Sevgul Uludag
Caramel_cy@yahoo.com
It all started with an anonymous e-mail from a Greek Cypriot reader:
`I'd like to contribute to your efforts by telling you a story that I've only heard, not witnessed. In the town of Morphou must be a missing person, whose name I can't recall, but must have been over middle age around 1963-64. From word of mouth I heard that at least 3 Greek Cypriots murdered him and thrown his body into a well probably at his house. The main reason for doing so was their greed to steal his money. He was a wealthy person, never harmed anybody and must had a son in the UK. I don't know if his body has been found, but if not I don't like to keep this information with me but share it with you because I respect your efforts against the odds.`
So I started searching who this `missing person` might be. In Morphou (Güzelyurt), there was only one `missing` Turkish Cypriot from 3 January 1964, Ahmet Mulla Mehmet born in 1898. He had been 65 years old when he had gone `missing` from his house. Just as my reader had described, he had had a son living in London at that time, Arif Ahmet Hastoprak.
So I go to Morphou to meet the grandson of Ahmet Mulla Mehmet, Hakki Alpagut, a lawyer who has been given an award for his contribution to peace, by the Greek Cypriots of Morphou. After the opening of the checkpoints, the Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots of Morphou had formed an association called `Peace and Reunification` and he has been active there, pushing for the opening of the Bostancı/Zodia checkpoint. And now, he is pushing for the opening of the Yeşilırmak/Limnitis checkpoint...
Both Ahmet Mulla Mehmet and his son Nahit were `legends` in the area and Greek Cypriots had great respect for them. They were quite friendly...
Ahmet Mulla Mehmet was a citrus producer and quite rich at that time. He had more than 60 donums of citrus plantations. His wife, Fatma was also well respected among Greek Cypriots of Morphou. The `Mandis` of the area (Roma) were having fights amongst themselves and according to the story, a few of their children had drowned in the river – they wanted to stop the fighting and build a temple for `Ayios Stamadios`. According to their belief, Ayios Stamadios was the saint who would chase away the evil. But they did not have the money to build this temple so Fatma Hanim would give them money to start building it. When they ran out of money, Ahmet Mulla Mehmet would give more money to finish it. Today you can see this temple in the middle of Morphou.
Ahmet Mulla Mehmet was constructing a new building next to the market (bandabuliya) in Morphou. He had five daughters and three sons. One of his sons, Erol, was killed by some EOKA assasinators back in 1958. Erol had been studying to be a doctor and originally the building's second floor was planned to be his clinic. When he was murdered, the plans for the building also changed. There would be no clinic anymore because Erol had been killed. He had just gone to Morphou and since his mother was sick, he had gone to a Greek Cypriot pharmacist, Nigoloboullos, to get some medicine for her and as he was drinking his coffee, he had been shot and killed in cold-blood.
`Greek Cypriots of Morphou were giving a cold shoulder to EOKA at that time` Hakki Alpagut says, `Morphou was a place they could not really get organized. So they were trying to provocate the people to join EOKA. Sampson had been in the area 10 days before my uncle Erol was shot dead. When he was in the area, a Turkish Cypriot policeman called Reshat was killed... The left or AKEL was quite strong in Morphou area... So EOKA was setting up provocations... The killing of my uncle was part of those provocations... As a result, most of the Turkish Cypriots of Morphou would fear for their lives and would go away to live in Lefke or Nicosia or emigrate to Australia...`
Ahmet Mulla Mehmet was worried in 1963 as the intercommunal fighting began but his Greek Cypriot friends in a bank told him not to worry: They would give him 2 thousand Cypriot pounds, without guarantors or mortgage. He planned to pay a thousand pounds to the Greek Cypriot builders and the rest of the money, he would keep for emergencies since all the Turkish Cypriot families had gone to Lefke, Gaziveran or Nicosia. He would go `missing` on the night when he took the money from the bank – 3rd of January 1964. His wife would die 25 days later – Fatma Hanim was already very sick because of the murdering of her son Erol – she had swallowed pesticides to commit suicide when her son had been killed but she was saved... After her husband disappeared, she could not take it anymore...
So who had killed Ahmet Mulla Mehmet? One of the aides of Ahmet Mulla Mehmet, Feyzullah had been with him that night but had gone to his house. When he came back, he had seen a police car parked in front of the house. `In those times, it was easy for paramilitary groups to use the police cars` Hakki Alpagut explains. Ahmet Mulla Mehmet had been on very good terms with the chief of police of Morphou, Odisseas. There was no sign of struggle in the house. `If these people had told my grandfather, `Come on, Mr. Odisseas wants to see you` he would have gone with them... Is that what had happened? I am not saying that Odisseas had anything to do with this... We don't even know if the murderers were from the Morphou area or whether they came from elsewhere... If they had been from Morphou, we would have heard it...`
We look at the wells in the garden of Ahmet Mulla Mehmet. But Hakki Alpagut has also got some information that his grandfather has been buried in one of the wells in his gardens, not his house. We still need to go and check these wells with him...
`The reason for the killing of my grandfather wasn't ethnic. I believe that he was killed for his money` he says.
Just like his grandfather, Hakki Alpagut is also a `legend` among Greek Cypriots of Morphou... Whoever comes to Morphou goes and seeks him out to have coffee or a chat... He continues the friendship and brotherhood, just like his uncle Nahit and his `missing` grandfather Ahmet Mulla Mehmet... He is a role model for the future of our country... (*)
(*) This article was published in June 2009 in POLITIS newspaper and after a few years in 2011, Hakki Alpagut sadly passed away... We later went with other grandchildren of the "missing" Ahmet Mulla Mehmet and showed various possible burial sites where he might have been buried to the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee... We also gave information to the officials of the CMP about people who might know the exact location of his burial site. CMP officials visited and took the information... We hope that after 11 years since we first wrote about Ahmet Mulla Mehmet, that there should be digging in the possible burial sites that there is information about with the CMP...
Photos:
Ahmet Mulla Mehmet still "missing" from Morphou...
The Agios Stamadios temple in Morphou
Dr. Erol Ahmet killed in August 1958 in Morphou by some Greek Cypriots...
