Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Tel: 99 966518
Larnaca becomes Lysi when we gather at a secondary school theatre saloon there at the invitation of the Lysi Municipality to honour our humanitarian and voluntary work on "missing persons"…
People come to listen and to participate at an event to honour our work on `missing persons` - with the help of Kyriacos Andreou and my Turkish Cypriot readers, we have managed to find the burial sites of 11 `missing` Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. Three of these were Turkish Cypriots, buried in a well that our dear friend Kyriacos Andreou managed to find out the location and show us and we showed to the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee and upon digging they would find their remains at a depth of around 30 meters… A Turkish Cypriot woman, Mrs. Shifa from Knodhara and two Turkish Cypriot men, Bayar Ibrahim and Hasan Tasher had been taken at the Kontea junction back in May 1964 and were held at Kontea and the following day, executed as `revenge` for the killing of the son of the chief of Nicosia Police of that time, Pantelides and two Greek officers who tried to enter the Turkish Cypriot controlled walled city of Famagusta and they were shot dead on the 12th of May 1964… In the following days, there would be `revenge` killings by the Greek Cypriot officials since whoever they would catch on the roads, travelling from here to there, they would execute them, like they would do in Lysi… Part of the police and army would be involved in these killings and cover-up of the murders… Many Turkish Cypriots would go `missing` on those days and we are still finding them buried in wells or in fields…
So when Kyriacos Andreou from Lysi would show us this well and the remains of the Turkish Cypriots would be found, perhaps it would open up the way for the softening of the hearts of some people from Sinda. And with the help of one of my loyal readers, an old man who was NOT involved in the killings but in the burials would speak to us… He would show us various possible burial sites and we would show these to the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee and upon digging, they would find six Greek Cypriot `missing` buried in one place: Yiangos and Antonis Geropapas, Costas Attas, Charalambos Attas, Xenis Roussos and Panayis Spyrou… With my Turkish Cypriot reader, we would show another place in Lysi and CMP would find one `missing` Greek Cypriot, Andreas Larkou and we would also show another well nine years ago and after nine years when CMP would dig that well, they would find the remains of who we believe to be Demetris Stroufos in the well…
So the good and humanitarian gesture of Kyriacos Andreou would help to open the way to the finding of those `missing` from Lysi…
It is a lesson in itself how we should not just expect people to give things to us but we should also give from ourselves…
It shows how humanitarian gestures can soften the hearts and they too with this impact, would decide to make their own humanitarian gestures…
We are not talking about golden treasures that are hidden – we are talking about humans who have been murdered in cold blood be they civilians or prisoners of war and buried in secret places…
During the event to honour my work on `missing persons`, I show photographs to the audience and tell them how I do my voluntary and humanitarian work, not part of any project or any funding but totally voluntarily with the help of ordinary citizens – that is my readers from both sides from YENIDUZEN and POLITIS newspapers – again who work voluntarily and in a humanitarian way…
I show photographs from places we showed to the CMP and where they found remains but in order for the digging to start, on some occasions, we had to show several times these possible burial sites and wage a struggle for these spots to be dug… It would take years sometimes, until finally CMP would manage to dig some places – like the place we showed around Yerolakko-Geunyeli, it would take five years from the time we had shown the area and we would go again and again with the officials of CMP and each time we would go, they would find human remains but digging would only start after five years, despite the fact that one of my readers had given remains taken from there to the CMP and upon examination, they would know that these were human remains… Finally, when digging would take place there, they would find the remains of 13 `missing persons` and 11 of them would be identified as Greek `missing persons` from ELDYK… My reader would want to meet their families when they would come to Cyprus but this would never happen since we are never invited in such events… The relatives of those Greek `missing persons` would not be told of the story of how we showed and how we struggled for this place to be exhumed… So the relatives of those 11 Greek `missing persons` would never learn the humanitarian and voluntary role my reader played in the finding of the remains of their loved ones since the articles we would see appearing in the media of Greece, would talk about something else but not our efforts…
I would talk about the great delay things like this created but not of the reasons of the obstacles since some of the reasons of the big delays in finding the remains of `missing persons` might be due to the internal obstacles and some obstacles might derive from external factors in connection with the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee… And I would give the example of the United Nations...
The United Nations, as part of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee as the Third Member sitting next to the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot Members, have not shared its files with the CMP until quite recently…
Imagine what a big scandal this is: The UNFICYP would have files from 1964 and 1974 but would not voluntarily share it with the committee that it is a major part of! After a lapse of half a century, at the insistence of the CMP, the UN would finally decide to share these files where there might be information about possible burial sites! So this is one example of how external forces also have a role that they have played in the delays of the work of CMP…
But let us focus on our own humanitarian mission because whatever the obstacles, we have managed to push and try to find the burial sites of `missing persons`, as well as writing their stories in three languages – Turkish, English and Greek – for all to read to learn the real, untold stories of our island… This helps create empathy and better understanding of others who also suffered and who also lost and who also have `missing persons`… For me, my country in my heart can never be divided, I tell the people from Lysi who have kindly come to this great event…
At the same event, the Lysi Municipality makes a surprise and also honours the humanitarian work on `missing persons` of our dear friend Kyriacos Andreou… Kyriacos Andreou makes a speech to ask people to speak up and says `There is nothing to fear – I have spoken and I have shown and I have proven that nothing bad happens if you speak up and share what you know… With these efforts, we bring a little bit of peace to the relatives of `missing persons` who would get the remains and have proper burials and their loved one would have a decent grave…`
I thank the Mayor of Lysi, Mr. Andreas Kaouris for organizing this event and all those who attended… I thank Mr. Photis Photiou for making a speech in the name of the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Mr. Nikos Anastasiades, acknowledging my humanitarian and voluntary work on `missing persons`. I thank Mr. Xenophon Kallis who spent all his life in search of `missing persons` and who attended the event – I have learned a lot from him, from the day I had interviewed him 14-15 years ago when he had told me that `The missing persons are neither dead, nor alive. They live in the twilight zone… Unless you provide proof of death to their relatives, they continue to live in the twilight zone…` These words would leave a mark on my work and I would soon realize how true they are as I would indulge in investigations on both parts of our island and see with my own eyes that in order to release the relatives from this paralysis of their lives, we needed very urgently to find out what had happened to them…
I thank all the relatives of `missing persons` - my dear friends – who attended the event like Christina Pavlou Solomi Patsia, Andreas Sizinos, Katerina Antona, Chrystalla Kyriacou, Koko Geropapa… I also thank the psychologist of the CMP, Panagiotis Messios who came to attend the event…
The Lysi Municipality was the first municipality in Cyprus to honour our work and to devote a whole night and a platform for us so that we could talk about how we do our humanitarian work and call on everyone to speak up and share what they know…
My CYTA number is 99 966518… Call me if you decide to share something you know, with or without your name…
29.12.2018
Photo: Talking about how we have found Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot missing persons' burial sites at the event...
(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper in Greek language on the 27th of January, 2019 – Sunday. A similar article was published in the YENİDÜZEN newspaper in Turkish language on the 14th of December 2018 and the link is:
http://www.yeniduzen.com/amacimiz-adamizin-yaralarini-sarmak-109848h.htm
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