Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Tel: 99 966518
On the 12th of February 2019 Tuesday, in the morning we go to meet a witness who has contacted me… With me is Sila Murat from the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee, a young investigator… My witness will show us a possible burial site…
The place is in Nicosia, at Neapolis, close to the church, just across the road at a back street…
In this place his father had seen buried on the surface 4-5 skulls (skeletons) and had covered this burial site with soil… This had happened after 1976 he explains and "No one has ever come to this area ever since – it is an area where there has been no activity…"
Because they had been living in this area since 1976, they could observe the empty plot as they used it as a passage – he remembers while going to school, he used to pass from this empty plot and at that young age in those days, he used to avoid passing just next to the burial site where his father had pointed out to him and had told him the story…
"I would not pass from here at night" he would tell us…
The main road that the Turkish Cypriots call the "Kaymakli by-pass road" is well known and we know that in 1974, a lot of fighting had taken around here… We had shown together with my readers and other witnesses some possible burial sites on this road further up and I had made sure that the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee would meet them to give them information about these possible burial sites… I had written several times about this area… I believe that there have been no excavations by CMP on the possible burial sites we had shown on this road but I would not know for sure since I have no such information…
Our witness now says that two years ago he had contacted the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee about this possible burial site where his father had seen and had covered the burial site with soil… He says that two years ago there came two Turkish Cypriot officials from the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee and he had shown this area to them and had explained what he knew but since two years passed by and he saw that there was no movement here, he started feeling anxious… When he mentioned to a relative of his that he was a bit frustrated since there was no movement about the possible burial site he had shown to the Turkish Cypriot officials of the CMP, his relative advised him to contact me. And that's how he wrote to me and then we came to meet him today so he could show once again the possible burial site to me and to the investigator from CMP, Sila Murat.
We have no information whether the two Turkish Cypriot officials of two years ago from the CMP informed the CMP about this area or not and we do not know if they made a submission about this possible burial site to the CMP or not. But I have immediately contacted both the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot Assistants of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot members of the CMP and have informed them and as a result today, we are here to look at the place… I thank this witness for his humanity and for his insistence in sharing what he knew and I thank the CMP investigator Sila Murat for coming with me to show her this site. I thank the assistants for arranging this visit.
Another reader comes to meet me and wants to give me information about the two "missing" Greek Cypriots from Louroudjina… He says that what he heard in the village is that they had been buried in the old Greek Cypriot cemetery in Louroudjina…
I had written extensively about these two young "missing" Greek Cypriots years ago and had also shared information about their possible burial sites back in 2008. In some of those sites there had been some excavations and in others, not. This was the time when the bi-communal excavation teams could not enter Louroudjina – no Greek Cypriot was allowed to enter Louroudjina until quite recently…
The two young Greek Cypriots had been kidnapped and kept in Louroudjina in a house for more than six months… They were civilians, going with their motorcycle from Larnaca to Nicosia… They had been kidnapped around Koshi village… At that time, the reason behind their kidnapping was to use them in an exchange of some Turkish Cypriots from Piroi who had been kidnapped by some Greek Cypriots, but this never happened. They kept them for six months and then killed them and buried them somewhere in Louroudjina.
According to what this reader heard and was telling me, they had been buried in the old Greek Cypriot cemetery… He says that the "CMP had never investigated there… This cemetery is on the way to the Turkish Cypriot cemetery" and asks me to go and check. And he asks me to inform the CMP about this information so that they can investigate…
In those days, Fehim Mehmet and Kamil Huseyin Koushouri had been kidnapped from Piroi by some Greek Cypriots at the beginning of 1964… Some Turkish Cypriots, thinking that they could use some Greek Cypriots as exchange for these two kidnapped Turkish Cypriots decided to kidnap some Greek Cypriots and on the 4th of February 1964 they would kidnap Andreas Petrou Georgiou and Christos Socratous Ioannou around Koshi… The exchange never happened and they were kept in the village in a house for six months… One of those young Greek Cypriots had health problems with his stomach… After some time, it was clear they could not be used in exchange for the kidnapped Turkish Cypriots when all hopes that Fehim Mehmet and Kamil Huseyin Koushouri would still be alive died out - so instead of letting these two innocent civilians who had nothing to do with any conflict, they had killed them and buried them, putting them on the long list of "missing persons"…
When they went "missing" Andreas Petrou Georgiou was only 24 and Christos Socratous Ioannou was only 20… If they had been set free, then they would have been alive now… They left behind relatives in great pain – I had met them and had spoken with them and had written the story of these two young "missing" Greek Cypriots… But it is the first time ever that this information is coming that they might have been buried in the old Greek Cypriot cemetery… We will do more investigations to see if this is true or not…
Another reader would come and share more information about the emptying of the Arif Efendi Farm (Chiftlik) outside Afania at Ornithi… He says that it did not happen once but several times… When he meets me, he wants to share the following information:
"The emptying of the burial sites at the Arif Efendi Chiftlighi (Farm) at Ornithi did not happen once but it was a process of several times… What we had heard was that the first attempt at emptying the burial sites here happened during the time when Galip Mendi was the head of the Civil Defence organisation… According to the rumours, during the first attempt at emptying the burial sites was when they took the remains from one side of the river and transferred them to the other side of the river.
But afterwards there was one more attempt to empty the remains of those "missing" which I think was around 2009… There was to be some changes about the river and again at that time there were rumours in the village that the remains that had been carried from one side of the river to the other side of the river were being relocated again…
In the village they were saying that the ones who took part in the burying of those Greek Cypriots in the first place also took part in the emptying of those burial sites, that they were the same people. What I mean is that those who buried the Greek Cypriot "missing" in 1974 at the Arif Efendi Chiftlighi, were the same people who took part in the emptying of the burial site. One of those persons who took part in the emptying of the burial site later on was working for Civil Defence and his name was rumoured to be connected in the murdering of the Turkish Cypriot journalist, Kutlu Adali. This guy was not from Afania but was active in the area. He is no longer alive…
There are several people who took part both in the burials and the emptying and relocation of remains… They too are no longer alive – I believe only one is alive and he is bedridden, very old… These people in the old times were part of the team of the famous Turkish Cypriot TMT leader of the area, Tremesheli…
One of those who was part of this team and who took part in the killing, burying and emptying was boasting in the village Afania that they had lined up the Greek Cypriots outside the wall of the antique church of Afania and that they had killed them there… He was boasting that one Greek Cypriot had asked him to kill him first and then his son but he had done the opposite, that he had killed the son first and then the father…"
I thank this reader for sharing this information with me… I have again informed the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot officials of the CMP about all this…
If we speak and share what we know, we will open the way for cleaning up our past together…
15.2.2019
Photo: Behind me is the possible burial site in Neapolis, Nicosia...
(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 10th of March 2019, Sunday. Similar articles were published on my pages in YENİDUZEN entitled "Cyprus: The Untold Stories" on the 15th of February 2019 and the link is:
http://www.yeniduzen.com/babam-bu-alanda-yuzeyde-gomulu-dort-bes-kafatasi-bularak-ustunu-toprakla-ortmustu-13629yy.htm
and on the 11th of February 2019 and the link is:
http://www.yeniduzen.com/lurucinadan-kayip-edilen-iki-kibrislirumun-eski-kibrislirum-mezarligina-gomulmus-old-13613yy.htm
and on the 8th of February 2019 and the link is:
http://www.yeniduzen.com/arif-efendi-ciftligindeki-bosaltma-olaylari-bir-degil-birkac-kez-tekrarlandi-13599yy.htm
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