Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Tel: 99 966518
Theodosis Vourkas was only 37. He was a civilian. He was married with Eleni at Kalochorio and they had five kids: Savvas was nine, Michalis seven, Maria four, Stelios one… And the youngest Andreas was only one months old…
On the 10th of April 1964 he was going from Kalochorio to Famagusta Prastio to buy some chicken… He was selling vegetables… He was captured around Mora-Kouroumanastir with his car Morris Minor Van… He would "disappear" for 53 years until 12th of February 2017 when he would return for his funeral at his village in Kalochorio in a small coffin… One of my readers had shown his burial site to me and to the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee back in 2010 at Komourdjou-Aghirdagh where his remains would be found together with some other Greek Cypriot "missing" from 1964. His wife Eleni passed away in 2013… If we had had a faster process of finding and identifying the remains of the "missing persons" in Cyprus, his wife would have seen that the remains of her husband had been found since from the time we had shown the burial site in 2010 she was still alive… She was alive till 2013… But the process only ended in 2017 for the funeral to take place… She could not see that day…
On that day, 12th of February 2017, we went together with my dear friend, Christina Pavlou Solomi Patsia and our husbands to attend the funeral at Kalochorio, Limassol…
We met his granddaughter Paraskevi Konstantinu Hristodulu who was crying while getting ready to speak… Her voice would silence everyone in the church and everyone would start crying… Her voice would become a cry echoing through our hearts… Her voice telling us the suffering of those left behind… She said:
"My dear grandfather,
I learned to adore you through the words of my dear grandmother, your Eleni, my troubled grandmother, but how worthy she is!!! You left early my grandfather… You left so early… And she found herself raising your Savvas, Michalis, Stelios, Maria and Andreas all by herself… How many times do I remember her saying: "So many times I went to bed hungry, so that my children would eat…" I also remember her saying "I don't have a grave to visit to, to light the oil lamp…" Grandfather, this was her biggest complaint, until the dawn of 14th January 2013, when her soul flew to the sky… She was so beautiful and serene on the day we said goodbye to her… So beautiful… I would dare to say that she was smiling to us! Now I understand why… You were there grandfather, in the garden of Heaven and you were waiting for her! Today your bodies will also come together… From today, our soul will also rest!
They told me that I should feel proud because you are a hero! But has anybody asked me??? I don't want a hero for a grandfather… I wanted to have memories with you grandfather… I wanted to remember moments in your arms! I wanted you to wait for me to come back from school every day, just like my grandmother, your loving wife, did! But they have deprived me from all these grandfather… I was growing up and I was hearing people say that you were missing… I could not understand… And when I finally understood, I wanted to learn… How, where, when, why? Why??? Why did my grandmother lose her husband and raised 5 children alone? Alone… Why did my mother grew up without her father? And me??? Why did I not meet my grandfather? Why? And when the coveted day of our meeting had finally come, I found myself in front of a table with 206 bones… They did not speak to me grandfather, they did not hug me… I bowed to kiss you on your head which was pierced by bullets and I was thinking… "My God, may he had not been tortured, may he had not been tortured…." And I wonder… "What did you think grandfather? Did you understand why they killed you?" Because we were not at war grandfather… You were killed in times of peace… In times of peace… You left alive that morning and you return back to your family only as bones. We, your grandchildren, we did not live through war, but we have to live through its most painful consequence…
The pain is unbearable grandfather… However, 53 years later, we can at least say goodbye to you! Your children, your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren… Your family grandfather!!! Our only consolation is that you, arm in arm with our beloved grandmother, which was also father and grandfather to us, you are guardian angels for all of us! Till we meet again in Heaven grandfather! May your memory be eternal my dear! May your memory be eternal!!!
Many thanks, on behalf of our family, to the archaeologists, anthropologists, geneticists, social workers and the Missing Persons Committee, for their scientific work which they do and the sensitivity with which they dealt with us, as was appropriate during these difficult hours…
We also owe thanks and gratitude to journalist Sevgul Uludag and Mrs Christina Pavlou Solomi Patsia, who work voluntarily to identify the fate of the missing, the contribution of who has been essential in finding our dear father and grandfather. Our wish is for the fate of all the missing to be found!
Special thanks to all of you who are here with us today for support, in one of the most painful moments of our life and to those who made a contribution to help our co-villagers facing health problems, honouring in this way the memory of our beloved father and grandfather and we invite you for coffee at the premises of the Council of Social Welfare of our village.
May your memory be eternal grandfather!!!"
We would meet his children at the funeral and we would go to have coffee after the funeral… We would feel their warmth and Christina would be amazed and would tell me, "It is amazing after 53 years that the pain does not disappear… I could feel that pain…"
53 years… From Kalochorio to Komourdjou and now back in Kalochorio to lay down and rest in peace, together with his wife… But meanwhile his wife has died, his children grew up and got married and got their own kids and they too had kids… The family grew… But without his presence, only with his memory to hold on to… At least now, there is a grave to visit, a place to light a candle, a place to lay some flowers… May he rest in peace now…
War is horrible – it does not differentiate between young and old, between innocent and guilty, between good and bad… War just consumes people, without asking any questions. Because war is when logic goes out the window and violence gets a hold…
In 1964, the intercommunal fighting had been underway since the end of 1963… In April 1964, many other "disappeared" – both Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots "disappeared" from the roads they were travelling on…
Three days before Theodosis Vourkas had "disappeared", a Turkish Cypriot, Ibrahim Gazi from Mora had "disappeared" on the 7th of April 1964 – he was working in the R.A.F. at the British bases and was also working in Mora as a barber. He was married in Mora with three kids – he had gone to Nicosia to visit some of his relatives on the 5th of April, 1964 and failed to return to the village… They would find out that he had set out from Nicosia to go back to Mora in his Austin car on the 7th of April 1964 but would become "missing" on his way.
Was the "kidnapping" of Theodosis Vourkas around Mora a sort of "retaliation" or an attempt at trying to get back Ibrahim Gazi alive, to use Theodosis Vourkas for an "exchange"? We do not know but what we know is that April 1964 was a terrible month for Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots who disappeared from the roads… I counted 32 Turkish Cypriots "missing" just in the month of April in 1964… It is quite a big number which reflects what sort of atmosphere prevailed in Cyprus at the time… Definitely not a time of "peace" but a time of horror… I wonder how many Greek Cypriots disappeared at that time – the ones I found information about are here: Antonos Karolos Griny, together with Andreas Antoniou Lefkou had gone "missing" from the road on 18th of April 1964. Stavros Dimitriou from Latchia had been killed in Nicosia on the 14th of April 1964 by some Turkish Cypriots and after that on the 25th of April 1964 a group of five Turkish Cypriots travelling on a bus and going to Paphos from Nicosia would disappear with the bus around Latchia… We are still looking for their burial site… Turkish Cypriots would "disappear" from the road and Greek Cypriots as well… Christodoulos Demetriou would "disappear" on the 3rd of April 1964 from the Limassol-Nicosia road and on the 13th of April 1964, Rodolphos Petrou and Constanti Nicolaou Zacharias would "disappear"… These are what I know, I wonder how many there are that I do not know…
Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots from military or paramilitary forces or from the police would play a role in "kidnapping" people from the streets and making them go "missing". They would retaliate and would "kidnap" in "revenge" of some other "kidnappings"… Sometimes they would "kidnap" people in order to try to use in "exchange" of one or more that had been "kidnapped" from the other side… Sometimes there would be no chance of "exchange" so the "kidnapped" would be killed… One from us and one from you and both eyes would become blind…
This is exactly what we don't want in Cyprus for our children to experience… That is why we need peace…
I thank my reader with all of my heart for his help in finding the burial site of Theodosis Vourkas and some other Greek Cypriots "missing" since 1964…
May he rest in peace now…
18.2.2017
Photo: Granddaughter of Vourkas, Paraskevi Constantinou Hristodoulou speaking at the funeral...
(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 19th of March 2017, Sunday.
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