Sevgul Uludag
caramel_cy@yahoo.com
Tel: 99 966518
One of my wonderful Greek Cypriot readers who always helps me a lot in my investigations about "missing persons", as well as always sending me encouraging and empowering messages about my articles, one day in the last weeks had sent me the following message:
"Dear Sevgul, we come from Kampos village (not far from Ambelikou). In 1969 we moved in Dikomo and became refugees in 1974. My father was a farmer and decided to go in Ay Yianni, in November 1975. Some furniture and other equipment were still in the village. One of them was this chest which we used in the house we lived, until 1993. My father told me that he found it not in the house we lived, but within the main village. He could not remember when I asked him (I was not present as I was at school in Lefkosia). When we left Ay Yianni we took the chest with us and it is now dismantled in Kampos, our village. We supposed that if we left it, some others might take it and its future would be doubtful (it could be sold for money). Actually, some pots (pitharia) we used, we applied to give to the Ethnographic Museum of Yeroskipou and they are there.
We noted the names on the wooden chest and hoped it returned back to the owners. Apart from the memories it is made of cedar (very good wood) and pine and the sculpture (anaglyfa) are very good. It is dismantlable. I am sure it can be renovated and will be a work of art. But most important, are the memories it carries. I manged to find the owners of the house we lived in Ay Yianni and indeed they are not the owners, as they told me. If I forgot anything, please remind me. I will be happy if it returns to the owners, through UN or other organization. Good day!"
This dear Greek Cypriot friend would also send me the photographs of the old chest and the inside of the door where names of kids who were born in the 1940s and 1950s had been written with a pencil and I would set out investigating about who the owners might be… In the old days, people would write the names of their newborns and the date inside the chest door… That had been a tradition… And inside the door of this chest, I could barely make out the names "Selma", "Aysel", "Yildiray" and "Halil"…
I would publish the photos of the chest and the story of the chest from Ay Yianni village in Paphos to see who might help…
My son too had friends from Ay Yianni and he would contact them and send them my article about the chest…
One of them, Mr. Djemal Dermush who is the president of the Ay Yianni Culture and Solidarity Association would call my son and he would tell him that he knows the owners…
My son would call me and tell me to contact Mr. Djemal and that's how we would be able to find the owners of the chest…
In fact, they were not from Ay Yianni but Malounda in Paphos and due to the earthquake of 1953, they would emigrate to the Ay Yianni village…
The owners of the chest were Halil Mustafa and his wife Fatma Suleyman… I managed to contact Aysel Halil Mustafa (Aysel Aksu) and she told me the story of her family and this chest… She said she had been so happy to hear of this news about the chest and so touched, "At least a chest will remain as a memory from our mother" she said…
Aysel Aksu is the daughter of Halil Mustafa and Fatma Suleyman… Mr. Halil had been called "Sinekchi Halil" which means someone who fights against the flies… That was his profession at the time… He had been a "Sinekchi" both at Malounda, at Ay Yianni and later at Zodia…
Aysel was one of the seven brothers and sisters… The eldest daughter Selma had passed away… The second child was Altan and then the third, Aysel… Then there is Suleyman who lives in Lyssi now… Then Yildiray, Sherife and the smallest was Sevcan. Mrs. Aysel lives in Morphou, one sister in Pendaya and most of them in Zodia…
The family was actually not from Ay Yianni but from Malounda from Paphos but when there was a big earthquake in 1953, they had to emigrate from Malounda to Ay Yianni…
"We lived in a Baraka and we added rooms" she remembers… "Then we bought land and build a house… We got my sister and brother married in Ay Yianni…"
I ask her about the chest… They had brought the chest with them from Malounda to Ay Yianni when they emigrated…
"I was a child then, I don't remember who built this chest but it is at least 80 years old" she tells me.
"It had carvings on it and had drawers… My late father would write down the names and birthdates of his children inside the door of this chest…
In Ay Yianni, we had a garden, we had pervolia… We had animals, sheep and goats… Some Greek Cypriots came and took them all… They took them all from the mandra and left… We had an akria used for planting the fields. There was petrol in the house… There was a house full of wheat… The Greek Cypriots came on the first day when war started, they took away the akria, they brought a truck and loaded all our wheat… Whatever wheat remained, they put petrol over them and started a fire… Thank God my father came in time to put out the fire inside the house, he put water over the wheat and stopped the fire from spreading and from the remaining wheat my mother would make us bread…
Ay Yianni was a Turkish Cypriot village, it was not a mixed village… You see, I can't speak Greek for instance… But my mother spoke Greek because all those working as flymen used to meet in the potamos…
They came on the day of the war, they killed some Turkish Cypriot villagers, they put sacks over their heads… We were afraid and ran away and then returned to the village later… They brought a truck to our village, some Turkish Cypriots – I think maybe they were from the surrounding villages like Salamiou, Arminou… They put our wheat on the truck and burned the rest… My father could manage to put out the fire…
There was this Uncle Djemil and he called out to us, "Come back! The Greek Cypriots are gone now!" And so we came back to our village…
We remained in the village for a few months – I don't remember how long… There were also the English soldiers, they had set out a camp there and were protecting us… We would sleep on the roofs of the houses in order to protect ourselves… And then secretly we ran away from Ay Yianni slowly…
We ran away with what we had on us and what we had on us were torn apart while escaping from the mountains… When we were escaping, we could not take anything with us, so everything we had remained there…
Then we ran away from Ay Yianni and walked all the way to Paramali… We managed to reach the last plane leaving from Paramali…
When they saw us, some people said, "Vre children! You are lucky! You managed to catch the last plane…" They gave us clothes and everything since our clothes were torn on our way… We went by plane to Turkey and then to the northern part of Cyprus.
My brother had been a prisoner of war and when he got out, he had come to Zodia and found a house for us… We came and settled in that house and for about two months we stayed alone… My father and mother had remained at Ay Yianni village and until there was an agreement, they did not come. Then when there was an agreement, the British took them to the northern part…
In Ay Yianni, some people had gone on the mountains, some people had crossed to the north with help from some Greek Cypriots.
When I heard that the chest was found by one of your Greek Cypriot readers and kept and would be returned to us, I was very touched… The whole family was very touched…
Greek Cypriots took everything from us, our animals, our land, our cars… At least a chest should remain as a memory from our mother, only a chest…
I wish that all of these did not happen and I wish that we had remained where we were…
We have seen all this, it is enough, let our children never see such things…
I thank you for taking care of this issue…"
I thank Mrs. Aysel for sharing her story with us… And I thank Mr. Djemal for helping us find her… I also thank this Greek Cypriot friend of mine who kept the chest with care and who will return it to the family… It means so much to them to get this chest back… It is like a time machine that takes them back many years, to the memories of the past…
Now the only issue is to get the chest back from Kampos to Zodia… And I am sure that with the help of my readers from both sides of the partition line, we will manage that and give back the chest to the owners…
(*) Article published in POLITIS newspaper on the 27th of December 2020, Sunday. The article was published in YENIDUZEN newspaper on the 23rd of October 2020 in Turkish on my pages entitled "Cyprus: The Untold Stories" and the link to this article is as follows:
https://www.yeniduzen.com/bir-dolap-olsun-annemizden-hatira-kalsin-bize-16446yy.htm
Photos: The photos of the chest, mentioned in the article…
PS – After the publication of this article in POLITIS today, my reader who has the chest sent me the following note:
"Dear Sevgul, i am so glad!!! Thank you for your work! it's a miracle! I hope we soon manage to give the chest to the owners. I am also glad i learned about the story of it. I have two corrections: To the Folklore Museum of Yeroskipou we gave some large pots (pitharia). They have the name of the owner inscribed on their surface. The chest, we took with us in Kampos and kept it dismantled. These chests were dismantable. Second: The thiefs from Salamiou and nearby villages were Greek Cypriots. Others, from EOKA B were from Kato Platres – … team - everybody knows. I heard they killed at least one Turkish Cypriot…."
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