Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Τel: 99 966518
At the request of Okan Oktay, the Coordinator of Exhumations at the Turkish Cypriot Member's Office of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee, we go together to Komurdju-Aghirdagh area…
Years ago, one of my readers had shown the possible burial site of five `missing` Greek Cypriots at Komurdju, an area connected with Aghirdagh… It was on the edge of a stream and after some time with this information from my reader, excavations were started by the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee… Just as he had described the remains of five "missing persons" were found in the place he showed and further up…
We meet him again to see what Okan Oktay has on his mind…
My reader wants to know if they had dug the "gamini" he had shown previously and we park our cars and walk through the fields to see the "gamini" that was dug… This was another possible burial site but nothing was found there…
Close by is a military post that has not been excavated so Okan Oktay takes note of that…
"There were a lot of make-shift military posts, holes that was dug in the ground" my reader explains to us… "When Turkish soldiers landed, they were here, all over the place and they had those posts for some time… But when they had ready-made holes, it would be easy to bury people in them… So we need to work more to see where else they might have buried people…"
Just across the place where the remains of some "missing" Greek Cypriots had been found, where he had shown us, he remembers as a child there was a huge hole where water would be collected… It is no longer visible…
The road has also changed… "This road that connects Komurdju with Aghirdagh used to be a very narrow dirt track" he explains… "The asphalt road was built after 1980s so I don't know if that hole is under the asphalt" he says…
He was in the coffee shop when he heard a conversation between two persons from the area…
"One was saying to the other 'They came to the edge of the burial site but they did not dig the right place and they left!' so that's why I wanted to see the gamini you dug and the other place…" he explains…
"If you could provide me with an aerial map or photo from the 60s, I can work on it" my reader says…
"I will ask Mr. Xenophon Kallis, the Assistant of the Greek Cypriot Member to the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee to provide such photos to Okan Oktay so you can work on it" I tell my reader… We say goodbye to him and thank him… He has a big human heart and is always trying to help…
We go to look at the site of another "gamini" with Okan Oktay… There were rumours that this "gamini" was another possible burial site… We had shown the site of this "gamini" maybe five years ago… It was not visible then and it is not visible now – time passes, things change, holes are covered up and it becomes more and more difficult to find possible burial sites…
They will start digging in order to find the location of the "gamini" and to see if people have been buried there… It is an empty plot, no buildings or anything here so it should be easy to dig…
My readers continue to call and give information…
"We had a friend", a woman reader says… "He was a high level officer from Turkey… One day we went to the area of Kyrenia-Lapithos and he made us stop the car at a certain point and he started telling us how many people were killed there and he was crying… He was crying and crying…"
From what she describes to me, I understand that it must be the fenced area in Lapithos…
"They dug there and could not find so many remains" I tell her, "only the remains of four persons" I explain…
"Perhaps one day, we can go there?"
She says she wants to help because she does not want this to remain on her conscience… Although she is terrified she still has pushed herself to dial my number and speak to me… And that takes a lot of courage… I thank her and hopefully she will come to show me the place shown to her by the Turkish officer…
Another reader calls:
"There is this woman who lives next to our village" he says… "In her parents' yard in Kazaphani, some people were buried… They don't want to be involved… But we can go visit her and her parents and they can show to you and you can show to the committee…"
"Sure, I come to find you in the village. Let's go see her first to see what she will say and then we can go together to Kazaphani to her parents" I tell him… "Are you sure this place was not excavated?"
"Yes…" he says… "That's why they want these remains to be taken from there by the Committee but they are afraid to come out… That's why we need your help…"
"No problem, we will sort it out…" I tell him and thank him…
A Greek Cypriot reader calls two times, three times but does not speak… Finally, he says something I cannot understand… I ask my dear friend Christina Pavlou Solomi Patsia to call and speak with him… He had read my article about the "missing" young man Hasan Nural Djevdet in POLITIS and that's why he is calling… Hasan Nural Djevdet was a young Turkish Cypriot policeman in Kokkinotrimithia when he was taken and went "missing" in 1963. His remains were in the "laoumi" just outside Kokkinotrimithia… One of my readers had shown us the area and also had provided a map years ago showing the "laoumi"… The Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee had exhumations and had found the remains of seven Turkish Cypriots "missing" from 1963, among them Hasan Nural Djevdet… The remains of five "missing" Turkish Cypriots were returned to their families and they have all been buried… Two of them still waiting for DNA identification…
Among those buried by his family was Hasan Nural Djevdet…
I had written that he had a brand new Volkswagen, colour of light green and asked my readers to see if we could find out what had happened to that car…
Apparently this Greek Cypriot reader knows…
He says that the car was used by a Greek Cypriot who would later become a member of EOKA-B… He would use this car in the area of Morphou-Lefka for many years…
He is not sure if he took the car with him in 1974 or whether he left it there… If he has left the car there in the area of Morphou, we could trace it through its chassis number!
I thank Christina and this reader for their very valuable help…
I make a little investigation about this EOKA-B person… In fact he is very well known and has never shown any "regrets"…
He served in a municipal council for many years and people tell me that he went on the radio to say that "Even today, I would still join EOKA-B!"
Was he involved in the killing of the Turkish Cypriots in Kokkinotrimithia or did he just take the car? We don't know that but they say he was very "influential" in the area of Morphou…
Readers give us clues to trace our dark history…
I thank them from my heart…
It is their humanity we must hold on to in order to be able to see what lies for us in wait in the future…
Soon the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee starts excavations at Komourdjou at the place we had shown twice - once in 2010 and once this time... And I feel very happy because they start finding remains in the place that my reader has shown... The exhumation continues as I write this so we will have to see the remains of how many "missing persons" - Greek Cypriots - from 1974 they would find...
I thank my reader again for being so consistent and insistent and following up what he suspected and telling us what he had heard... In 2010 when he showed us the stream, there during the exhumations remains of five "missing" Greek Cypriots from 1974 were found... Now this place he had shown twice and this time insistently, is just across the stream, next to the road... And they have begun finding remains... How can we ever thank him, I don't know...
16.1.2016
Photo: Just as my reader says the burial site is next to the road...
(*) Article published in POLITIS newspaper on the 14th of February 2016, Sunday.
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