Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Tel: 99 966518
Yesterday, the 27th of November 2018 Tuesday was a very sad day… We were at the funeral of "missing" Osman Mustafa – the 26-year-old patient at the Athalassa Psychiatric Hospital in 1974 who had been killed during the bombing of the Turkish war planes on the 20th of July 1974. The remains of the patients killed during the bombing were buried in different mass graves… Osman Mustafa was one whose remains were identified – those who have been identified with DNA tests so far includes six Greek Cypriots and one Turkish Cypriot – Osman Mustafa.
Exhumations were done by the teams of the Humanitarian Affairs Commissioner and Xenophon Kallis with an experience of 30 years for working on "missing persons" was in charge of the exhumations… 32 persons were killed in the bombing and three of those were Turkish Cypriot patients of the hospital…
Osman Mustafa was from Avdimou village and was 26 years old when he died in the bombing. He was never put on the official "Missing Persons List" or "Known Dead List" or the "Martyrs' List".
In his pocket were some plastic medicine capsules – he loved collecting things… He liked to collect the crown caps of cola bottles and put them in his pocket – he liked the tingly noise they made in his pocket.
He would go to his auntie's house who was a seamstress to collect the left-over thread rolls – he would put them on a string and hang them around his neck…
He had fallen ill at the age of three, but the doctors did not diagnose what he had…
Years later, we would find out what he actually had: He had a condition called "Craniosynostosis" or "Pfieffer syndrome" where the parts of the skull called "suture" merges too early and this creates problems… We would see that only after his remains were found and laid out on a table in the laboratory of the Humanitarian Affairs Commissary – it would have been sufficient for a doctor to take the x-ray of his head when he had fallen ill to put a diagnosis, but this was not done in those days… If the doctors had done that, he would be diagnosed and treated… Since there was no real diagnosis and no real treatment, Osman suffered throughout his life…
The date of the funeral was 27th of November 2018 – such a coincidence since exactly a year ago on the same day, 27th of November 2017, I had met Osman's sisters Ozay Sert, Zaliha and Fatma and had crossed the Agios Dometios checkpoint with my car. I had taken them to the Cyprus Neurology and Genetics Institute to give samples of DNA – we would meet Mr. Kariolou and he would draw the family tree, taking DNA samples from the three sisters. Incidentally Ozay was going to Australia in a few days to visit their brother Salih – Dr. Kariolou would show her how to take DNA sample from inside the cheek of her brother and she would do that when in Australia. When she would come back, she would give these samples to me to give to the Institute.
When the exhumations were being carried out in the bomb craters where the remains of those killed at the Athalassa Psychiatric Hospital had been buried, I had begun to search for the relatives of the three Turkish Cypriots buried there to give DNA… This way, when their remains were found, they would not remain lonely in a corner of a lab but would be taken by their families to be buried properly…
The issue of those Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots killed at the Athalassa Psychiatric Hospital and buried in mass graves was a scandal – I had written about this years ago - yes, it was wartime, yes, the war planes had no reason to bomb a hospital… And yes, civilians – patients at the hospital, as well as a male nurse and a soldier were killed during that bombing – this was against the international rules of war – you do not bomb hospitals, you do not kill civilians… When it comes to hospitals, both sides have terribly failed: In 1963, some Greek Cypriots working at the Nicosia General Hospital had killed some Turkish Cypriot patients and a male nurse – some of those killed in the hospital are still "missing" – again in 1974, some Greek Cypriots "disappeared" from some Turkish Cypriot hospitals and they are still "missing"… Both sides have flunked the "index" of humanity on this land – both sides have gone against the international rules and law by (for whatever reason) making "missing" civilian patients in hospitals on both sides…
If we look at the Athalassa bombing, what came after would build up another scandal on top of it: They were buried and then, forgotten. Nobody bothered to do exhumations for more than four decades there… Xenophon Kallis had written letters to various ministries in order to protect the site of the burials, for the burial sites to be marked and not disturbed with any construction or anything… But who would listen to him, really? Since those killed at the Athalassa Psychiatric Hospital were not included on the official list of the "missing persons", the Cyprus Missing Persons' would not do any work on that. Both the Greek Cypriot and the Turkish Cypriot officials had not put their names on the list of the missing!
They remained where they were until the time of the Humanitarian Affairs Commissioner Photis Photiou, who, together with his consultant Xenophon Kallis, decided to do exhumations there… This was the first meaningful step after so many years… So the exhumations would begin and some remains would be found and would be sent for DNA tests for identification and remains would begin to be returned to their relatives for proper funerals…
When after the DNA tests it became clear that one of those whose remains were found was Osman Mustafa, we went together with Ozay Sert and her brother Ahmet Soyuarap to the laboratory of the Humanitarian Affairs Commissioner. Kallis, together with an archaeologist who had taken part in the exhumations would show photos and explain to the family how they had carried out the digging in the mass graves. And then we had gone to a room where the remains of Osman Mustafa were laid out on a table… He was laying there, waiting for his brother and sister to take him and bury him next to his mother…
On another table, there was a framed photograph of Osman with his mother Meryem… This was the only photo we had of him… There were flowers on the table, a Quran (Holy Book of the Moslems) and his shoes that he was wearing when they had found him in the mass grave… And also, those medicine capsules that he collected and had put in his pocket…
Before we left the laboratory, the family of Osman had decided that they would bury him on the 27th of November 2018… Preparations would be done according to that date.
The Humanitarian Affairs Commissioner would write a letter to UNFICYP informing them that the coffin containing the remains of Osman Mustafa would pass through the Ledra Palace checkpoint and his relatives would take him to bury him at Agios Epiktitos Turkish Cypriot cemetery.
As the date of the funeral approached, the family also wrote letters to the civilian and military authorities, informing them that UNFICYP already sent a letter to the Turkish Cypriot authorities, informing them of the funeral. The relatives wanted a smooth passage of the coffin on that day from the checkpoint.
Why this fuss? Because this is Cyprus and in Cyprus you do not know at any moment what might happen, who might decide what, who might try to create a problem just for the sake of creating problems…
In the end, things went smoothly: We took the coffin from one Greek Cypriot funeral car and put it in the Turkish Cypriot funeral car and passed the checkpoint without problems. On the coffin was a wreath with flowers, sent by the Humanitarian Affairs Commissioner.
I sat next to Ozay Sert and she drove, following the funeral car… We went to Agios Epiktitos. The family gathered in the yard of the mosque and villagers came to pay their respects.
Not a single Turkish Cypriot official came to the funeral. They did not even bother send a bunch of flowers for Osman Mustafa's funeral.
A young man of 26 had died in bombing in the war, was buried in a mass grave…
No Turkish Cypriot official bothered to put him on the official "List of Missing Persons".
No Turkish Cypriot official bothered to put him on the official "List of Martyrs".
No Turkish Cypriot official bothered to help the family on these issues.
The relatives wanted to bury him in the "Martyrs' Cemetery" in Agios Epiktitos. But since Osman was not on the "official list of martyrs" this proved to be impossible.
In the yard of the mosque we stood together: we the ordinary citizens, the ones who "fry our own liver in our own fat", the losers, the ones who suffer… No politicians, no officials, just us… Those who pay for the conflict created by others… Those who became refugees, those who buried loved ones because of that conflict…
Then we went to the cemetery and we buried him next to his mother Meryem and his father Mustafa Ali Arap…
The grave was ready: A rich, dark brown soil, waiting to swallow up another human being… The Hodja made his prayers and all together we buried him… I took the shovel and put three shovels of that dark, rich, brown soil on his coffin… On his coffin they put branches of myrtle, lots of branches of myrtle… Then when the grave was covered with soil, on top they put more branches of myrtle and the wreaths and flowers of ordinary people on top…
On the headstone of his grave, they wrote his name: Osman Soyuarap…
His short life's journey had ended here, finally…
Ozay Sert was crying and crying and crying, saying, "Mother, look! Your son is here!"
One day she had asked her mother why she was wearing black all the time…
"My insides are all black, let my outside be the same colour as well" her mother would tell her… Throughout her life she had cried for her beloved son Osman… She had lost another son, Ibrahim, who had fallen ill and had died at the age of 21…
"My mother would cry all the time, 'I have another son, there was bombing, did he die? Did they kill him? In what sort of death did he die?' she would say all the time…"
Now, Meryem Soyuarap, Osman Soyuarap and Mustafa Soyuarap's graves are all together, side by side at the Agios Epiktitos Cemetery.
My thanks go to Mr. Photis Photiou and Mr. Xenophon Kallis, the archaeologists who carried out the exhumations at the mass graves and all those involved who helped. I also extend my thanks for all the Turkish Cypriot officials and friends who helped for the smooth passage of the coffin from the checkpoint… My special thanks go to Unal Findik, a good friend who helped me to find the family of Osman Mustafa.
Rest in peace dear Osman Mustafa… Just as your sister Ozay Sert had told me a year ago that she wanted to bury you next to your mother, you have been buried next to her… Now you are not in a mass grave – you have been taken out of the mass grave near the morgue of the Nicosia General Hospital and taken here… You met your mother and father and your family… Now, even those of your relatives who never met you would know about your dramatic story and would learn about you…
Maybe one day we will be able to create a humanitarian system on this island where human life would have value… Maybe one day mothers won't cry for their sons who had been killed in the war because one day the curse called war would never come to Cyprus again and one day it will be wiped out of this earth…
Rest in peace dear Osman Mustafa… I never met you, but I know so many details about your life, I know your sisters and your brother, I know stories of your father and mother and your village Avdimou… All of these I have written down so that no one will forget you and so they will learn something about the absurdity that we are forced to live in, the lack of humanity, the lack of love and respect, the lack of all good things that we had in an old Cyprus…
Your little coffin teaches us all of this and more…
29.11.2018
Photo: Burying Osman Mustafa at Agios Epiktitos cemetery...
(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 9th of December 2018, Sunday. Two similar article was published in Turkish in YENİDÜZEN newspaper on my pages entitled "Cyprus: The Untold Stories" on the 28th and 29th of November 2018 and here are the links:
http://www.yeniduzen.com/bir-demet-cicek-bile-gondermediler-1-13290yy.htm
http://www.yeniduzen.com/bir-demet-cicek-bile-gondermediler-2-13295yy.htm
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