Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Tel: 99 966518
We get on the bus together in the morning on the 5th of December 2018, Wednesday to go on a visit to three mass graves…
We, meaning, the relatives of `missing` persons and victims of war, political parties and the media… We have helped the Slovak Embassy and the political parties to organize these visits to the mass graves as TOGETHER WE CAN, the bi-communal association of relatives of missing persons and victims of war. And today Michalis Yiangou Savva, Sevilay and Mustafa Berk, Christina Pavlou Solomi Patsia, Christos Efthymiou are present, the ones who lost their loved ones in 1964 and in 1974… We move together to show that we can work together for peace and reconciliation and to heal the wounds of our island… That we can talk about the past – the whole truth, not half-truths, not hiding what happened to this or that community but reflecting on what happened to both main communities of our country.
The three mass graves we will visit have been `created` as a sign of `revenge` - one in Voroklini and the two others in the Galatia lake…
We drive to Voroklini where Eleni Michael meets us and all together we go to the site of the well where 11 Turkish Cypriots had been killed and buried back on the 14th of May 1964 as `revenge` for the killing of the son of the chief of Nicosia police, Pantelides and the two Greek officers within the walled city of Famagusta on the 12th of May 1964…
On the bus with us is Djelal Dimililer whose father Kamil Raif Dimililer was also amongst those 11 on the `missing bus` - the chauffeur was called `Yusufga` (Yusuf) and he had 10 passengers on the bus, taking them from Larnaca to Dhekelia British Military Bases where they worked as policemen…
The bus could not reach its final destination – it was kidnapped and the 11 Turkish Cypriots going to work from Larnaca to Dhekelia were killed and buried here, in this well that is closed now after the exhumations done back in 2007 by the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee and after remains found here were returned for burial to the relatives.
Djelal was barely eight years old and he was amongst the relatives we had taken here, next to the well to plant some olive trees…
The first olive tree we had planted on the well was back on the 8th of March 2009 as Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot women, as `Hands Across the Divide` and Eleni Michael would take care of this olive tree planted in the mouth of the well, watering it so it would not die… The following year on the 14th of May 2010, we had taken the relatives of `missing persons` whose remains had been found in this well… They too, would plant their own olive trees around the well and Eleni Michael, from the `Nea Genia Club` would take care of them as well… In those days, our dear friend Michalis Kirlitchas was alive and helped to welcome the Turkish Cypriots in Oroklini where he was living… Kirlitchas was from Lefkoniko, a progressive Greek Cypriot whose paintings told stories of Lefkoniko and stories from the world – he passed away a few years ago, may he rest in peace…
We would continue to visit this site and the former mukhtar would greet us together with Eleni…
The bus cannot go near the field where the well was, since the dirt tracks are flooded so we get off and walk in the mud in order to reach the well…
Here I would give information about this mass grave, the Slovak Ambassador Jan Skoda would read the joint declaration of the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot political parties and we would lay flowers in memory of those killed and buried in this well…
The location of the well was found by Xenophon Kallis, the Assistant to the Greek Cypriot member of the CMP at that time… Oroklini was a `tough` village so it was not so easy to find information about killings and burial sites in this village… Kallis had to work hard to try to locate the place of this well… There was a huge pipe passing very close to the well, bringing desalinated water from Larnaca to Nicosia but because they had an experienced bulldozer operator, he had noticed the sand they had laid out over this pipe and had stopped digging, pointing out that there must be some pipeline passing from here… If he had hit the pipe, due to the huge pressure, there could have been a catastrophe for those who were digging this well as CMP…
I would tell these to those present and then Djelal Dimililer would give a plaquette to our dear Eleni Michael for her humanity, courage and voluntary work on `missing persons` to honour her and recognize her humanity… All the olive trees planted around the well have grown and flourished, due to Eleni taking care of them… We have marked this place with the hope for peace…
After a short break in Oroklini, we move again with the bus to cross the checkpoint at Pergamos to go to the Galatia lake…
The Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot political parties who have been meeting regularly every month at the Ledra Palace Hotel under the auspices of the Slovak Embassy, with our encouragement, have started to deal with the humanitarian issue of `missing persons` and do activities around this sensitive issue. It is the first time ever in Cyprus that political parties are visiting burial sites together… So in this sense, this is a historical moment for all of us…
Although the weather was sunny and nice in Voroklini, it starts raining heavily as we reach the lake of Galatia… Here in the lake, now flooded with recent rains, there existed two mass graves a few meters away from each other…
We stop and get off the bus and Djemil Sarichizmeli, the mayor of Galatia is there to welcome us. He too lost his father during the conflict in 1963 and his grave is somewhere in Koloni but the actual place is not known… Although Galatia was a very `tough` village, just like Oroklini, Djemil has been helping us as a progressive Turkish Cypriot and has agreed to welcome us in this village…
We had to work quite hard for these two mass graves in the lake – I, myself struggled at least 12 years for both to be exhumed with the help of one of my readers and her family. And she is here now, Selda Shafak who was my very first reader to open a path towards the truth for me in Galatia… She was the first reader ever to call and meet me and to tell me the story of what had happened in Galatia in 1974… She and her family helped to show us and the CMP the actual places of these two mass graves and insisted and insisted and insisted for them to be dug… I had introduced Christina Pavlou Solomi Patsia from Komikebir to this family and they had become good friends and we would occasionally go and visit them in their house while they helped us with information about not only the mass graves in the lake but also other possible burial sites… Her father would show me other places and I would show these to the CMP and we owe it to their courage, humanity and sincerity, working voluntarily to help find the burial sites of the `missing persons` in this area and with their help and insistence we would be able to find many…
In the two mass graves that Selda and her family showed us, there were a total of 17 Greek Cypriots buried… In one mass grave was 11 and in another 6 Greek Cypriots. These were prisoners of war in Galatia and again, these two mass graves were `created` as `revenge` of the killings of EOKA-B in Maratha-Sandallaris-Aloa… When news of the killings of EOKA-B of 126 Turkish Cypriots, mainly women and children reached Galatia, there started a cycle of killing as `revenge`, just like it `happened` in Oroklini as `revenge` for the killing of the Greek Cypriot son of the police chief in Famagusta in 1964… The Greek Cypriot `elites` of those days would be responsible for the kidnapping and disappearance of around 30-40 Turkish Cypriot civilians, taken from the roads or from their work places like NAAFI or the Barclays Bank in Famagusta.
Acts of `revenge` have created these mass graves and Christina's father and brother were buried in the Galatia Lake, in one of the mass graves and while exhumations were continuing, we would visit the mass grave with her, going down inside the grave and Christina would recognize her brother from a t-shirt he had been wearing. It was a brown t-shirt, a present from Canada from their relatives and because the shirt had nylon in it, it had remained as it was, the colour, the pattern and everything…
Here again I would give some information about these two mass graves in the Galatia lake and Djemil would also express his wish for peace – that no such things should ever happen either in Cyprus or our world…
Christina would present a plaquette to Selda Shafak as an expression of our appreciation for her voluntary humanitarian help with courage and Selda would also express her wish for peace…Then we would lay flowers on the lake in commemoration of all those Greek Cypriot civilians killed and buried here, in the two mass graves…
Then we would rush into the bus under the rain to go to the village to a restaurant in the centre of the village where the ambassador would read the joint declaration of the political parties:
"Leaders and representatives of Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot political parties visited on the 5th of December 2018 two burial sites of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots in the villages of Voroklini and Galateia/ Mehmetchik. They expressed their sorrow over civil victims of military actions and ethnic conflicts in the island. The visit was organised with the assistance of the non-governmental bi-communal Association of Relatives of Missing Persons and Victims of War "TOGETHER WE CAN".
Leaders and representatives of Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot political parties do support efforts of the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) to identify all remaining missing persons, civilians or military, and heal the pain of their families. To achieve this goal, they call upon the public of both communities for more accurate information that could lead to burial sites and the identification of missing persons.
Leaders and representatives of Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot political parties are convinced that the time has come for official actions on behalf of the two communities in honour of the missing people of both communities. In this direction, they call upon the two leaders to consider (a) the construction of common monument and (b) to declare a joint Commemoration Day, both dedicated to the memory of victims of the Cyprus conflict, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.
Leaders and representatives of Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot political parties appreciate commemorative acts performed on both burial sites and awarding symbolic memorial plaquettes to relatives of persons buried in Voroklini and Galateia/Mehmetchik."
Representatives of AKEL, DHSY and EDEK, CTP, TDP, YKP and BKP were with us and we would head back to Nicosia, looking forward to other similar activities facing our past in order to be able to build a better future on this land…
I thank all those involved who enabled these historical visits for the first time and I thank the Slovak Embassy for its support in arranging all of this…
8.12.2018
Photos:
1. At the lake Galatia explaining what happened here with Christina and Selda…
2. Laying flowers at the Galatia lake…
3. The Slovak Ambassador Skoda reading declaration of political parties at the Oroklini mass grave…
(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper in Greek on the 30th of December 2018, Sunday. A similar article in Turkish was published in the YENİDÜZEN newspaper on my pages entitled "Cyprus: The Untold Stories" on the 6th of December 2018 and here is the link:
http://www.yeniduzen.com/siyasi-partilerden-iki-lidere-ortak-bir-anit-ve-ortak-bir-anma-gunu-cagrisi-13324yy.htm
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