Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Tel: 99 966518
The Deryneia checkpoint opens, my stomach is in tangles… After so many years of shuffling, so many harsh words, so much struggle, finally the checkpoint opens…
Deryneia is an area full of pain… Varosha is full of pain… If there was no civic movement, the Initiative of Famagusta, if they had not struggled and campaigned so loudly, if they had not brought together the Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots from across the dividing line, again this checkpoint would not open…
The checkpoint opens, people pass, at the very front is a woman whose heart beats for peace, carrying a flag that says in Turkish and Greek `Barış-Eirini" – peace… A journalist from POLITIS captures her unbelievably beautiful march and the photo taken by Christos Theodorides will become an icon for peace – it already has, as soon as it goes online and shared by many – Ioli Kythreotou has marked the opening of this checkpoint…
The Deryneia checkpoint opens and my stomach is in tangles – a Facebook group about Varosha, where I am also a member of, has so much swearing and so many bad words against the opening of Deryneia, it is unbelievable… In this group photos and articles about Solomou and Tasos Isaak who had been killed here in 1996 is shared and a photo of the father of Solomou demonstrating against the opening of the checkpoint is also shared…
Deryneia is full of pain: Its story does not begin in 1996 but actually in 1974. In this area many Greek Cypriots were killed and went "missing"…
Immediately some people look into archives and find and share a photo taken by an English soldier. The photo shows the killed Greek Cypriots, left on the side of this road when they had tried to return to Varosha, hearing a call from RIK radio on the 16th of August 1974 telling them that `Varosha is safe, go back!` They would believe the call on RIK and would try to return and would meet some Turkish tanks and some Turkish Cypriot soldiers, getting caught, some of them killed there in the middle of the road and the photo shows those dead bodies…
In fact a call was really made from RIK to the public calling on them to go back to Varosha. People would believe this and try to go back.
In Deryneia they would meet some Turkish tanks and some Turkish Cypriot soldiers – they would walk into a sort of `trap`… They had tried to go back with their own cars or would get a taxi and go by taxi…
How many people were taken from here, how many were killed and went `missing`? We don't know the actual numbers… What is certain though is that some Turkish Cypriot soldiers would take them to the Gardens of Perdjana to kill them there, that they would execute some Greek Cypriots next to a pond there, that a Turkish commander while passing through this area by coincidence would see the view of the massacre and would stop the massacre there, would save the lives of many Greek Cypriots but then afterwards he would lose his sleep for the rest of his life and would never find peace until the day he died…
Years later, one of my friends who is the relative of a `missing person` would go and stay in his house by coincidence and would tell me what had happened that night in his house… The commander's wife would tell her, `If you hear some screams at night, don't worry` and would tell her that her dear husband after seeing the massacre at the Perdjana Gardens had become very anxious and would have nightmares every night…
This commander had saved the life of the famous Greek Cypriot sculptor together with the group he was with, around 10-15 Greek Cypriots… Those Turkish Cypriot soldiers would have killed them as well… Philippos Yiapanis wrote about this years later on his social media page and implied that he wanted to find and thank that commander and someone reading this told him that `Sevgul can find him` - seeing my name being mentioned, I would write to Philippos that the commander who had saved his life is no longer alive…One day I hope very much to have an interview with Philippos Yiapanis so he can tell me what he had gone through so we can write about it so other people can also learn about it… Philippos Yiapanis, in his social media post was saying `Why did I stay alive?` and his friends would answer him, `So that you can produce so many beautiful works of art…` For Philippos Yiapanis, life would become just a coincidence: One moment you were there and the next moment you could be executed, buried at the Gardens of Perdjana and years later your remains might be dug out and carried elsewhere… When the `De Cuellar Plan` came out and there was the fear of `Varosha might be given back to the Greek Cypriots`, some civilian and military authorities had `fears` and due to those `fears`, some burial sites were emptied and remains `relocated` or maybe even destroyed… The mass graves in the Gardens of Perdjana were also emptied according to my readers and these remains were reburied in the yard of the Namik Kemal Lyceum and there were also rumours that there were reburial of some remains in the parking lot of the `Anit Casino`…
But this wasn't the only thing that happened in Deryneia – a child ran away to safety, he just ran and ran like crazy… Are those who were with him and killed, still there? Or did their burial site was also opened and were their remains also carried elsewhere? We don't know…
Last year I had interviewed his elder sister Chrystalla Kyriakou and she had told me how she had lost her kids in one of the massacres in Deryneia… We had published Chrystalla Kyriakou's story in both YENIDUZEN and POLITIS newspapers – her father in law, her mother in law, her sister in law, her brother in law, her five-year-old son and her twin daughters who were only three years old were all killed on the 19th of August 1974 in Deryneia and they all went `missing`. Her brother Alkis had managed to come out alive from this massacre. When I had published my interview with her entitled `The Tears of Deryneia`, this had shocked the Turkish Cypriots because they did not know of this massacre… What was more, Chrystalla had always been in the forefront of bicommunal activities for peace – a woman in pain, a woman whose children were killed and went `missing`…
One of my Turkish Cypriot readers had seen a lot of dead bodies of children near the pool of the Golden Sands Hotel and had told me years later that `Maybe there was some sort of orphanage there?` Maybe these were the children of Chrystalla and the children of her relatives… In this massacre, Tasos, Christos and Koulla, the three young children of her sister in law Sotira were also killed…
The Deryneia checkpoint opens and my stomach is in tangles… This checkpoint is quite different from other checkpoints since there are people killed and went `missing` in this area… There are the houses of the ghost city Varosha in this area… Some Greek Cypriots who lived in these houses look at their homes behind the barbed wires and feel sad…
It is a good thing that the Deryneia checkpoint has opened but it is bad that the wounds of Deryneia has not been treated, its tears not dried…
That's why I have a huge stone in my stomach…
If there existed a humanitarian system that functioned in Cyprus, then not only would this checkpoint open but we would have been talking about how to dry the tears of Deryneia, how to treat the wounds of Deryneia and we would have developed policies and projects to do that…
Authorities from both sides of the partition line could have helped the Cyprus Missing Persons` Committee to find the `missing` of Deryneia and Varosha… An investigation could be done to see where the remains of `missing persons` taken from these areas have been carried to… Authorities on both sides, particularly the Turkish Cypriot authorities could have helped more the CMP for this.
If the authorities could have felt the pain of the Greek Cypriots from this whole area, they would have understood that these Greek Cypriots could not just pass from this road like a tourist because the deep pains would start bleeding over and over again – and they would have helped civil society to make programmes for the healing of the wounds of the area…
Just as I cannot pass from the road of Tochni or Maratha like a tourist, those who have `missing` in their families and feel that tragic pain for their loved ones, these relatives of `missing` cannot just pass by this road like a tourist… I cannot go with joy to Kofinou or Zygi or Tochni or Galatia or Sinda or Kondea or Oroklini – each time I pass from these areas my heart starts bleeding again and again as I remember the terrible massacres committed in these areas both by Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots…
The only way to prevent these wounds to be used by extreme right groups over and over again is to dry the tears of Deryneia… And for this, the two leaders, Akinci and Anastasiades could have done important work.
Unfortunately, Cypriots in general fail when it comes to humanity – they act without thinking, they stay silent when the pain of people is eaten up by wolves, they keep silent and cannot show any courage to share what they know due to their own little petty interests…
Very few Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots get a `Bravo` when it comes to humanity – and those are the ones who feel the pain of all `missing` Cypriots in their own hearts and who try to help ease this pain and who try to help dry the tears, no matter what the nationality of the victims are…
I salute them with all my heart and thank them for keeping the candle of hope on this land for humanity, despite all the restraints of the lack of a humanitarian system on this land.
14.11.2018
Photo: Andreas, 5 year old son of Christalla "missing"...
(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 25th of November 2018, Sunday. A similar article of mine was published in Turkish in the YENİDÜZEN newspaper on my pages entitled "Cyprus: The Untold Stories" on the 15th of November 2018 and here is the link:
http://www.yeniduzen.com/derinyanin-gozyaslari-henuz-dinmedi-yaralari-henuz-sarilmadi-13230yy.htm
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