Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Tel: 99 966518
With the contribution of our readers, not only do we learn what might have happened to the "missing persons" but also sometimes with their great effort, we help to find the burial sites of some "missing persons"…
On the 9th of August remains of a Turkish Cypriot "missing person" has been found in Kiti, in a water canal where excavations were continuing for some time…
The thing that "triggered" the finding the remains of this "missing person" was a film sent to us by a Swedish reader – this film we had shared with the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee…
The film was taken by a UN soldier taking part in the investigation of the "disappearance" of a Turkish Cypriot from Pervolia… When our reader from Sweden sent us this film, it led to the refreshing of our investigations in this area and the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee would refresh their investigations as well…
We had begun our investigations in this area exactly 10 years ago – that is in 2006 – and our Greek Cypriot readers would tell us what they knew about a Turkish Cypriot "missing person" who had disappeared in Pervolia, Larnaka and we would share this information with our readers, as well as with the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee.
There had been digging in a well in the place of execution of this Turkish Cypriot but nothing had been found in the well.
When our reader sent us the film we had decided to go together with the Assistant of the Greek Cypriot Member of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee to visit a witness in Pervolia. He had spoken to me years ago but now I wanted Kallis to meet him and to see if he can find out anything else from him, maybe something he did not tell me.
Our visit to Pervolia would prove fruitful: When we visited him with Kallis, he would tell us that there was in fact an eye witness to the murder of the Turkish Cypriot "missing person"… Kallis would start investigating immediately and would find out that in fact this eye witness was still alive and he would find out details about him.
After some more investigations by Kallis, the excavation team of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee would be sent to dig in Kiti in a water canal…
They would start digging the canal but since it was covered with cement, they would start breaking the cement, slowly expanding… And then the good news would come on the 9th of August 2016 that they had in fact found the remains of a "missing" Turkish Cypriot buried in the water canal in Kiti…
At this point I want to thank our Greek Cypriot witness for informing us what he knew, for our Swedish reader for sending a film from 1964 and helping to refresh investigations in this area, I want to thank Xenophon Kallis for following leads and deepening his investigations that led to the finding of one more "missing person".
Of course we do not know who this "missing person" is until DNA tests would confirm his identity… Until then we will wait to see who he might have been…
More good news comes at the beginning of August: In a place we had shown to the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee in Mora – in 2008 and then in 2010 – the remains of three "missing" Greek Cypriots have been found…
I remember quite clearly when I had gone to Mora in 2008 – the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee had not gone to that village for investigations yet and my reader helping me out, had shown me quite a few possible burial sites and had told me the stories about those burial sites. We would show not only once but twice and sometimes three times these possible burial sites to the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee and also share what we had found out about those places…
This has been a good year for Mora: In a place we had shown with the same reader and his father, the remains of four "missing persons" had been found about a month ago and now in August, at a different place we had shown in 2008 and 2010, the remains of another three "missing" Greek Cypriots have been found… Which makes it seven…
So as a result of the effort of my reader, this year, the remains of seven "missing" Greek Cypriots have been found… Don't you think he deserves a medal?
But good news does not end there!
In Larnaka, outside the Turkish Cypriot cemetery, there has been excavations by the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee for some time in a place one of our readers had shown us this year.
A Turkish Cypriot who has been "missing" since 1964 and killed by some Turkish Cypriot officials had been buried here, he was remembering.
This kind hearted, humanitarian reader remembered this well because the "missing" Turkish Cypriot had been a very close friend of his father…
We had gone together with him to the Larnaka Castle where he had heard some "missing" Turkish Cypriots had been buried in a well or in the yard there and he wanted to show us this place.
Afterwards we would go to the Turkish Cypriot cemetery and he would show us the location of the possible burial site of the "missing" Turkish Cypriot, the friend of his father…
Some years later, they would build barracks in this spot so probably they might have disturbed the burial site, my reader thinks…
When news comes that they started finding remains, scattered in the area we had shown, we feel both anxious and relieved… Could these remains belong to the "missing person" we had been looking for? Or could it be an older burial? Or other "missing persons" from Larnaka?
Again we would have to wait for DNA analysis to find out…
And DNA analysis takes so long… But we have no choice and wait…
And digging continues elsewhere without stop:
In a cemetery in Morphou, the remains of three "missing" Greek Cypriots are found in August – two of them, old women…
And in the Tekke Bahchesi ("The Gardens of the Tekke") in Nicosia, the remains of 25 "missing persons" have been found and digging continues…
We had campaigned for digging in and around the Tekke Bahchesi for almost ten years! There had been "resistance" and a "ban" but now that they have managed to start digging there, the exhumation team has found the remains of 25 "missing" Turkish Cypriots…
Digging also continues in the military zone in Voni… We have helped the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee by sending with them two of our witnesses about possible burial sites inside the military camp… And one more of our witnesses is waiting to go and show… They have started finding small and few remains but it is not clear whether these are from old burials or if they belong to "missing persons"… Again we will find out in the DNA analysis…
I thank all our readers for their humanitarian contribution…
14.8.2016
Photo: Photo from UN investigation on the crime scene…
(*) Article published in POLITIS newspaper on the 11th of September 2016, Sunday.
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