Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Tel: 99 966518
One of my Swedish readers sends me photographs and a film taken by the Swedish Civilian Police of UNFICYP while investigating the disappearance of Halil Ziya Desteban from Pervolia… 52 years after the disappearance of Halil Ziya Desteban, a film taken on the 18th of May, 1964 surfaces and this shocks everyone, especially the grandchildren of the `missing` Halil Ziya Desteban who had heard about but had never actually seen `the crime scene`…
My Swedish reader, not only sends these but also finds the notes taken that day by a Swedish UN soldier… In the Civilian Police diary of the UNFICYP was written:
"On May 18th 1964, at 11.00, a telephone message told us that there was a suspected murder in the village of Pervolia, close to Larnaca. We sent an investigation team to the crime scene. After the return to Nicosia, they reported that the case was about a 60 years old Turkish Cypriot male. He had left his house in the morning for a short trip with his car. When he didn`t return within reasonable time, his son sent away some friends to look for his father. They found the car on a lonely road just outside Larnaca. The man wasn`t to find, but traces beside the car indicated that he was wounded and probably killed there. Other traces showed that the body was dragged over the road into a small forest area. The body wasn't found there afterwards. The team performed a crime scene investigation, made some interviews. The only result of this was that some suspicions came up towards some Greek Cypriots, but no binding evidences were to find…"
I write a letter to the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot, as well as the UN officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee and share the photos, the film and the notes about the "missing" Halil Ziya Desteban and ask them, to revisit the site in view of all this.
I had written the story of the "missing" Halil Ziya Desteban about ten years ago through the story of his only daughter Nurten Ozturk…
With the help of my readers, we had done quite a bit of research around Pervolia, Kiti and Meneou and some of my readers had pointed out that he might have been buried in the "Gardens of Muhammed" in Pervolia.
The killing and disappearance of Halil Ziya Desteban had created great sorrow around these villages – no one had approved of this killing by a bunch of Greek Cypriots – that was why they were trying to help to try to find his possible burial site.
We had gone to the "Gardens of Muhammed" together with the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee and had tried to locate some wells there where he might have been buried. One of the wells was excavated but nothing was found there. There were some other wells but there had been no further digging by the CMP in those wells.
Now with this new but old documentation that has reached us, we contacted the CMP again in order to refresh investigations in this area…
According to the notes of the UN soldiers the traces would lead to a small forest area – we need to go once again and in view of the film and the photographs from our Swedish reader, try to locate this small forest area…
Born in 1911 in the village Softades, Halil Ziya Desteban had settled in Meneou and when he disappeared he had been 53 years old. He was married with Nazmiye Hanim and was the father of seven children – six boys and a girl… He was dealing with vegetables, growing vegetables and selling them.
During the British times, Halil Ziya Desteban was a rural constable (turkopoullo – desteban), later on he had become a policeman and after he retired, he had begun dealing with vegetables. He had a car with registration number 8157, the colour of green that we see in the photographs that our Swedish reader has sent us.
He had left home on the 17th of May 1964 to go to Larnaka but never came back home… The investigation of UNFICYP took place on the 18th of May 1964 – a day after his disappearance…
He had been stopped by some Greek Cypriots around Pervolia-Kiti and that was when he had gone "missing".
Only three of his children are alive today – his wife, as well as four of his children have died… The rest of his children still wait for the return of his remains for a proper burial…
The son of Halil Ziya Desteban who passed away years ago used to play in the football team of Meneou – you can still see his photograph hanging in the coffee shop of Meneou… His name was Djemal Halil Ziya Balses and his daughter, Bedia Balses, sends me notes from his diary of those days… Djemal who had very good Greek Cypriot friends and who played in the football team of Meneou, together with Greek Cypriots, wrote in his diary:
"On the 17th of May 1964 my beloved father had gone to the Greek Cypriot village Pervolia to buy vegetables. At 20.00 he was not back and I got alarmed and started searching for him. I sent a friend to find him at 20.40 in Pervolia. When my friend came back he was alarmed – his car was found but he was nowhere. Immediately I got out. His car was found near the gardens of an Arab called Ismail Emmi. It was abandoned. It was night time and I realized we could not do any more investigation there and came back home. Until morning we cried in pain. On the morning of 18th of May, I went to the United Nations Camp on the Larnaka road and asked for help. There were three soldiers there. We went to the crime scene. The car was there. I cannot express how I felt at that moment…
Around 8 o'clock a Land Rover came from Larnaka, inside was an officer without a gun. With the English officers we went around the fields and trees there. There was no trace of my father. When we came near the car and looked carefully, I saw the marks there. Five feet away from the car, where the road met the field, there were a lot of footprints… These unknown killers were wearing ordinary shoes and stepping haphazardly on the soil and there was the impression that there had been a struggle here. At the back of the car, near the footprints there was a pool of blood. I don't know how I felt then… This was the blood of the great man who had raised me, the honest, true, educated man… An unknown foot had pushed soil over this blood. The blood was dark and clotted. Near the blood were the traces of pulling, crossing the road and the drops of blood were going inside the bush… There too, there was a pool of blood; the dry leaves had turned crimson.
All the trees, fields and stones were in their place around me. They had seen this, they were witnesses. I wanted to shout: "Hey trees, hey fields, hey stones, haven't you seen my father? Haven't you seen my father who did nothing wrong to anyone but who wanted to do good deeds for everyone? Why didn't you bend your branches and hit the killers who took his life? Why didn't you intervene and save him?"
As the wind blew, the branches of the trees are swinging and rustling. It's as though they want to talk to me and tell me what humans don't tell us. I am silent. You do not understand our language. I do not understand yours…
On Monday the English soldiers at the UN, the Swedish police, the Austrian police and some Greek Cypriots did a search there. Greek Cypriot police creating problems, trying to prevent the Swedish police from doing their job. If the UN investigations were not postponed but done on the same day as my father disappeared, perhaps his place would be found. Now the traces are disappearing…
Today for the first time I get in my father's car without him. We brought my father's car to the village as the sun was setting. That night the Turkish Cypriot radio of soldiers said that my father was missing, there were traces of blood, that my father was killed and buried elsewhere. That's what I thought too. I am very much afraid of him being killed… My father's hat was found 300 yards away from the crime scene by the police dogs. When we showed the hat to my mother, she fainted…
UN soldiers and UN police searched fields and wells. There was no trace… It has been three days that it is cold and windy and rainy… Father, are you cold in the fields? Maybe you feel cold. But how can I help you father… Show me a way… Where are you?"
It is quite ironic that despite the fact that the UN is present in the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee as the "Third Member" since 1981 when CMP had been founded, the UNFICYP did not share such documents with the committee.
It is quite ironic and meaningful that we can reach such documents through the good heart and good will of our readers all the way in Sweden despite the fact that we have no "official position" anywhere and the CMP could not reach such documents all these years…
UNFICYP has been too late in sharing whatever documents they have at their disposal since the day they started serving in Cyprus since 1964…
Why did the UNFICYP show hesitation in sharing documents with the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee that they share the same building with at the Ledra Palace?
In the last few months there has been some movement from the CMP asking the UNFICYP to share its documents and there were news that this was going to happen now…
In the past, another Swedish reader had sent me the UN notes on the massacre of Maratha-Sandallaris-Aloa in 1974 by EOKA-B and I again had shared this with the CMP – they did not have these notes either…
Several times I have written to UNFICYP about this or that "missing person" where UN soldiers had been present during their disappearance but none of my letters ever got answered…
Probably it is the "huge bureaucracy" of the UN itself that is causing this.
But it is quite ironic that the UN is present both in the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee from the very beginning – since 1981 – and UN is also present in UNFICYP from 1964 and they have NOT shared information at all until now… Only now they are sharing information – 52 years after… Why this "delay" of half a century?
I thank my reader from Sweden with all my heart for sharing the photos and the film and the notes of the UN soldier from 1964 and ask my readers in Cyprus to help out with what they know concerning the possible burial site of the "missing" Halil Ziya Desteban… Please call me if you know something on my CYTA mobile at 99 966518 – you don't need to tell me your name if you don't want to – what is important is not who you are but where he might have been buried… I don't need to know your name or your face if you have your own reasons to want to stay "anonymous" – but let us try to help the relatives of Halil Ziya Desteban so that they can get back the remains of their father and give him a proper burial before they too pass away… They have been waiting for the past 52 years for this…
28.4.2016
Photo: Photo from UN investigation on the crime scene…
(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 22nd of May 2016, Sunday.
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