Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Tel: 00 357 99 966518
00 90 542 853 8436
It is after the presentation I make about `missing persons` a few weeks ago at the Home for Cooperation that a young man comes to speak to me, as soon as my speech is over…
`We live in Parissinos` he explains to me… `The place where some Turkish Cypriot `missing persons` were found in two wells… My grandmother is very old now and she can't remember much but when she had been healthy, she used to tell us about the events of 1963-64 in this area… In those days some Greek Cypriots who took some Turkish Cypriots and killed and buried them there would be boasting about this. So much so that once, my grandmother would throw her coffee cup at one of them when they were drinking coffee in a neighbour's house and this guy was boasting how he had killed some Turkish Cypriots there…
According to my grandmother, Turkish Cypriots were not only buried in those two wells where remains were found but that there were also other places where they were buried and that a house was built over them… In the same area I mean… Maybe if you do some more research, you can find out more about other burial sites in Parissinos…`
I thank this young man for what he has shared with us… In fact, there has been many insistent calls from my readers that there must be more burial sites at Parissinos. Some of my readers pointed out a particular house where there had been burials of some `missing` Turkish Cypriots and that this house was built over them… Yet another reader had told us of the story of some executions that he witnessed by coincidence and he showed us the place – I had arranged for the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee to come and meet him on the spot and he showed them the area… He had gone to eat some oranges in an orange garden in this area with his friends from school – he had been a student and they had skipped school or left school to go to this orange grove when they all witnessed the killing of some Turkish Cypriots by some Greek Cypriots just outside the orange grove and they were all shocked. He believed that two Turkish Cypriots killed that day in 1964 might have been buried in a well at that point but he was not hundred per cent sure. Had they been buried in a well there or had they been carried to be buried in the two wells that later, CMP would find the remains of the `missing` Turkish Cypriots? In two wells, the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee had found the remains of a total of 11 `missing` Turkish Cypriots. There have been no excavations in the place we showed with this reader perhaps because there was no further information found whether there had been an actual burial or whether it was the place for execution… I call on my readers to help if they know anything further concerning the Parissinos area… You can call me with or without your name on my CYTA mobile: 99 966518 to share what you know…
Another reader calls me about Mia Milia, a Turkish Cypriot reader who met an old man recently…
`See, I met this old man` he explains to me, giving his name and the place where I can find him…
`If you can find someone to convince him to talk to you, it would be good because as I understand from the things he told me, he knows of a possible burial site in Mia Milia… As I understand they used to call this place `The garden with pears`… There had been fighting in 1974 in this area and this old man was there and he told me that they had buried the dead bodies at `The Garden with Pears`… As I understand, this garden of pears is now within the military zone in Mia Milia… If you manage to speak with him, perhaps he can give you more details…`
I thank this reader and start investigating… I find out that this place might be an area – gardens – that might have belonged to a Greek Cypriot called A. Theoharides but I am not hundred per cent sure if it is the same area that the old man is talking about… I will try to visit the old man and see if he will speak with me… Meanwhile, if you know of anything about `The Garden with Pears` please call me with or without your name on my CYTA mobile: 99 966518 to share what you know…
Another reader writes me a note about the Morphou area…
`Dear Sevgul, I wanted to tell you something for a long time… I was a teacher in 1985 in the village ….. and our headmaster was Mr. ……. He is alive now and lives in the village ……
One day as we were speaking this man started crying and telling me something about 1974 war… During the war, he had been a guide to the Turkish soldiers. At an orange grove in Morphou they had seen a Greek Cypriot child, around 12 years old and the child was so frightened… He was crying… As soon as the child turned his back, some soldiers had shot him from behind, killing him. I don't know how true this story is but the guy who told me was crying when he was telling me these… Since he is alive and living in the village ….., perhaps you can go and speak with him… And ask him…`
I thank this reader from my heart for sharing this and will start investigating to see if there is a Greek Cypriot boy `missing` during that time in 1974 from the Morphou area… If you know of such a tragic incident please call me on my CYTA mobile, with or without your name to tell me about it. My number is 99 966518.
And there is of course always more work to be done… As I sit at Alfamega for lunch with my husband, one of his very old friends comes and finds us… We finish lunch and sit down to speak with him…
`While they were building the Ercan Airport at Timbou` he says, `where there were the makeshift buildings in the beginning, I heard that there, they had found 5-6 Greek Cypriots buried and then removed the remains… One of my friends was working there and he was a witness to this…`
Perhaps we can convince him to convince his friend to speak to us…
I thank all my readers for the information they share with me – in this way we can continue our investigations to find out the truth and the fate of `missing persons`…
Information is everywhere – it all depends whether you want to find out, whether you go after it or not… And what my readers tell me is priceless – very valuable clues to follow… They relate what they know, they tell me what they heard – it comes from their hearts and they do it because they are human and they want to help in this humanitarian effort voluntarily that we are all involved in… There aren't enough words to thank them…
5.12.2015
Photo: At Parisinos where one of our readers had shown us the execution ground...
(*) Article published in POLITIS newspaper on the 3rd of January 2016, Sunday.
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