulty in locating the rest of us, Erol drove her around the village searching for us. "I have found Mehmet!" Costas's expression shifted from pain and fatigue to happy excitement, and he started swiftly up the hill, eager to reunite with his childhood friend.
I grew up hearing stories from Costas of how Mehmet and he were closer than brothers. My Pappou would have tears in his eyes and say to me, "I would trust a Turkish-Cypriot over a Greek-Cypriot any day; they are the best friends you could ever have". He told me that he and his brothers would play with Turkish Cypriot children, that most of the villagers spoke both Greek and Turkish, and that they embraced each other's cultural and religious customs and events. At Easter time, the Greek Cypriots would prepare special pastries (flaounes) and coloured eggs and would share these with not only their Greek Cypriot neighbours, but with their Turkish Cypriot neighbours too. After Ramadan, Eid was a Turkish Cypriot feast shared with their Greek-Cypriot friends. They were invited to each other's weddings and other celebrations, and people were judged on their character ahead of their ethnicity or religion. This was normal life in Agia Irini, a once harmonious, multi-ethnic village.
The love and friendship between Costas and Mehmet has lasted throughout the decades and overcome ethnic conflict and separation. Witnessing their reunion in the kafenion was an extraordinary surprise, a deeply emotional experience and a privilege for all of us. We drank lots of water and coffee, discovered mastica ice-cream and rejoiced in watching the old friends sitting and talking together, reconnecting after all these years. Amazingly, Erol, the owner of the kafenion, was the author of a book on the 2000-year history of the village; he sold quite a few copies that day. Eventually we left and walked back towards our cars. Suddenly, an older lady called out to us – in Greek! Emina had recognised my uncle (my dad's brother) from his visit to the village in 2011. She remembered Costas and Andreas from decades before and embraced them with much warmth. She called her sister Serpil, who joined the reunion and they told us many stories of the old days of the mixed village, and of how my great-grandfather, Pappou's father, had died. They introduced us to their children and grandchildren, some of whom now live in the house that had once belonged to Pappou and his brothers. Costas reminisced: "That room is where we used to store the hay…" Serpil opened the room to show us its current use: they make cheese there. She cut up some freshly-made goat's cheese and sprinkled it with locally collected sea salt; we all sampled it with relish. Then we all had to try the haloumi… and Serpil made up several parcels of cheese for us to take away with us.
Iordanis's two children grew up in the south of Cyprus. They had never met a Turkish Cypriot before. My aunty said to me, "They look like us, and they speak like us!" Her "knowledge", learned from school and the media, that Turkish Cypriots were very different to the Greek Cypriots, was deeply challenged. I observed her responding to the hugs, kisses and smiles of the Turkish Cypriots with warmth and affection. She told me that she was drawn to them and felt a natural connection to them.
So there we stood, outside the house in which my Pappou and his two brothers grew up, listening to stories of when Pappou was a child and enjoying our time with the lovely Turkish Cypriots living in the house today. When we left, my mum kissed Serpil and said, "Efharisto poli" ("Thank you very much") and she replied, "Tipota" ("It's nothing") and then "Kopiaste" (a Cypriot, rather than a Greek or Turkish word, relating to hospitality; "Come and share my food"). We left Agia Irini with Erol's book in one hand, bags full of cheeses in the other, and deep happiness in our hearts. We all shared a sense of amazement at the day we had experienced. We will go back. And we might even restore that church…
Stephanie Jacobs, September 2013
(You can read more of her stories at stephaniejacobs.com)

21.11.2015

Photo: Costas and Mehmet…

(*) Article published in POLITIS newspaper on the 6th of December 2015, Sunday.