Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Tel: 99 966518
I sit in the car, my blood frozen… The view of the fields painted yellow, the trees lining up the side of the road – planted once upon a time by the British to cut off the wind – freeze my heart… I want to cry but tears don't come – I am just a frozen person now with almost nothing to say since words are never enough to describe this feeling…
We have come to Pervolia, Larnaca to meet a witness – he had called me about ten years ago and had told me his story…
I have seen him on and off, from time to time…
This time I go with Xenophon Kallis, the Assistant to the Greek Cypriot Member of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee to speak with him one more time and to see if we can find out anything new… To investigate further about this "cold case", the "murder case", the "missing person's case" all the way from half a century ago…
He had been young then, this witness whereas now, he is old and fragile. I almost don't recognize him now and go in the coffee shop to ask about him and they tell me, "It's him, he's sitting over there…"
I go to greet him and call Kallis to come by…
"I did not recognize you…" I say to him…
"I also had doubts whether it was you or not…"
We sit down – it is a chilly, cloudy day, windy…
We sit outside in the coffee shop and I introduce Kallis to him, hoping that he will not withdraw into himself… Hoping that he would talk to him, just as he had spoken to me about ten years ago…
He had told me about the "missing" Halil Ziya Desteban… Desteban with seven kids… The kind hearted man, dealing with vegetables… Innocent, not involved in anything… The man I wrote about who was from Softades and who had moved to Meneou… The man who was ambushed and pushed to the side of the road, into the gardens of Muhammed just outside Pervolia…
They would kill him there and he would go "missing" and by night time his son Djemal would start getting worried and would send a friend of his to check and they would see his green car where he had been forced to move and where he got out of the car… It would be dark by now and nothing to be done so Djemal would wait till the morning to contact the UN camp on the Larnaca road and they would go to see the blood stains behind the car, the blood stains leading to a small forest area across the dirt track… But no trace of Halil Ziya Desteban… No trace of him at all for the past 52 years…
Later on they would find his hat and when his wife would see the hat, she would faint…
The family would move from Meneou in fear of their own lives and go to live in Dromolaxia…
They would never return to Meneou…
His wife is no longer alive now, neither are four of his children… They have all died, one of them in the Larnaca Hospital in 1974 after he had been arrested by some Greek Cypriots.
Only three of his children are alive now, his daughter Nurten fighting cancer…
All of them waiting for news, for any news…
That is why we are here with Kallis, to see the witness who had found me ten years ago – to see if he can tell us a little bit more… Whether he forgot something… Whether I forgot to ask him something. Something that might be important…
This new investigation is due to a Swedish reader of mine who had sent me some photos and a film dating back from 18th of May 1964 when UNFICYP Civilian Police were investigating the murder of Halil Ziya Desteban. The Swedish Civilian Police of UNFICYP had filmed the crime scene and the investigation. This gives us an opportunity to refresh our investigations… I have given the photos and the film to the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee and asked them kindly to restart their own investigations…
But I too have to do more so here we are with the witness…
Ten years ago he had told me that on the night of the 17th of May 1964 he was at the cinema… Then a teacher came and asked for his car…
The teacher told him that some Greek Cypriots had killed Halil Ziya Desteban and they needed his car to take him to bury him…
The witness had known Halil Ziya Desteban since one day some time before he would go "missing", Desteban would help him when he had run out of petrol and take him to Larnaca in his own car…
"I said to the teacher, whoever killed him should take care of the mess they created but then I thought, if they leave him there, perhaps the dogs would tear his body apart and I gave my car to the teacher to carry the body…"
Ten years ago I would run to try to locate the teacher he had been talking about… I would find out that he had been living in an old people's home…
I would tell Kallis about this old people's home and the teacher there so he would investigate…
Now Kallis asks the witness more questions – they converse half in Greek, half in English, for me to understand as well… I can understand some Greek but very very roughly since I have never learned – I can understand the subject but not the details… So from time to time Kallis would say to the witness, "Please speak in English so she can understand too…" and the witness would switch to English…
As they converse, something new that he did not tell me before comes out – that there had been a witness to the actual murder of Halil Ziya Desteban… This witness had been working in the gardens of Muhammed at that time and had been staying in the little farm house there… So he had seen everything and afterwards had blamed this man of being a killer…
"I was not a killer, I gave my car for them to carry the body – this person who worked in the gardens of Muhammed had seen my car, that is why he was blaming me…" he says…
Perhaps this was the reason why we came here – to find out that there was a witness to the murder and disappearance of Halil Ziya Desteban…
We thank the witness and leave to go back…
I sit in the car frozen, we pass the gardens of Muhammed and I am frozen… This had been the murder scene of an innocent person… I can't imagine how he felt when he was confronted by some thugs of Pervolia…
Kallis, the ever skilful and clever investigator, immediately sets out to investigate about the person who used to work in the gardens of Muhammed at that time…
We stop at a periptero (kiosk) on the side of the road and he makes some calls here and there… I find a stool and sit, frozen…
Almost before we reach Nicosia, he finds out that yes, this person we are looking for is alive and he also finds out his name… I am sure if there is more to find out, it will be Kallis who will find out…
I want to make a call to my readers and ask them to call me with or without your names… If you know anything about the "missing" Halil Ziya Desteban, please call me on my CYTA mobile: 99 966518… You can remain anonymous if you want to remain anonymous… What is important is not your name but to find out where Desteban had been buried so that we can return his remains to his family…
6.5.2016
Photo: Halil Ziya Desteban with his wife Nazime...
(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 29th of May 2016, Sunday.
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