Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Tel: 99 966518
Under the title "A burial site in Kaymakli" on the 9th of May 2010 – exactly eight years ago, I had written in summary the following:
"I meet a Greek Cypriot reader of mine and he takes me to Pallariotissa in order to pick up a Greek Cypriot witness from Kaymakli (Omorphita) and together we drive to Kaymakli...
I love Kaymakli since I live at the edge of this mahalle... The word `Kaymakli` comes from `Kaymak` (cream) and according to the elders, Kaymakli was an area where people working with animals, producing milk and yogurt and halloumi were settled – hence the name `Kaymakli` meaning `cream`... Today, Kaymakli is divided, half of it in the northern, half of it in the southern part of the island and in the middle a huge part of Kaymakli remains empty – either the military zone or UN controlled buffer zone...
… With my Greek Cypriot reader and the witness, we reach the end of Kaymakli from the Greek Cypriot side and we stop at the end of Vassiliou Vulgaroktonou Street. Here, we find heaps of soil and we climb over to look on to the Green Line… The Greek Cypriot witness points out the empty spaces of the rail tracks… There used to be a train between Nicosia and Famagusta, passing from here and further down, he would show me where the train station had been… He and my reader grew up in Kaymakli, they had been close friends… That's why he knows this area very well…
We stand in the `south`, looking to the `north` and we can see the houses of Hamit Mandrez on our left and Mia Milya on our right… Between us, empty fields…
`Parallel to the rail tracks at this point` the witness says, `there used to be a road, not asphalt and that road used to go to the Pedaios river further up… It must have been February or March 1964… One day, with a friend I went strolling on that road with my dog… After about 150 meters, on the right side of the road, I saw a burial site where the hand of a man was sticking out… Apparently they had not buried him properly, that's why his hand remained above the soil. I got extremely frightened and left. I haven't told this to anyone but now I am telling you… See the shinya (bush) over there? From there onwards, 150 meters and to the right… That was the spot…`
This hand could have belonged to one of those Turkish Cypriots `missing` from Kaymakli. Turkish Cypriots of Kaymakli had left the area on the 25th of December 1963 to go as refugees to Hamit Mandrez, to live in tents and under miserable conditions… So groups or individuals kept on coming back to take clothing, blankets and their bare necessities for survival but most of them would `disappear` on their trip to Kaymakli…
My reader says, `Yes, I remember standing here and watching some Turkish Cypriots trying to enter Kaymakli from Hamit Mandrez…`
We do not know whether there was a single person or more buried in the spot that the witness saw…
Between the now non-existing rail track and the road he has been pointing out to me, a new dirt track has been built that's being used by UNFICYP and as we stand above the heap of soil, we see UN patrol cars passing by… Those who live at the edge of the street tell us that this is the UN buffer zone so there is no way we could enter it… Back at home, I would write a letter to Mr. Christopher Girod, the Third Member of Cyprus Missing Persons Committee, to ask him, if he likes, to kindly arrange for `permission` from the UN to pass into this area so that the witness can show the possible burial site here in Kaymakli…
Parallel to the heap of soil, we see a huge ditch and neighbours explain to us that this big ditch has been dug since they were afraid of fire… We go in the ditch and start walking to see if we can get a glimpse of the place that my reader and the witness had been pointing out…
We can see old military posts, abandoned and left to rot… Inside the deep ditch, I step over the bulldozer tracks… Is this a military zone? We don't think so since there are no signs but you never know since we are practically on the Green Line! The UN had been clearing mines from Nicosia so this place must have been cleared as well if there had been any mines… I step ahead of the two Greek Cypriot friends, following the marks that the bulldozer left. At one point, the witness says `Let's go back since the ditch continues and we won't be able to see anything more…`
On my return as I write the letter to Mr. Girod from the Cyprus Missing Persons Committee, I receive an enthusiastic reply and soon, Mr. Girod arranges for us to go to the UN Buffer Zone so that the witness can show us where this probable burial site might be… But I will tell you about our visit to the UN Buffer Zone that we had on the 30th of April 2010, in next week's article… Meanwhile I want to thank my reader and the witness for having the courage to show us this probable burial site as well as Mr. Girod and all those concerned in the CMP for arranging for permission to cross to the UN Buffer Zone… Perhaps one or more families will find a little peace in their lives, if we manage to find who had been buried here…"
So the following week I write one more article about how we had shown this possible burial site on the buffer zone to the officials of the CMP, together with my two witnesses on the 30th of April 2010… In my article that was published entitled "Roaming the buffer zone…" on these pages on the 16th of May 2010 – again eight years ago! – I would say:
"I walk to the `Lapithos Cafe` where taxi drivers hang around and sit to order a `sketto` (Cypriot coffee without sugar). This particular area always have young crows that I like to watch – some cats and some dogs like to go back and forth across the Green Line at Ledra Palace and sometimes I stop to stroke one or speak to a group of dogs that follow me as far as where the police is standing...
I see two archaeologists, Yiannis and Theodora waiting... Then Okan comes, an anthropologist, together with Ugur, assistant to the Turkish Cypriot Member of the Missing Persons Committee, accompanied by the retired police officer Vedat, now an investigator for the CMP. We sit around to drink coffee, waiting for everyone to gather here.
… Soon Xenophon Kallis, Assistant to the Greek Cypriot Member of the CMP would come to sit with us. Two Greek Cypriots, one of my readers and one witness from Kaymakli also come to sit and wait. When Mr. Oleg from the CMP comes and the UN escorts, we move in different cars to go to the UN Buffer Zone so that the witness who found me through a reader, can show the spot where he saw the hand of a person buried in the ground...
The two UN cars, Mr. Oleg's car, the cars of Kallis, Okan and Yiannis make a long procession and we drive to the other end of the city, all the way to Aglantzia, to enter the UN Buffer Zone...
I call to the UN officer to say `We have come too far from where we are supposed to be...`
`And where did you want to be?` he asks.
`At the Vassiliou Vulgaroktonou Street...` I tell him.
`In the Buffer Zone, there are no streets` he tells me...
UN soldiers take out a blue UN flag to put on the UN car that will accompany us... They tell us to go first, then Okan's car, then Yiannis and at last the UN car...
I am in the car of Kallis, together with the Greek Cypriot witnesses. Kallis has spent his most precious years, more than 20 years of his life, investigating the `cold cases` of Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot `missing` persons, building a solid base of information about murders and disappearances throughout 1963 and 1974... He has encountered countless threats while doing his job but has not flinched from seeking out the truth... Now, we need to drive around the Buffer Zone, leading the group and trying to make out where the Vassiliou Vulgaroktonou Street might be... He is leading the group of cars and I know he would not flinch in case of any danger since he has come a long way in his investigations of the past two decades...
We drive through a dirt track used by the UN soldiers and on our right is the Turkish Cypriot, on our left the Greek Cypriot controlled areas... We see minefields and signs warning us that these are in fact mine fields! There had been a project to clear mine fields in Cyprus but apparently the EU or the UN project has not reached here since we see lots of signs warning us that these are mine fields... Towards the Turkish Cypriot areas, even inside the mine fields, big areas have been burnt down, turning the soil into a smudgy black colour while there is no such thing towards the Greek Cypriot area. Who starts these fires and why? To have a better view of the UN buffer zone? For military reasons? It looks so unnatural and ugly, the burnt grass, scarring the earth and destroying all the wildlife that used to live here...
We drive through these mine fields, trying to figure out where to turn when we come to crossroads... We drive very close to Hamit Mandrez I think, passing by Turkish Cypriot military posts while Turkish Cypriot or Turkish soldiers are watching us and as we turn, following the road, we encounter Greek Cypriot soldiers watching us. At some points, there are only a few meters between us and these military posts! Such close proximity!...
`It's very dangerous what we are doing` Kallis says, `because these Turkish Cypriot soldiers or Greek Cypriot soldiers, they only see a Greek Cypriot or a Turkish Cypriot number plate, roaming the Buffer Zone...`
`I am sure no one has notified them why we are here` I say to Kallis, `therefore they could very easily open fire! And where is the UN car? It is the last car and it has a blue UN flag to protect itself! We don't have no flag to protect us!...`
… Finally we recognize the spot we had stood last week with the Greek Cypriot witness at Vassiliou Vulgaroktonou Street and we stop the car to get down... The Greek Cypriot witness points out where the dirt track might have been where he saw the hand of a freshly buried person.
`It might have been May` he says, `because there was no grass... The wheat had already been harvested...`
We can't see the road now because of the grown wheat.
`In two weeks' time, this will be cut so we can come again` Kallis says.
`Meanwhile I will find the aerial photographs of this area from 1964 to locate the road` he explains to us...
We go back, the same way we had come, looking at the vast empty places called `The Buffer Zone`... In two weeks' time, perhaps we will come again to find the road where one or more Turkish Cypriot `missing` might be buried in this vast area called `Kaymakli`..."
On the 15th of June 2010 the digging would begin here by a team of archaeologists and then it would only last one or two days and it was stopped…
We would hear later on the story of why the digging had stopped: According to this story related to us, an official from the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee of those days had gone to the area and said to the archaeologists, `Vre pedia! Why are you digging here? Aren't you afraid that there might be mines? What if they explode and you die?"
So the archaeologists had stopped digging in fear of their lives and the digging would not begin again…
The CMP had previously contacted UNFICYP as well as the Greek Cypriot officials of the National Guard and had confirmed that there were no mines there…
The efforts at finding out whether there were in fact mines or not continued and then the whole thing was put aside, pending for a new effort…
Then back in 2015 – that is three years ago – there would be talk about digging there again but as I understand now, it wouldn't come to anything…
Then Yusuf Chaylar whose father is "missing" from the 31st of January 1964, would really push hard to find some information about his "missing" father and would find new information that it might be his father buried there, together with the taxi driver – his father Ismail Ismail was in a taxi and the driver was Mehmet Hasan Onbashi – they would both go "missing" at the end of January 1964…
With the help of Michalis Yiangou Savva, another relative of a "missing" person, Yusuf Chaylar would visit the Office of Mr. Photis Photiou, the Commissar for Humanitarian Affairs, as well as making investigations with the help of Michalis and also visiting the offices of the Greek Cypriot Member of CMP, Mr. Nestoras Nestoros and the Turkish Cypriot Member of CMP, Mrs. Gulden Plumer Kuchuk…
Finally he would find out that in fact, the taxi was seen there, close to the burial site, abandoned and that there was a witness that had given this information to the officials of the CMP…
Yusuf would go and find out who the taxi belonged to and what colour it was: It was two colours, Vauxhall Cresta, bottom colour of sky blue and top part the colour of cream… 200 metre further up – it would stay abandoned for a few days there…
His demand from the CMP is for digging to be started in the possible burial site we had shown eight years ago – one of our witnesses, Koullis Miltiadous passed away back in 2015… But our other witness who had seen the hand of a "missing" sticking out of the possible burial site is alive… The Assistant to the Turkish Cypriot Member of CMP, Ugur Umar has also passed away… Time runs and witnesses and even CMP officials pass away so we can see the urgency felt by Yusuf Chaylar who has been waiting for any news from his father for the past 54 years…
As I understand, there was assurances given by the UNFICYP that there were no mines there… CMP can check and re-check and make sure that there are no mines so that the digging can begin…
May Koullis Militadous rest in peace: He had started this whole process but could not see the day the possible burial site he had shown us with another Greek Cypriot witness be exhumed…
May Ugur Umar also rest in peace… He too could not see that day…
16.9.2018
Photo: When we had shown the possible burial site in April 2010 with two witnesses to CMP. One witness Koullis Miltiadou on far left in the photo has passed away in 2015...
(*) Article published in the POLITIS newsaper on the 30th of September 2018, Sunday. A series of similar articles of mine were published on my pages entitled "Cyprus: The Untold Stories" in the YENİDÜZEN newspaper in Turkish on the 17th, 18th and 19th of September 2018 and here are the links:
http://www.yeniduzen.com/54-yillik-bekleyis-sona-ermeli-artik-12944yy.htm
http://www.yeniduzen.com/54-yillik-bekleyis-sona-ermeli-artik-2-12948yy.htm
http://www.yeniduzen.com/54-yillik-bekleyis-sona-ermeli-artik-12950yy.htm
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