Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Tel: 99 966518
Giorgos Olimpios was born in 1948 in the Ayios Lucas neighbourhood, a mixed neighbourhood where the sound of the bells of the church Ayios Lucas, would mix with the call for prayers of the Akkavuk Mesdjit. Ayios Lucas, like Tahtakala, Ayios Andreas (Tophane), Ayios Kassianos, Omerge and Yenicami, was a mixed neighbourhood... Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot families would live together in the same street, next to each other, struggling to survive on this island, trying to work and raise their children, to bring food to their families... In the yard of Ayios Lucas would be held a `panayiri` every year, a famous `panayiri` that would last four days and four nights... Local food would be sold here and both Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots would visit this food fair to buy and sell... These were poor neighbourhoods, workers renting houses and changing houses quite often... They were all trying to survive, helping each other out and not thinking too much about `politics` - the real life was harsh: It was after the Second World War and Cyprus was still a British colony... Soon, Cyprus would join the anti-colonial struggle blazing the other colonies of the West, in far out places... And this would affect these mixed neighbourhoods since the `agenda` would change from `anti-colonial` to a rift between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots with the help of other `players` and would carry our island all the way to the actual division of our island...
The father of Giorgos, Michalis Olimpios was a chair maker. He had moved from Limassol to Nicosia in the 1920s and had set up his workshop at Arasta, a colourful street of vendors and producers... At the Arasta Street, that leads to Agia Sophia, another mixed area, would be shoemakers, jewellers, helvaci and mirror makers and next to Agia Sophia would be the big pantapoulia (market) for fresh fruit, vegetables and meat. Butchers would also work together in this market... In 1952-53, Michalis Olimpios would move his shop a bit further, to inside the Ayios Andonis Khani, just behind the famous helva makers... The family would also change houses many times since they were only tenants and finally in 1958, they would end up at a house in Ayios Kassianos, another mixed neighbourhood.
Now Giorgos was 10 and his brother Savvas was 8.5 – in the morning as they would go to the Ayios Kassianos Primary School, they would throw stones at the Turkish Cypriot kids under the walls, around the PEO hospital. But in the afternoon after they got back home, they would play with the Turkish Cypriot neighbour kids, as though nothing had happened and they would not wonder why this was so... According to the memories of Panicos Neocleous, he too would throw stones as a kid at the Turkish Cypriot kids in Tahtakala – Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot children, according to the `mood` of those times were already having street fighting with stones!
Already in 1956, Nicosia began to be divided. In 1958, this would be taken a step further and `fasariya` would be created in order to push `the other community` to go away from its traditionally mixed neighbourhood. In Omerge, some Turkish Cypriot houses would be set on fire by some Greek Cypriots but other Greek Cypriot neighbours would run to extinguish the fires... They had tried to burn the house of Mehmet Hakki, a bakkalis who had a shop in the area of Pantapoulion but his good hearted neighbour, Panayi, a boyadji would extinguish the fire... While trying to throw water from his balcony, Panayi would fall and break his leg... The house of Shefika Durduran would also be set on fire but again, some other Greek Cypriot neighbours would extinguish that fire...
In 1958 in the summer months, Giorgos Olimpios, despite his father's warnings not to go out, would not listen to him and would go to the school of Ayios Kassianos to play with his 8.5 year old brother Savvas. Michalis Olimpios, after seeing that there were some extreme nationalist youth of TMT roaming the streets, would start getting worried and would go to the school to collect his sons... Just as we was walking back home, holding the hands of his two kids, the young TMT guys would kick him in the back, he would fall and they would start kicking his head, wounding him... Giorgos and Savvas Olimpios would watch horrified, the whole scene when their father was being beaten up without any pretext... In a few moments, kind hearted Turkish Cypriot neighbours would run to take him home and treat his wounds with a first aid kit. They would call Giorgos' mother, Kyriacou and she would arrange a car to come home from work and take her husband to the hospital. The mixed, quiet life was over and British soldiers would accompany the family, providing a truck to carry their belongings so they would move from Ayios Kassianos to Kaymakli...
The quiet life in the mixed neighbourhoods of Nicosia was over: Turkish Cypriots were pushed to leave and Greek Cypriots were pushed to leave so that the `TAKSIM` (partition) project would begin to take shape... Communities who lived together for centuries without bloodshed, people who helped each other, who ate together, who drank together now faced another `reality`: These would be the years when enmity would be breastfed, nurtured and grew up with mountains of lies... These would become years when masses of people would go to the streets at the strike of a tiny spark! The newly found `nationalism` would blind people and `heroes` would be found from among these masses who had no second thoughts when they attacked the properties or their lives... Among this chaos, good hearted Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots did try to save each other as this would be the case throughout our history but their goodwill, kind heart and spirit would not be enough to compete with the `mainstream` feeling of `enmity` that was being pumped and fed with provocations from both sides. The `fashion` now was to attack and both the Greek Cypriots of Ayios Lucas and Turkish Cypriots of Omerge would be forced to leave, beginning the process of becoming refugees in their own land that would be repeated in the following years of 1963 and 1974...
When Giorgos began secondary school at Neapolis in Nicosia in 1963-64, one day one of his classmates would bring a real pistol into the classroom. His classmate did not know how to use it... They gathered around him, the whole class, to see this new `toy` and the boy while trying to sort out how to work it, the pistol fired, wounding the one who brought it to school and also another classmate. Another boy picked up the pistol smeared with blood and brought it to the headmaster and the boys were immediately sent to hospital for treatment. Next day, MAHI newspaper of Sampson would publish the photos of these two boys, with the `news` that `Turkish Cypriot extremists opened fire from the Lycee and wounded two Greek Cypriot students!` The Turkish Cypriot Lyceum was not even around Neapolis and Giorgos would be amazed at this `news` since the event took right in front of his eyes! The same line was followed in order to ignite the two communities against each other: The statue of Markos Drakos would be bombed and the blame would be put on the Turkish Cypriots, just as the Bayraktar Mosque would be bombed and the blame would be put on the Greek Cypriots. Our communities would only find out the truth years later but it would be too late because they had already been fooled at the time... One day at his school at Ayios Kassianos, Giorgos would see that someone had tried to put the canteen on fire but it was extinguished. When he would ask, they would tell him that `It was the Turkish Cypriots who did this...` They had found three cigarette butts and an empty pack, as `evidence` to this. Giorgos was puzzled and thought this strange. Years later he would find out that a Greek Cypriot, at the orders of another Greek Cypriot had tried to burn the canteen... Again, truth would come too late, too late after our country has been divided, too late after all the bloodshed, too late after so many tragic events has happened on this island...
With Giorgos, we go to visit Ayios Lucas neighbourhood, as well as Ayios Kassianos... Turkish Cypriots in these neighbourhoods have been almost completely replaced by the settlers from Turkey... There are only a few Turkish Cypriots living in the walled city and after 50 years, the memory of mixed neighbourhoods has been completely wiped out... I call many people but there are only a few who would remember a mixed life in Nicosia... Half a century has gone by and there are few who are alive who remember the days when our communities lived peacefully and worked together... The `success` of the `partition` project is also wiping out the memory of a collective life... Those who remember are old and after they die, these memories would disappear with them... I feel sad, just like Giorgos Olimpios for the way things have turned out...
`If we don't solve the Cyprus problem, first the Turkish Cypriots will be extinct, and then the Greek Cypriots... In 50 years, if the problem is not solved, there would be inhabitants of this island but these inhabitants will not be Cypriots...` he says...
We have lost something so precious that it cannot be replaced... The only thing we can manage is to save some memories about how it had been in the past and who played what role in the creation of the partition on this island that stands physically and psychologically across our communities...
4.2.2012
(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 12th of February, 2012, Sunday.
Memories of a child from Akkavuk-Ayios Lucas...
Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Tel: 99 966518
After my interview with Giorgos Olimpios whose story was published in these pages in February, I go to speak with Huseyin Kaba who grew up in Ayios Lucas, once a multicultural mahalle (neighbourhood) in the centre of Nicosia, hosting both the Ayios Lucas Church, as well as the Mesdjit of Akkavuk (Mesdjit means mosque). Born in 1945, he had been born in Mora, his father's village. His father was the son of Kaba Mustafa, Salahi and his mother was the daughter of Andir Salih from Aphania. They had moved to Nicosia in 1948 when Huseyin was only three years old. In those times Mora and Aphania was almost mixed... Huseyin's father was working in the Nicosia Municipality as a messenger. First they would live in Tahtakala then they would move to Kaymakli... He remembers his neighbour Panayi who used to sell water in a carriage that was pulled by a horse. Then they would move to the Ayios Lucas neighbourhood and live on a street near the Akkavuk Mesdjit. He was five years old, it was 1950 and that year it had snowed in Nicosia... He would tell me what he remembers from those times:
`There were a lot of Greek Cypriots around Ayios Lucas... When I was walking to go to the primary school in later years, I remember seeing Greek Cypriot women wearing black, old women who would make gollifa, flaunes, buns and borekia to bring to the church during the times of panayiri (festivities). The papaz was living in the Laleli Street and these old women would take these to his house, I would see them as I passed by... I remember Yiannis effendi living in the Alsancak Street. He had a wife and a daughter; I don't remember any other children of his. They were living in a tiny house – there were two steps leading to his door. He had a small cart and he had built a wooden ramp to take out his cart out of his house. He was selling helva in this cart, both to Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots. When he got out of the house, he would join his hands like a Budhist and turn towards the Akkavuk Mesdjit, making a small bow and then he would turn towards the Ayios Lucas Church and make a cross. He would say goodbye to his wife and set out to sell his helva... He would go all the way to the Phanaromeni Church and sell his helva... We would buy some helva from him, complete with blanched almonds and cinnamon on top, worth a piaster or half a piaster... We would eat the warm helva on the way to school and it would taste so good and sweet. I also remember the panayiri... The Panayiri of Ayios Lucas took part on the 18th of October and would last for four days... Turkish Cypriots would also participate in this panayiri. Turkish Cypriots would use the northeast part of the yard where they would sell shamishi and lokma... In the panayiri would be sucukkos, walnuts, whole nuts, every kind of pastelli and they would also be shish kebap sellers in carts... The smell would take over the whole mahalle!
I remember an Armenian woman who lived in our street, her name was Arpine and she was married to Kemal Sinemacioghlu. She used to work at CYTA, as well as her husband... She had good relations with her neighbours and spoke Turkish very well... She loved Anatolia – probably that was where her family came from. She's no longer alive. At one point there had been an earthquake at Varto, Anatolia and Ms. Arpine and Mr. Kemal had taken an orphan from Varto, adopting her as their child – she would grow up to be a teacher...
There was also a meyhaneci-bakkal (restaurant and supermarket owner) Loizou in this area. Loizou was a clean, smart man with a smiling face... There were six wine barrels in his restaurant... His small restaurant with four tables would smell of wine... On the weekends, all the neighbourhood would buy what they needed from Loizou. Since the restaurant was open, he would make them wait there and take the things they needed from his shop just next door because during British times, you had to close your supermarket on the weekends for one and a half days.
Those who drank in the meyhane of Loizou at the `bango` were his best `mushteris` (customers) and among them was my father. They would be served salted fish, yogurt, pastirma, cheese, chakistez, olives, tahini, gabbaris and bread. Late at night, the wife of Loizou would cook lentil soup in a stock made of bones, fried potatoes or fried pastirma with eggs and these would be `on the house`!
In 1956 people living in the Ayios Lucas neighbourhood were anxious and as the years passed by towards 1958, Greek Cypriots started leaving the neighbourhood. There was a Turkish Cypriot police chavushi (sergeant) called Nihat and two guys from EOKA killed him in our neighbourhood. Nihat had a brother who played football in a football club in the joint federation of Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots. EOKA was following Nihat Chavush – two persons from EOKA had come and shot him in front of the house of Emine – we used to call her `Beautiful Emine` - when she heard the shots she ran out – a garutsa was coming so one of these EOKA guys turned back and the other EOKA guy stole the bicycle of our friend Gursel, struggling with him to take the bicycle... Emine jumped on the EOKA guy who had turned back and put him on the floor, almost wrestling with him and she was shouting out loud... The other guy who tried to steal the bicycle had got away and it was said that he went to hide in the house of the papaz of Ayios Lucas. Soon the police came and arrested the EOKA guy that Emine had caught. Sergeant Nihat had died in the street, bleeding to his death...
For the safety of Emine, they had made a proposal to her: They told her to choose between Turkey and England. They also gave her some money to leave the country and she left...
But after the killing of Sergeant Nihat in 1958, the Greek Cypriots of Ayios Lucas all left the neighbourhood. The Ayios Lucas Church was burnt three times... It wasn't only the Ayios Lucas Church that was burnt, it was also the Turkish Educational Club, further up, that was burnt on the 1st of May 1958 at night. This had been a club of progressive Turkish Cypriots who had been organized in PEO...
In those times Turkish Cypriots living in Greek Cypriot neighbourhoods would leave and Greek Cypriots living in Turkish Cypriot neighbourhoods would leave... A lot of people emigrated to London, both Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots in 1958 after all these fasariyas. There were also economical reasons, people were poor, there was a lot of unemployment... My sister was living in Omerge and after the EOKA-TMT activities she left to come to live with us. I had an aunt Feride Hassan who lived in Aglandjia at the `Djenk Hill` - she exchanged her house with an Armenian and came to live in Nicosia, at Kumsal and was renting her house to a military doctor from Turkey with his wife and three kids... She tried to escape the conflict by even exchanging her house but death caught her in December 1963 when her house was attacked and she was killed as well as the wife and three kids of the doctor in her house... Her husband was also heavily wounded in that attack...
I feel very sad going to Akkavuk and Ayios Lucas... I see how the houses are coming apart... I feel very sad seeing how Nicosia has changed all over, not just our mahalle... I have written a book about my memories of Nicosia that will be published soon...`
I thank Huseyin Kaba and look forward to reading his book of memories about our divided Nicosia...
7.4.2012
(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 29th of April, 2012, Sunday.
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