Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Tel: 99 966518
We drive through Chatoz village to reach the outskirts and stop on a hill just outside, near a mandra, overlooking the military zone… The road leads to Kornokipos (Gornech as is called by Turkish Cypriots)… The date we are here is the 25th of May 2016, Wednesday morning…
Here on the left of the road there had been a mass grave of Greek Cypriot soldiers killed in 1974, next to the mandra… I had written about this burial site years ago and had given information about it to the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee and years later, I had come here when they were exhuming the mass grave…
Now we sit with one of my readers who had spoken to me about a possible burial site inside the military camp…
We cannot take photos but we can at least show to the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee and my reader – our witness – can share what he knows about this area…
"Greek Cypriots had attacked the Chatoz village and had taken half of it… Some Greek Cypriots who had taken over Kornokipos had thought that the Greek Cypriots had taken the whole of Chatoz… So one Greek Cypriot on a motorcycle had started going from Kornokipos to Chatoz and he was caught by Turkish Cypriots in Chatoz… He was put in a place together with four Greek Cypriot soldiers who had been caught previously…
Later on, these five were taken here, where there is the military camp now… It was a place where national day celebrations were done… And they were executed there… I heard that they were buried there, where the depots are…"
I had written the story years ago with a lot of details…
Somehow this place is not on the list to be dug – that is why I have arranged so my reader could meet us and show us and tell us in person… With us is Xenophon Kallis, the Assistant to the Greek Cypriot Member of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee and Okan Oktay, the Coordinator of Exhumations of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee…
Our witness knows that those who had been executed just across the road from where we stand were five…
Further down from where we stand a mass grave of eight was found …
Could it be the same group? And where they were buried is not in the military zone but in the civilian zone, near the mandra, where we stand?
Or could they have been taken from there to over here?
Actually it would be fairly easy to find out – whoever disappeared on the motorcycle going from Kornokipos to Chatoz, if he is in the group of eight Greek Cypriots whose remains have been found back in 2010, then the possibility is that there is no mass grave in the military zone – at least not that our reader knows of… If not, then the place my reader is pointing out can be put on the list to be dug…
We leave the area to go to look at the "Babutsa" area of Chatoz…
In fact, Chatoz is famous for its babutsa but this is the most amazing thing I encounter because I have never seen such a labyrinth of babutsa anywhere in Cyprus… There are no words to describe this place – full of babutsa growing on their own…
It is a bit towards the edge of the village and Kallis leads and I follow behind, passing between growths of babutsa, a bit uneasy since I can get caught with the thorns…
When my reader was playing in this labyrinth of babutsa, his elders would warn him not to go near the wells there "since there are some dead people buried there…"
So we go and Kallis starts finding very ancient wells inside the babutsa area…
We walk and Kallis finds one particular well where there are some trees growing around and from inside the well a fig tree is growing…
We take photos…
On the sides of this well there are two plots of land with soil – apparently used for planting stuff… But the well has been demolished…
The first question is why you demolish a well if there is water in it?
In this area, one Turkish Cypriot has been "missing" since 1974 and of course from Chatoz there are Greek Cypriot "missing persons" as well… Could this be a well where they have buried some "missing persons"?
Some months ago another reader had sent me a note saying that there was a well in Chatoz, in this area where some "missing persons" had been buried…
We need to do more investigation about the wells in the babutsa area of Chatoz and see if we can find out anything more…
We leave to go to Mora to meet another witness who would show us the road leading from Timbou to Aphania, the crack in the road where a worker while building this road had found some remains…
While returning to Nicosia, I ask Okan Oktay to try to take the road from Tymbou going towards Mia Milia… He kindly does that and we go on that road…
We had never driven on this road before – one of my readers had told me of a possible burial site on this road but I always had thought this had been a military area… Apparently it is not a military area – it is just a road leading to Mia Milia which is not really used by many…
We drive through the deserted road, the road that used to go from Nicosia to Famagusta… It is in very bad condition, the asphalt falling apart and underneath you can see the stones they had laid out while building this road…
There are a few mandras here and there and we don't encounter anyone, except a few goats and a dog…
We are looking for a big carob tree that my reader had told me about… According to him, under the carob tree, there was a burial of 15 Greek Cypriot "missing persons"…
We see some carob trees only in two places but we don't stop – I will find what my reader had told me and what I wrote and perhaps find other witnesses or those who know this area and we will come back to this place to investigate properly…
We pass through Mia Milia and come back to Nicosia…
On another day, on the 14th of June 2016 Tuesday morning, we go back to this area since I found someone who used to work at what they called the "Ercan Chiftlik" during the 80s… This time we go with Kallis and a young Turkish Cypriot investigator from the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee.
According to my reader who had told me about the possible burial site near the carob tree, the tree was next to the "Ercan Chiftlighi"…
What was this "Chiftlik"? Where was it?
After investigating some time, I find the brother of one of my readers who used to work there and he agrees to come and show us the farm…
"You see, this chiftlik used to belong to a Greek Cypriot" he explains to me as we drive on the same old, worn out road leading from Tymbou to Mia Milia…
"It was called the Kronos Farm" he says… "The Greek Cypriot owner of this farm had cows, big animals… In 1974 after the war, some Turkish Cypriots took these animals and the farm was left like that, empty… Then they decided to make it the Ercan Chiftlighi where they put sheep and we used to work here…"
Because he needs to be back at work we take him to the junction of Tymbou and thank him and go back to explore the area…
With him we have explored the first area where there are carob trees and now we go further near the "Kronos Farm" aka "Ercan Chiftlighi"…
Here are more carob trees. And we can see the farm…
Five years ago one of my readers – the reason we are here now – had told me the following:
"Where the Ercan Airport is, some "missing persons" were buried. This place was under the carob trees across the Ercan Chiftlighi… Some "missing" persons were buried under the carob trees. I believe they were a group of 15 Greek Cypriots. I think this place cannot be explored now since I believe that road is within the military zones. But maybe the Missing Persons' Committee can explore this area…"
Apparently this is not in a military zone as we had thought years ago so this is good… We can explore as we wish…
We find the carob trees across the farm but later on, Kallis discovers that there is one very big carob tree just in front of the farm…
We take photos and coordinates and leave…
As I sit down to write this article, I find another piece of information about 15 Greek Cypriot "missing persons" in a tunnel in the Ercan Airport… Around 2011, I had written what another reader had told me as follows:
"It was after the second operation in 1974. They had collected some villagers from around in order to clean the Tymbou airport. We had some officials with us and we had gone as volunteers for the cleaning of the Ercan Airport. I believe this airport belonged to the British once upon a time… At that time in 1974, Ercan Airport was different from what it looks like now.
We went there and started cleaning… There were some antiaircraft military positions that belonged to the Greek Cypriots at the airport and we could see the barrels of those guns…
Then one person started shouting and saying "Vreee! Come and see what a load of dead bodies here!" and we ran towards him… The Greek Cypriots had a long shelter, a tunnel and this shelter was full of dead bodies. I had counted at least 15 dead bodies there… If you ask me where this tunnel is I am not sure I can remember its exact place since the airport changed so much but maybe through you the Missing Persons' Committee can find maps or photos from 1974 and can locate the tunnel and dig that tunnel to see if they can find those dead bodies that we saw there… These were Greek Cypriot "missing" persons…
In those days, after the second operation in 1974, there had been the first heavy rains and those who had been buried in the river bed around Aphania had come out since the rains had taken away the soil they were covered with… In those days as we were cleaning up Ercan, they were saying that those buried in the river had come out because of the rain and they need to be reburied… And then we had heard that they had been reburied…"
So now, our task would be to look for information about this tunnel…
I thank all my readers for sharing what they know, for coming to show and helping out in this very humanitarian task of trying to find possible burial sites, as well as the stories behind those killings…
12.8.2016
Photo: The Kronos farm or "Ercan chiftlighi"...
(*) Article published on the 28th of August 2016, Sunday in the POLITIS newspaper.
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