Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Tel: 99 966518
"1974… On the 25th of July, my mother and six wounded Turkish Cypriot soldiers were laying down in a make-shift hospital in a mandra… There was no medicine and there was no medical equipment here… It had been a place for storing fodder for animals, hay…
A young doctor was running from here to there and was desperately struggling to do something. There was a wounded person, he had been ridden with bullets on his back but the only thing that the doctor could do was to press cotton buds on his wounds and change the bloody cotton buds. The wounds would be sewn up with a needle for sewing quilts.
The next day, the United Nations came – there was a doctor with white hair amongst them. They spoke with our doctor and there was a chilling atmosphere among the relatives of the wounded. Our young doctor was translating to Turkish what they were speaking about and he was saying that he shared the same views with the UN doctor. The six wounded Turkish Cypriot soldiers, as well as my mother must be operated on and both doctors were saying "Otherwise, they might die…"
It was ok to have operations so their lives could be saved… But the UN had said that they would be taken to Varosha – this was the reason for the chilling atmosphere amongst the relatives of the wounded Turkish Cypriots. Varosha was in the hands of the Greek Cypriots and the five Turkish Cypriot soldiers and my mother would be taken to Varosha and the heavily wounded Zeka Chorba would be taken to Nicosia to the Turkish Cypriot sector with a helicopter.
The wounded Turkish Cypriot soldiers and my mother was put at the back of a military vehicle and they were gone!
There was talk behind them, after they were gone:
"They will not come back… Greek Cypriots will cut them up…"
In Varosha, they had turned a hotel into a hospital and when our wounded Turkish Cypriots went there, they would take out the Greek Cypriot wounded persons from a six-person room and put the Turkish Cypriot wounded persons there… And they would take them to operation one by one…
The doctor of my mother and the other five wounded Turkish Cypriots was the famous Dr. Hadjikakou… He is no longer alive now… This name is a legend amongst the Turkish Cypriots…
My mother's golden bracelets on her arm, she would find them under her pillow and the other Turkish Cypriots would find their watches under their pillows after their operations…
The next day a Greek Cypriot with a gun and would try to force himself in by using his gun – but the Greek Cypriot guard would stop him and take his gun and would keep him under control with his own gun…
Hearing this, Dr. Hadjikakou would go there and threaten everyone and said:
"If any of my patients are hurt, you will not find me here anymore… Your wounded persons will remain here without their doctor…"
So they would increase the guards at the door from one person to two persons…
Dr. Hadjikakou would eat first, in front of his Turkish Cypriot patients from the food they were being distributed and then he would allow his patients to eat…
A very important note here I need to mention is that the meat inside the food was chicken. And this was a rule Dr. Hadjikakou had put so that his Moslem patients would not think that it might be pork, what they are being served…
After five days, my mother and the five Turkish Cypriots who had been wounded would come back safe and sound and in health, together with the UN soldiers…
I commemorate with respect Dr. Hadjikakou, on the 36th anniversary of his death…"
These are words written by Dr. Dervish Ozer whose mother had been treated and operated by Dr. Costas Hadjikakou…
According to the daughter of Dr. Hadjikakou, Evie Hadjikakou, "Dr. Costas Hadjikakou was born on the 7th of December 1924 in Famagusta – only at the age of 16, he had graduated from the English School and had gone to the Beirut American University to get a diploma of general sciences. At the age of 18, he had begun his medical studies in Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow and became a specialist in general surgery. After working in various hospitals in England, he would come back to Cyprus and start working at the Nicosia General Hospital as a general surgeon. At the beginning of the 1950s he was offered a high-level position in England and he went there to become a specialist of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery. He would get married with Ursula Hadjikakou from Germany and would come back in 1961 to settle in Cyprus and start his own private orthopaedic clinic.
In a very short time, he would become well known in Cyprus since he would treat thousands of Cypriots, would never take money from the poor and would even pay their bus fares from his own pocket to those who came from distant villages. He would have very good relations and cooperation with Turkish Cypriot doctors and the Turkish Cypriot community too would respect him highly.
During the war in 1974, he would treat the wounded of both communities and since he was a trusted person by both communities, he would volunteer in the evacuation of Varosha… He would also be responsible for the prisoners' exchange in Famagusta.
One day, while he was searching for those who had remained in Varosha, he was arrested by some Turkish soldiers. When a Turkish Cypriot former patient of his recognized him, he stopped the Turkish soldiers from hurting him. They would invite him to a hotel to have coffee and then he would be set free to go together with other people who had remained in Varosha.
In this period, he would set up a tent hospital in Ormidhia in a refugee camp and would work there… In 1975, he would set up his orthopaedics clinic in Larnaca. Between 1970 and 1981 he would be elected as an MP in the parliament and would be the president of the Health Committee of the parliament.
On the 11th of July 1982, while treating a patient in his clinic in Larnaca, he would suddenly feel unwell and would pass away…"
Dr. Dervish Ozer has built a bust of Dr. Costas Hadjikakou…
Dr. Dervish Ozer built a bust of Dr. Hadjikakou and also of Alpay Topuz... He also built two other busts: That of Stavros Poyrazis and Djengiz Ratip - these are our "unsung" heroes of Cyprus - people who did not lose their humanity even in times of war... Alpay Topuz stopped rapes at the Voni camp when he was appointed as a responsible person there and treated the Greek Cypriot prisoners of war with humanity. Stavros Poyrazis who was the mukhtar of Strongylos, saved the lives of his Turkish Cypriot villagers in both 1963 and 1974, not allowing those Greek Cypriots who came from outside to kill the Turkish Cypriots of his village to enter the village. Djengiz Ratip is the only MP in Cyprus who is "missing" from February 1964 - he too saved the lives of his co-villagers when a busload of Greek Cypriot students were kidnapped by some Turkish Cypriots in Tylliria - he travelled there and convinced them to let them go and saved their lives. Stavros Poyrazis was also "missing" but his remains were found and returned to his family - we attended his funeral... As for their statues: Dr. Dervish Ozer is building two busts per year: One Turkish Cypriot and one Greek Cypriot who did not lose their humanity even in times of war... We are pushing various municipalities to allow to put them together: Dr. Hadjikakou's bust, together with Alpay Topuz... Currently these busts are with the Nicosia Turkish Cypriot Municipality - we wait for them to decide where to install them... We would very much like to have them on the Green Line in Nicosia at a crossing point where people can stop and read about their lives and see that there were always Cypriots with enough humanity on this island...
14.7.2018
Photo: Dr. Hadjikakou's bust by Dr. Dervish Özer…
(*) This article was published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 19th of August 2018, Sunday. The same article was published in Turkish in the YENİDÜZEN newspaper on the 17th of July 2018 and here is the link:
http://www.yeniduzen.com/insanliga-adanmis-heykeller-12671yy.htm
