Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Tel: 99 966518
Back in February this year we had gone to Larnaca together with my dear friend Christina Pavlou Solomi Patsia to do a presentation on our work on `missing persons` and mass graves, organised by the Workers' Democracy…
After our presentation, a Greek Cypriot I had never seen before came to me and said to me, `They will find all Turkish Cypriots killed by EOKA-B in Maratha-Sandallaris-Aloa in 1974 except one person… Did they finish digging?`
`How do you know` I had asked him, `that one person is not buried there?`
`Because they took him separately and killed him separately… I know someone who knows this…`
`Can you ask for his help? Perhaps he can show us the place` I told him. `And if he doesn't want to show to us, perhaps he can show to you and then afterwards, you can show it to us…`
`Sure, I will try to help` he said and other people came and then he was gone… I could not manage to locate him again, despite my efforts…
I would speak with the son and daughter of Mustafa Mehmet Koukoudi, Ahmet and Djemaliye about this...
Ahmet would tell me that `no, we found him…` so I would stop looking for this person who knew something about the `missing` Koukoudi…
Months afterwards, when Michalis Theodorou started publishing the `Unpunished Crimes in Cyprus` and was writing about Maratha, the daughter of Koukoudi, Djemaliye would call me and ask for help to find where her father is buried…
`But your brother had told me that you had found him…`
`No, it wasn't him… It was someone else… We had thought it was him, but it turned out that it was somebody else… You told my brother about that Greek Cypriot who said he knows we will not find him in the mass grave… Can you find him to help us please?` she would say…
So once again, I would start my enquiries…
One of my Greek Cypriot readers, after my inquiries about the only Turkish Cypriot `missing` who was not found in the mass graves of Maratha-Sandallaris sends me a message and says:
"Dear Sevgul,
According to the information that I gathered, Mustafa Mehmet Koukoudi who was taken away from Maratha by EOKA-B on the 10th of August 1974 and then turned into a "missing" person is actually buried in Pygi… Not in Peristerona but Pygi… That is the only information I have… This information comes from someone who is alive and whom I believe the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee knows. This person's name is somehow connected with what had happened in Maratha.
His name is not among the 15 people presented in a Turkish Cypriot frontpage back in 2009.
As for some of the crimes committed there, they are three close relatives and another person involved. For one of them it is confirmed that he lives in ..... The eldest was a cop. The fourth one, I have no idea where he is, but I assume that he must be somehow known among his co-villagers. I will try to get back to you as soon as possible…`
I would call Djemaliye Serdar, the daughter of `missing` Mustafa Mehmet Koukoudi and speak with her…
She would say:
"My mother's name is Ayshe Moustafa, my father's name is Mustafa Mehmet Koukoudi… They were first married and were living in Peristerona Pygi but when EOKA started, they had left that village together with other Turkish Cypriots of Peristerona Pygi and they were dispersed all over the place after 1955… They had become refugees…
My mother Ayshe Moustafa was actually from Gouphes… My mother and father had four children: Myself Djemaliye Serdar, my brother Ahmet Altemur, my sister Afet Arabadji who currently lives in England and our little sister Oldjay whom we lost in the 1974 massacre… Our sister's age was written wrong on her file as a `missing person` - she was not born in 1958 but in 1960. So when she was killed, she was not 16 but only 14 years old…
During 1960-1961, they had built refugee houses in Maratha for the Turkish Cypriot refugees of Peristerona Pygi… At that time my father and my mother would come and settle in one of those refugee houses… Our own house with other houses of Turkish Cypriots in Peristerona Pygi were burned down by some Greek Cypriots after 1955…
As you know, on the 6th of September 2018, we had a funeral and we buried the remains of my mother Ayshe Moustafa and my sister Oldjay Moustafa at the Maratha Martyrs' Cemetery… On that day as you know 12 of those whose remains were identified by CMP through DNA tests were buried… Most of them were women…
As we buried my sister and my mother side by side, the grave allocated next to them for my `missing` father Mustafa Mehmet Koukoudi remained empty. Because my father's remains were not found in the Maratha mass grave… We know that he was taken alone and was `missing` alone… That is why I am asking you and I am calling on your readers to do everything possible to try to find the burial site of my father… Please I am asking also the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee to do everything possible to find his remains…
Please find his burial site as soon as possible so that we can bury him as well and at long last find some peace – both him and us…`
So I am appealing to you dear readers to call me with or without your name, you may remain anonymous if you wish to remain anonymous. My CYTA mobile number is 99 966518. You may also call the CMP if you like…
If we work together we can bring closure for this family in pain…
If you know anything at all about Mustafa Mehmet Koukoudi, please tell us… Even the smallest clue is very important in this process… If there is someone that you know that we should talk to, please guide us so we can find them and talk to them…
I thank all of you for all the help you have been offering voluntarily…
18.10.2018
Photo: Mustafa Mehmet Koukoudi
(*) Article published on the 4th of November 2018, Sunday in the POLITIS newspaper. A similar article was published on my pages entitled "Cyprus: The Untold Stories" in Turkish in the YENİDÜZEN newspaper on the 8th of October 2018 and here's the link:
http://www.yeniduzen.com/muratagadan-1974te-eoka-b-tarafindan-alinip-kayip-edilen-mustafa-mehmet-kukudi-piyid-13043yy.htm
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