Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Tel: 99 966518
On the morning of 11th of February 2017, Saturday, I cross the Ledra Palace checkpoint with a bunch of flowers in my hand, a wreath made up of colourful flowers… I take a taxi to Geri, to the Agios Charalambous Church…
"If I can't find a ride back, I will call you" I say to the taxi driver…
"Ok" he says…
People from Strongylos have gathered in this place… Actually the Greek Cypriots who became displaced from Strongylos due to the war in 1974 do not live in Geri… The family of the "missing" Giannis Michael Kountouris could find a place to buy for burial only in Geri, that is why we are here…
The relatives of the "missing" Giannis Michael Kountouris live in Aglandja… But his wife Maritsa who had passed away 12 years ago, is buried here and now they will be buried in the same grave…
At the entrance of the church I meet the mukhtar of Strongylos, Stavros Stavrou – I had met him recently at the funeral of another "missing" person from Strongylos, Stavros Poyrazis… And then I say hello to the children of Kountouris… Costas Kountouris whom I had interviewed 13 years ago, in 2004 and his brothers Michalis, Artemis and his sister Eleni… I have brought with me copies of YENİDÜZEN newspaper where I had printed the story of the "missing" Giannis Michael Kountouris… When Costas Kountouris sees his father's photo and the articles in our newspaper, his eyes are filled with tears… They put the open pages in the front, on a table so everyone can see…
Maritsa Kountouris could not see this day, the day when her husband's remains will be buried…
The granddaughter Maria says, "Thank God my grandmother did not see this day…" She is tearful and in much pain… She is the one who will make the funeral speech…
Andreas Dimitriou who had been the Minister of Education is also at the funeral – he is from Strongylos and he too makes a speech about Kountouris… Nestoras Nestoros, the Greek Cypriot Member of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee also speaks… I see our friend AKEL MP Skevi Koukouma – she is also leading the parliamentary commission on missing persons and refugees – and the new mayor of Geri, Neophitos Papalazarou at the funeral…
I have come here today to pay my respects and to attend the funeral of Giannis Michael Kountouris who had been taken from Strongylos by some Turkish Cypriots, killed and "disappeared" together with others.
Our readers had wholeheartedly helped me to decipher the hidden story of the "missing" 17 Greek Cypriots taken from Strongylos… They had told me the stories, they had told me what had happened and they had also pointed out the burial site which was outside Synda…
A few Turkish Cypriots from Synda and a few Turkish Cypriots from Strongylos had taken the 17 Greek Cypriots back in 1974 and brought them to the "Cave of the Horses", killing them there… According to my readers, they were first buried in the fields under these caves but later on, just as other mass graves were emptied, this mass grave too would be relocated… According to the information that our readers gave years ago, they had been reburied at the Abalestra Chiftlidji (Farm) outside Synda… We had written their stories, the witnesses had spoken and we all owe thanks to our readers for coming out with so many details and helping to find the burial site… I had also interviewed the son of the "missing" Kountouris, Costas Kountouris back in 2004 that I would publish in my book called "Oysters with the missing pearls…"
Today in a small coffin there lies the remains of the "missing" Giannis Michael Kountouris… May he rest in peace now, together with his beloved wife Maritsa… May we never see such days in Cyprus again, may our children never have such an experience ever here on this land…
Maria Kountouris says it all… "I had never met you grandfather but only knew you through what my grandmother Maritsa told me…" she says…
Her goodbye speech talking to her "missing" grandfather is so touching, almost everyone is crying in the church… She says:
"The day has come, that we have to say the last goodbye grandfather.
A goodbye which never had a beginning because I was never given the chance to know you.
A goodbye that we have to say after 43 years. As many as my age. I came to this life and you left for ever. Missing for 42 whole years.
I know you only from stories and scattered words from the relatives. I liked it when I heard these stories, especially when I was a child, because I could form a picture. To imagine you as I wanted even though many times I wished it was not only in my imagination, but to be able live even if just one day with you.
Grandfather, I never knew you in the sense of a grandfather that some children have the opportunity to experience. As your greatgrandchildren have the opportunity to experience, to live with their grandfather, your son Costis. I wanted even if for once for you to be able to take me by the hand and for me to feel your palm, which was large but also rough from the difficult and daily chores. From a very young age I imaged your hands with reverence and I saw these hands in the white sheet on the table of CMP. Your hands never hugged me because some people deprived you so unjustly, violently and inhumanely from your life when you were 54 years old. The life which you so loved. You loved the whole world and you gave back your love generously. You believed in love and friendship and for this reason you did not leave from your village. You believed in goodness and that in the same way you were kind and good hearted, others would behave to you. For this you got out of the car at the last moment and you did not follow your family.
I will never forget when I was seven years old, when one man stopped me in the street because he saw your face in my face. My joy was unimaginable. I could not believe it. And on the other hand, the sorrow that you would never know that one of your grandchildren looks like you. I think all your grandchildren have got something from you.
- The love for life
- To give, to offer to our fellow human beings with all our love
- Not to tolerate injustice
- To be hospitable
I love you even if I did not know you. I love you through your children. I love you through my grandmother who only spoke with love about you. From whom I heard hundreds of times, and it is not an exaggeration, the phrase "if your grandfather was alive". If you lived everything would have been different and really what hurts me is that I will never know how different everything would have been if you were in our lives. I did not know you because you were gone so unjustly, together with 16 other missing, whose bones were found in the Sinda area.
How does life bring about things sometimes.
The fact that your bones were found was announced to me by my small son, with all his innocence when I went to pick him up from his lesson. Sharp and clear "Your grandfather was found! Some men came at noon and told grandfather and grandmother." I felt lost. I started crying and he had to comfort me, saying that I should feel relieved since we finally know! He was trying to explain to me that I had to see it from the positive side. That now your children live, the people that knew you. That we are lucky in our misfortune.
The next difficult part was the day that we had to go to the Missing Persons Committee so that they would notify us of the whole process that they followed to discover the place and the identification method for the 17 missing who were found in a well a little bit outside Strongylos. I can not describe in words how we felt! I admired your children who listened with such calmness and wanted to learn all the details. And on the other hand, your grandchildren who wanted even in this tragic way to meet you, to find as much as they could about you.
I did not have the fortune to know you, but you should know that you are in my heart as you are in all your relatives' hearts, especially your children's. I am proud for you grandfather, because it is so important to hear from everybody without exception that you were a unique Man, a Man with values, a Man with capital M (Human)."
Photo: The small coffin of Yiannis Michael Koundouris...
(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 2nd of April 2017, Sunday.
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