Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Tel: 99 966518
We sit together, on the same couch, outside in the garden with Christina, listening to my reader, mesmerized, amazed like two children listening to a grandfather telling mystic stories, horrifying stories, stories from the past, stories that are real but no one seems to care about...
We have our dear friend Ferah Kaya with us who has painted a picture called "Christina" about the Galatia Lake… In the picture there is a little girl symbolizing Christina Pavlou Solomi Patsia looking onto to the lake… In this lake was a mass grave and there has always been information that there is more buried here, among them perhaps Christina's "missing" brother and father…
We are in Galatia, the Turkish Cypriot village in Karpaz that was sort of the "nightmare" of 1974 for Greek Cypriots since many went "missing" from here…
Galatia was a stronghold – but Galatia was not just Galatia – just like Chatoz, it was a centre that hosted Turkish Cypriots serving their military service from different villages…
When war struck in 1974, some villagers from other villages came here and so did commanders we learn…
"We had six commanders from Turkey" he says…
"What?!"
"Yes! They left the surrounding villages and they came here… Could we open our mouth? No! No way! We could not open our mouth… We could not speak…"
There had been a Turkish Cypriot commander who, after the war began in 1974 took his men and came to Galatia…
"Some of these commanders had ordered him to be killed! Do you believe that? Yes! But I managed to save him… I said, "Give him to my post and I will take care…" So, I took him under my wings and he was okay… But they didn't like him, some of these Turkish commanders because he had left his village and came to Galatia…"
Christina also has stories from that time…
"A villager of ours from Komikebir, a Turkish Cypriot called Ahmet went to fetch my father… My father was a prisoner of war in Galatia… We had two mills, a mill for the flour, a mill for olive oil…
So, Ahmet went there and asked the commander to please allow my father to go and start the mill because Ahmet didn't know how to start the mill. So, they told him, "You want him? Go inside the club and stay there if you want him..." So, the guy got terrified and left…"
Galatia, the village of secrets mesmerizes us…
"What about Livadia?" I ask my reader… "What was its position? Why did they take for instance the priest from Davlos there instead of Galatia? And then killed him there and buried him in a well… What was so special about Livadia?"
"Nothing special about Livadia" he says… "The centre was Galatia… All orders went from Galatia… Livadia was just part of Galatia… I told you we had six commanders from Turkey in 1974… What else you want me to say?"He starts talking about a "missing" Greek Cypriot from Yialousa…
"Actually they beat him up in Yialousa, in the police station and killed him there… But they took his dead body to Galatia… So he is buried somewhere here" he says…
"But I always thought he had been buried in Yialousa…"
"No, no… They took his dead body and even some commander was angry with them about why they had beaten him to death…"
The conversation shifts to what he has been doing, this wonderful reader of mine, in the past six months…
He has been the core person helping us in the area of Galatia and surrounding villages. He has shared many times what he knows about possible burial sites and also information about who might know these things both with us and with the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee…
He says:
"In the recent weeks, a woman investigator from the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee came to see me and asked me a lot of questions and asked me about what I had told you previously and I shared what I know with her… She wanted me to show her some possible burial sites and again I went and showed her…
I also visited various times and I continue to go almost every other day to the Galatia Lake where the excavation team of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee is and I share with them what I know about possible burial sites in this lake…
As you know there is a small house within the lake and in front of this house one or two "missing" persons might be buried. They must also investigate around the gandjelli about possible burials – I have told this to the excavation team there…
The area behind the house towards the cliff, towards the village must also be explored since some "missing" Greek Cypriots might be buried there… I remember that you had come and shown this place to the CMP back in 2010 together with a witness… But this place has not been excavated yet…
If you remember the boridja I had shown you, the carob tree – there had been some digging with no results… I have spoken with some witnesses about this boridja and I have told the woman investigator of the Turkish Cypriot office of the CMP that they must look under the road there. The possible burial site here might have stayed under that road because that road did not exist in 1974 – it was built after as a dirt track road… They need to investigate that area very carefully.
Years ago, you will remember that I have insistently told you and the CMP that there might be a second mass grave in the lake where they had found the first mass grave… I have told the excavation team now that they need to dig deep, not just few feet but they need to dig at least 10 feet deep… If they have not removed the second mass grave from there, they should be there…
You will remember that I had shown a palloura to you near the road between Livadia and Galatia… I believe that they should dig behind the palloura to see if there is someone buried there… There is information that one person might be buried there…
I had also shared what I knew with an archaeologist from the CMP who lives in our area about the well in Livadia where they have found the remains of three "missing" persons… I am very happy that what I have told them came out to be true and the remains of three "missing" persons have been found there… This made us happy… The person who had buried them had told me personally where the burial site was and I had run to the archaeologist to tell him to go back, not to leave this field, to dig 20 meters from where they had dug and left… I insisted that they should not leave this field and go back… Finally they got back and dug in the area that I had told them and I am so happy they found the remains…"
Another reader insists that there is more "missing" buried in the field where the CMP have found the remains of three persons in Livadia…
He insists that they should go back and dig the other part of the field that has not been excavated…
"Look" he says, "I was just sitting there and I heard them conversing between themselves, without flinching… I was even afraid to breathe… One of them who was involved in the killings said, "Hey! You know what? They found three there… But they did not dig the other side of the field!!!" So I immediately thought of calling you… Please, please, please… They need to go back to Livadia and dig again the field in the places that we had shown you… They haven't done any excavations there… They should be looking for a well with a mouth that is not round but rectangular… I believe from what I have heard that there are more buried in that field… Please ask the officials of the CMP not to leave the area… There should be more people buried in that field and in Livadia…"
We leave to go back to Nicosia with Christina Pavlou Solomi Patsia… We will continue to come to Galatia and try to continue our investigations… Until there is nothing more to investigate we will continue to come…
I thank my readers who are helping us with this and want to express how grateful we are for their humanitarian approach…
5.11.2016
Photo: Christina and Ferah at the Galatia Lake…
(*) Article published on the 27th of November 2016, Sunday in POLITIS newspaper.
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