Sevgul Uludag
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He was deaf and mute, an old man who could neither hear, nor speak... The only way this old shepherd could communicate was by using his hands, making signs, using the expressions of his face and body... Yusuf Emir Hasan was an old man, a shepherd from Civisil, who was grazing his sheep in the fields outside Civisil, together with a cousin of his in early February 1964... He was not aware that this would be the last day of his life, that this would be the last time he would smile, last time that he would see the sun, the last time that he would look at his sheep... He was exactly 74 years old.
He saw some people coming on the main road to Mazotos and he was not aware, this old shepherd, that this was a crowd coming from the funeral of a policeman at Anaphotiya village – the policeman, Tasos Constantinou, had been killed at Ayios Sozomenios (Arpalik). Was he one of those policemen who had been ambushed and killed at the motor house at the edge of the village in early February 1964 or was he later killed during the fighting that arose after this ambush set up by a team of young TMT guys, without the consent of the TMT leader of the village?
The old shepherd did not know any of this – according to a Greek Cypriot friend who told me his story, when he saw a crowd coming, he went forward to greet them and to ask for a cigarette, holding his two fingers to his mouth and making a sign as though smoking a cigarette.
Instead of a cigarette, he would be killed here, on the main road to Mazotos together with his cousin Shevket Salih Sakalli... Shevket was 44 years old, also from Civisil, married with Pembe and had six children... Some Greek Cypriots who were coming back from the funeral of the policeman at Anaphotiya would kill them both and both are still "missing" since that day…
I am sure the old man did not and could not understand why he was being killed... After all, he only wanted a cigarette... In his silent world, he would not even be able to shout out loud, to tell his killers `Stop! Please stop!..` He would meet death, as he had met life in total silence – perhaps only with his eyes and his face and his hands, he would make signs to try to tell the Greek Cypriot killers that all he wanted was a cigarette!... The old man was not aware of the young TMT guys who had set an ambush outside Ayios Sozomenos, he did not know that there was fighting afterwards and some Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots had been killed, he was not aware that Ayios Sozomenos would be evacuated and all the Turkish Cypriots would be taken to Louroudjina (Akincilar) to live a life of displaced for the rest of their lives... He was not aware that Ayios Sozomenos would become a ghost village, at the edge of Dali and Potamia – over the years the buildings would crumble into stones and dust and nothing would remain, nothing except the memory of those who remembered how life was in this village...
Ali Fegan, one of the local legends of the Turkish Cypriot left movement would keep these memories and would speak to me to tell me the story of Ayios Sozomenos (Arpalik). Back in 1957-58 when Turkish Cypriot-Greek Cypriot conflict was breeding around Ayios Sozomenos in Louroudjina and Piroyi, his father Mustafa Lefkaridi, the mukhtar of the village would be beaten up by some men of TMT because he had made an agreement with the Greek Cypriot mukhtar of the village called `Saghir Dimitri` (The Deaf Dimitri) in order to keep peace in the village and not allow any outsiders to come to the village or create conflict in the village. The son of the Greek Cypriot mukhtar, Panteli, would flee from Louroudjina to come and stay with his father. The `nationalists` of the village were upset that the son of the Greek Cypriot mukhtar had come to stay in the village and wanted him to leave... So at night, the young TMT members would start a fire around the house of the Greek Cypriot mukhtar. The fire would be extinguished and the next day, the Turkish Cypriot mukhtar of Ayios Sozomenos, Mustafa Lefkaridi, would hand over these Turkish Cypriot youngsters to the policemen to be punished... Some Greek Cypriots from around Ayios Sozomenos, especially from Geri had also come and with the help of the Greek Cypriot mukhtar, some of those who had come to make trouble were also identified and handed over to the police. Ayios Sozomenos would be saved from the edge of the cliff in 1957-58 with the wisdom and leadership of the two mukhtars but not for long... And the Turkish Cypriot mukhtar, Mustafa Lefkaridi, together with the teacher of the village Mustafa Ethem, and another co-villager, Hasan Djidik would be beaten up by some men of TMT, for handing over the youngsters who had tried to burn the house of the Greek Cypriot mukhtar to the police... The youngsters would be set free in a few days and the mukhtar would be called `pro-Greek, traitor, communist etc.` A new TMT leadership would take over in the village. The Turkish Cypriots of the village would be split and people would start to stand guard against each other!...
In those years, the young TMT members or sympathizers would call themselves `The Djelal Hordan Youth`. A `missionary` from Turkey called Djelal Hordan would come to Cyprus and would go round the villages, trying to pump up `nationalism` and create a `nationalist youth`... `The Djelal Hordan Youth` of Ayios Sozomenos, would then proceed to set up an ambush on the 6th of February 1964 at the motor home 3 kilometres outside the village against some Greek Cypriots who would come to open the water for irrigation because this well would be used by surrounding villages as well. They would kill two or three Greek Cypriots here, among them a policeman and soon fighting would begin. The new TMT leader who is against such an ambush was not even in the village at the time of the ambush – he had gone to Potamia to speak with the leader of TMT there about how to stop this ambush. But `The Djelal Hordan Youth` would not listen to the local TMT leader and fighting would begin. Greek Cypriots from Geri, Dali, Athienou (Kiradjikeuy) and Timbu would come in a few hours to surround the village and during the fighting both Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots are killed, among them the new TMT leader Mehmet Huseyin Guspo who had been against the ambush... The Turkish Cypriots would be taken as prisoners and negotiations are carried out by the Turkish Cypriot mukhtar inside an armoured vehicle of the British with the Greek Cypriots. Starting from the evening of the 6th and the next day, the British soldiers would carry the Turkish Cypriots of Ayios Sozomenos (Arpalik) to Louroudjina. Some Turkish Cypriots from Potamia, Dali, Goshi, Petrofani and Piroi would also leave to go and live in Louroudjina. According to Ali Fegan, in those days `Cantonal Partition (Kantonal Taksim)` is foreseen and Louroudjina is one of the `designated cantons` so he sees this as part of the `Cantonal Taksim Plan`...
Photo: Yusuf Emir Hasan...
(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 27th of September 2009.
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