The long, hot summer…

The long, hot summer…

Sevgul Uludag

caramel_cy@yahoo.com

Tel: 00 357 99 966518
00 90 542 853 8436

It's a long, hot summer… We try to survive in the centre of Cyprus, in Nicosia, in our garden watching our little cat's curiosity – he is interested in everything and he wants to be part of everything happening around him… If I am in the kitchen, he is there, trying to figure out how to climb to the sink to see what it is that I am doing… If I am in my room working on the computer, he climbs to the table and wants to go on the keyboard and see what's going on… If we are in the garden, he too is there, around the little pond with the turtles – he wants so much to play with the turtles but turtles are very shy and he keeps on trying to touch them with his paw, getting himself wet and then licking it off and sitting for hours by the pond, watching them eat or swim… He is a very pale yellow, almost pink and his hair is so soft… He hides under beds or chairs and at times he has a lot of energy and jumps all over the place, climbing
trees, catching bugs and bringing them in for us to see… His innocence touches our hearts…
It's a long, hot summer and we try to survive the heaviness of this land through the innocence of the animals, through the excitement of waiting for our son to come to us for a short holiday from Germany – we can only see him two or three times a year and when he comes, life becomes a festival so we wait for him to finish his studies and come back so he can cheer us up and give us hope and empower us so that we can survive the heaviness of Cyprus…
It's a long, hot summer but I continue to work as always, going to Lefkoniko to see a cousin for the first time that I never knew existed. Based in London, he has come for a short holiday and he writes to me – he too not knowing that we are cousins – and wants to show a well in his yard that have been closed…
`My grandmother always had been suspicious about this well` he explains to me… `She was saying, there would be no reason why the Greek Cypriots would close such a big well with so much water in it and she always suspected that maybe they had buried someone in the well…`
Turkish Cypriots had left the village in 1958 and would only return in 1974… In 1958 Menikou from Koufes was executed in the centre of the village by some Greek Cypriots from EOKA – a Turkish Cypriot witness to this murder, Ismail who had come across them while torturing him and protesting at what they were doing would be killed about a month later. So Turkish Cypriots would be frightened and would leave… This was my father's village, Lefkoniko and Turkish Cypriots would go to nearby Ipsillat – the Greek Cypriot mukhtar of the village would try to encourage the Turkish Cypriots to return to the village but in 1964, another Turkish Cypriot who would go to take out a license for his car would be taken by the Greek Cypriot `gang` in the village and is still `missing` until now… Soon after, those who did not want Turkish Cypriots to return to this village would demolish most of the Turkish Cypriot houses to ensure that they stay where they are…
So I go to Lefkoniko together with the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee on our way to Koma tou Yialou to show a possible burial site. We stop at the centre and my cousin leads us to his house. It's behind the church this house… He shows us the well… While talking, we discover that we are cousins – his grandmother was the sister of my father… Because his mother went to England in 1956 and settled there, I probably never saw her…
He shows us the well which is closed and tells us the story… His auntie also comes and she too tells us what she remembers about the area. We take photos and coordinates – the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee will investigate about this area and see if there is really anything suspicious about this well and whether it can be a possible burial site.
It's a long, hot summer but the earth brings gifts like meeting a cousin whom I did not even know existed and finding out that one of his brothers was named after my father Niyazi. He has also written a book of memories about the 1974 war – he had been a child and had come to Cyprus for holidays and war happened and he got stuck in Cyprus… He gives us his book in English and Turkish… Written from the eyes of a child, he documents what he had seen and felt at that young age…
We thank him and say our goodbyes to move to Koma tou Yialou so I can show the olive trees where there might be a burial site of some `missing` Greek Cypriots from the village.
It's a long, hot summer but my readers continue to call and try to help so I meet them in the south and in the north of our island, we sit and talk, they give me coordinates, they give me books, they give me information about possible new burial sites…
We go to Kyrenia Boghazi together with the son of a `missing person` - he called me to explain that a bulldozer operator had found some remains when he was digging about one and a half years ago and got frightened and covered it up… Now he wants to show us this possible burial site. So I arrange to go with the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee and we go to Boghazi-Aghirdagh area to see a half construction where there is a house almost finished and a swimming pool being constructed… When our witness was digging for the swimming pool, he found some leg bones and got frightened. The architect had made a mistake in calculating where the swimming pool would be constructed so he told them to stop and shift it a few meters closer to the house – so they had buried the bones they had found in the place they had dug…
`If you dig around the swimming pool` he explains to us, `you would definitely find the bones there… We were frightened and did not dig more to see…`
They had got permission to cut some trees in order to build the swimming pool…
There is no one around and the whole construction site looks deserted… All around there are fences and a dog barks as we take photos and coordinates. The smell is astonishing: That of the pine trees… There is retsina on the barks, bringing me the memories from Kredhia when as children we used to collect from almond trees this kind of retsina and put them in bottles to sit in the sun to melt to be used as glue…
Later at night I would call one of my readers from Aghirdagh to tell him what we saw… He tells me of another possible burial site in Boghazi and promises to show it when I manage to arrange to go there again…
`There used to be an Englishwoman living in that house, called Sheila if I remember correctly, back in the 70s` he says…
`But it's a new house…`
`Actually it's not – it's been changed and renovated… I think the new owner was a Turkish Cypriot from London but I think he died… I don't know who it belongs to now – let me enquire…` he says.
Soon after a team from the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee starts excavations here and they start finding human remains… We need to be patient to see whether they will find only one or more than one `missing` persons' remains have been buried here…
Next week we will go to Yerolakko and Episkopi for further investigations about other possible burial sites…
The long, hot summer will end but our work and our hopes will not…

29.8.2014

Photo: View from the burial site at Aghirdagh-Boghazi.

(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 21st of September 2014, Sunday.

`Peace and reunification are too precious to leave it to the negotiators!`

`Peace and reunification are too precious to leave it to the negotiators!`

Sevgul Uludag

caramel_cy@yahoo.com

Tel: 00 357 99 966518
00 90 542 853 8436

Today I want to share with you an article by a veteran of the bi-communal peace movement in Cyprus, Christos Efthymiou where he reflects on the bi-communal relations in Cyprus and says ` Peace and reunification are too precious to leave it to the negotiators!` He wrote this article for `The Open Democracy` website where he looks back and towards the future… Christos Efthymiou who leads the `Together we can` association, a bi-communal association of relatives of `missing` Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots says:
`Reflecting on the relations between the two main communities in Cyprus invariably brings to mind one of the most remarkable Turkish Cypriot figures in history, that of Ali Dervish Kavazoglu. Not because there weren't other equally significant figures but most likely because of the impression that Kavazoglu had on a ten year old boy way back in 1964-65.
The house I was born in was just a few metres from the village centre. The village was called Dhali, 15 km south-west of Nicosia, and is the burial place of Kavazoglu. The meetings that this remarkable Turkish Cypriot was leading at the village centre were impressive to say the least. He managed to gather almost the whole village there with his audience made up of Turkish and Greek Cypriots, left and right wingers, men and women, practically everybody. He was talking about the need to reject the calls for Turkish Cypriots to move into enclaves and that Greek and Turkish Cypriots should stay united. He was talking about how partition or enosis would be catastrophic for Cyprus.
And what was even more impressive for the 10 year old kid was that he actually appeared on TV, calling again for all Cypriots to stay united and defend peaceful coexistence. Since that day of course the clock for his assassination started ticking and it was not long after that he was ambushed and killed. On the day of his burial, thousands attended both from Dhali and the surrounding villages as well as Nicosia and elsewhere. The Turkish Cypriot women were crying as if they had lost a member of their family. It was also as if they were crying for what would come next.
Following the events of 1964-1967, a lot of Turkish Cypriots moved into enclaves. At times of eased tension, contacts between the two communities were at a reasonable level. In villages like Dhali, where relations were not bad, very few Turkish Cypriots had actually moved. More people left after 1974 but quite a few never actually left the village. Nevertheless, Dhali and neighbouring Potamia were an exception. After the war in 1974, and following the Geneva accord, an exchange of population actually took place with just a few hundred Greek Cypriots staying behind, mostly in the Karpasia peninsula, and a few Turkish Cypriots scattered around in the south.
From then onwards contact between the two communities became extremely difficult. Telephones were disconnected, crossing to the other side was practically impossible and the only possibility to meet was at the British Bases in Dhekelia and the village of Pyla on the buffer zone… At times of hopeful developments for a solution to the Cyprus problem, possibilities for improving contacts were increasing. Remarkable progress was made when the pro solution forces among the Turkish Cypriots gained ground, particularly in the early nineties when CTP headed by Ozker Ozgur participated in government. At the time contacts between professional organizations were developing particularly with the Turkish Cypriot Technical Chamber and the Greek Cypriot Civil Engineers, Architects and other professions. Projects, like the Nicosia Master Plan gradually materialized and had a significant impact.
Capacity building efforts of various groups started to be organized first through meetings abroad and subsequently in places like Pyla, but of significant importance was that bi-communal groups started to develop with the British bases. Pergamos and Pyla both became meeting places towards the turn of the century. A wonderful project was the organization of meetings at Pergamos of co-villagers for the first time after 1974. At around the turn of the century, the historic mass mobilizations of the Turkish Cypriots began to peak with the formation of the Platform "This country is ours". The various Greek Cypriot groups who were engaged in bi-communal activity started making attempts to join forces with the Turkish Cypriot Platform in order to enhance the reconciliation process. The first attempt was made by the Civil Initiative for Solution and Reunification, and a couple of years later, at the beginning of 2003, the "Solution Now" Platform was set
up.
Efforts were being made to organize parallel events across the divide: exchanging messages, letting balloons float across the dividing line and much more. But real change came with the opening of check points in April 2003. The whole process changed dimensions. Masses of people went across, old friendships were revitalized, the dark side of the moon was revealed for many people for the first time.
The centre of bi-communal activity was immediately shifted to the Nicosia buffer zone at Ledra Palace. The "Solution Now" Platform became bi-communal and efforts started immediately to coordinate activities with the Turkish Cypriot Platform. Very soon the Ledra Palace buffer zone was, for the first time ever, the area of bi-communal mass gatherings for peace and reunification. Of great symbolic significance was the vigil organized on the buffer zone in July 2003 in memory of the victims from all communities – an event well attended from both sides held in a moving atmosphere.
Since that July of 2003, every year during the summer when the governing rhetoric on both sides keeps building the wall of separation, the bi-communal movement comes together to talk about the violence of the past, remember and honour the victims on both sides of the divide and pave the way to reconciliation.
The process of seeking the truth about this violent past is probably the most powerful tool for building reconciliation. The opening of the check points in April, 2003 started an unprecedented process: the relatives of the missing persons from both sides of the divide started crossing the dividing line in search of information for the fate of their relatives. The work of journalists working on the issue and spaces created by bi-communal activities provided the opportunities for relatives of the missing from both sides to meet and exchange experiences and information. Very soon these people identified with the pain of each other and remarkable friendships formed.
Sometime in 2006, Turkish and Greek Cypriot relatives of the missing and other victims of war came together to form the "Bi-communal Initiative of Relatives of Missing Persons, Victims of Massacres and other Victims of 1963-1974 events" later called "Together we Can!". It was a ground breaking development. The victims of the massacres and atrocious crimes from both sides were coming together to challenge society to stop using their pain to enhance nationalism but face the realities of the violent past and work so that no families in the future will again have to go through the same trauma.
In a revealing piece of research by Aris Sitas, it was concluded that people's attitude towards reconciliation and compromise to reach settlement is linked to how they have been affected by the conflict. Those that have been worst affected through the loss of life are the most positively oriented towards reconciliation and compromise. This is exactly what the Initiative of the Relatives of the missing shows. From meeting to meeting, in gatherings of the missing from both communities in villages, towns, schools and elsewhere this is being proved time and time again. The relatives of the victims through sharing of their experiences, through identifying with each other's pain, easily blend together forming strong bonds, thus constituting a catalyst for reconciliation.
In July 2009, at the yearly commemoration event at the Ledra street check point, the Bi-communal Initiative of Relatives of the Missing along with the rest of the bi-communal movement honoured Greek and Turkish Cypriots that helped save the lives of people of the other community, sending very powerful messages across dividing lines. Among them, Christofis Poseidias who protected the women and children of Dhali in July and August of 1974. And through him people in Dhali that helped protect the Turkish Cypriot men held in custody that were about to be executed by a certain Greek officer. The powerful bonds of the past in this village managed to save lives.
On the following year the bi-communal movement in an event at the Peace Park of Kontea - itself a result of a bi-communal project - honoured Greek and Turkish Cypriots that provided information for burial sites of the missing persons of the other side. By now a large number of missing persons have had their remains found through information from common people.
In 1964 Michalakis Solomontos from Dhali, father of four children, went missing. It was a shocking incident at the time, in an atmosphere of rising nationalism. Last June the remains of Michalakis were identified and handed over to the family for burial. At the funeral the eldest son in his memorial speech warmly thanked investigative journalist Sevgul Uludag and other Turkish Cypriots that helped to trace the burial site. They received a warm and lengthy applause. People are indeed ahead of their leaderships.
Despite the difficulties on the negotiating table, despite the disappointment of the masses of Greek and Turkish Cypriots, still the bi-communal movement is growing with a large base of small or larger groups with the Home of Cooperation on the Ledra Palace buffer zone being a valuable contribution. Since late 2009 most organizations on both sides of the divide working for a reunification of the island have joint forces under the Bi-communal Peace Initiative "United Cyprus".
The Initiative brings together more than 50 or so organizations, Trade Unions, bi-communal groups, professional organizations, writers and artists, cultural groups and others. Despite the large number of organizations and despite the diverse character of all the groups it is remarkable that people have learned to look at the forest rather than the tree. We have all joined forces for a major cause, that of the solution of the Cyprus problem, for the reunification of the island, for reconciliation and peace. Our differences come second to that.
This July the bi-communal movement has announced its intention to work with artists from both sides to develop a common monument honouring the victims of 50 years of intercommunal conflict and war. The announcement has been very well received by society.
On 1 September, the day of action for peace, Greek and Turkish Cypriots will join hands in a human chain connecting the Eleftheria square via Ledra street crossing the dividing line to Kyrenia Gate in the North. Peace and reunification are too precious to leave it to the negotiators!`

14.8.2014

Photo: Christos Efthymiou with Leyla Kıralp...

(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 14th of September 2014, Sunday.

Olive trees in Koma tou Yialou…

Olive trees in Koma tou Yialou…

Sevgul Uludag

caramel_cy@yahoo.com

Tel: 00 357 99 966518
00 90 542 853 8436

We sit in the shade of two old almond trees in midday – we can see the sea further down the road and a small breeze comes to greet us…
In this village in Karpaz called `Koma tou Yialou` we sit with a reader who has opened his house for us…
His wife makes coffee and offers us figs – black and white – that ripened under the sun, sweet, tasty, cold from the fridge, so refreshing in this heat that we feel grateful to the earth for offering us such good fruits that grow on our soil…
My reader's wife shows me a little turkey, barely one month old…
`When I try to feed her, she tries to bite my ring` she says… `They love anything shiny…`
The little chick looks curiously at us and after a while my reader's wife takes her back to the hen house.
Two turkeys, one white and one black, makes a tour around our car – they run, round and round, round and round and my reader tells us that they will do this at least 20 times…
`They are chasing their reflection on the car` the wife of my reader explains…
`And then they will come to the front and when they see their faces on the front of the car, they will start touching it with their beaks!`
They do exactly as we've been told and we sit in silence watching the amazing race of the turkeys, both males… The female bird is on her eggs, the wife of my reader explains to me…
`She chooses when to lay on her eggs… You can't force them to lay on eggs…`
After a while the two big male turkeys, one black, one white, get bored and leave us to go and check on the female turkey…
The cycle of the village life takes its course…
My reader, some years ago was in London… He had gone to the opening of a Cypriot restaurant where there were Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots… He happened to sit with a Turkish Cypriot from the village Galatia at the same table… As they started speaking, talking about Galatia and Koma tou Yialou, the guy from Galatia started telling him the story some `missing` persons from Koma tou Yialou…
`On the road to the limani (little port) of Koma tou Yialou, there are some olive trees` he explained to my reader… `That's where they were killed and buried…`
They were a group of four Greek Cypriots, taken from the coffee shop in retaliation to the EOKA-B killings of Tochni and Maratha-Sandallaris-Aloa according to the stories we have been hearing from those who had been present… A car had come, someone in military uniform had got out of the car with its radio on and in anger had shouted at the Greek Cypriots, speaking in very fluent Greek saying `Look what your people have done to ours! Listen to the news on Bayrak and hear what happened in Tochni! You will pay for this!`
The mother of one they tried to take had begged him not to take her son away:
`He is too young, he is only 16!` she had said but the angry Turkish Cypriot who had presented himself coming from Aloa and who had been around 45 years old at that time had said:
`I too had a wife and children… No one had mercy on them!` and had refused to leave the young boy alone… This person had come to the village that day, on the 20th of August 1974 - he had been together with some Turkish soldiers in two Turkish tanks that had come to the village that day…
It was the 20th of August 1974…
They had drank some water and cokes from the coffee shop, breaking the empty bottles… Anger was raging – perhaps it was the day when the mass murder of Turkish Cypriots taken from Tochni by some Greek Cypriots had become news on the radio…
He had taken four Greek Cypriots from Koma tou Yialou… The red Alpha Romeo car belonging to a Greek Cypriot but taken over by some Turkish Cypriots left, returning after 10 minutes without them… They have been `missing` since then and we had been looking for their possible burial sites in and around Koma tou Yialou…
One other reader had described a place to me, I had gone and checked and then shown it to the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee and when there was digging in that area, remains of two `missing` persons were found. But we were not sure if they had been from this group of four `missing` persons or some others…
Now a new possible burial site that I need to see: We go with my reader to look at the olive trees… There are very few old olive trees as he points them out to me…
`Look, here, here and here… Those further back are new trees…`
This is the road that goes to the fishermen's little harbour and to the empty hotel standing on the beach…
We drive down the road and check if there are other old olive trees… Close to the school we find a few other old trees…
The whole place is very close to the area we had shown and where remains of two `missing persons` had been found: It is the same `mahalle` so to say…
The Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee is on holidays until the 18th of August 2014 – so after that date, I will try to arrange to come with the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot officials of the Committee to show them this possible burial site so that they can investigate further and if they decide, they can try to dig under the old olive trees…
More than five years ago, I had gone to visit one of the relatives of `missing` from Koma tou Yialou in Larnaka and had met his sisters who had been so sad… They only wanted to know the truth about their brother… Their mother and father would never speak about him…
`We had loved him too much` his sister had told me, `maybe because we were going to lose him, we had loved him so much…`
`We have never forgotten our village` had told me…
They had heard rumours that they might have been buried in a riverbed between Koma tou Yialou and Galatia so we need to investigate that as well… As we leave the village, thanking my reader, I see a river at the exit of the village with some eucalyptus trees. Could this be the riverbed they had heard about? We need to investigate that as well…
As soon as the holidays of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee is over, I arrange to go with the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot officials to show them the olive trees that are a possible burial site… The road has been expanded after 1974 so perhaps they would need to check on the side of the road as well if there would be digging here… We go with Xenophon Kallis, Murat Soysal and Okan Oktay and I show them the olive trees in order to investigate further…
One of the relatives of the `missing` from Koma tou Yialou had told me that at the time their relatives went `missing`, there had been a Turkish Cypriot policeman from Larnaka in charge of the village so perhaps if he is still alive, the Committee could start new investigations by finding him if they have not done that already in the past…
People don't `disappear` into thin air – there must have been people who had seen what had happened – if there is a will to find out, there is always a way as my readers have proven over and over again by helping out in a very humanitarian way in order to heal the terrible wounds that our country suffers…

8.8.2014

Photo: The old olive trees in Koma tou Yialou...

(*) Article published in POLITIS newspaper on the 31st of August 2014, Sunday.

From Agios Athanasios to Aradippou…

From Agios Athanasios to Aradippou…

Sevgul Uludag

caramel_cy@yahoo.com

Tel: 00 357 99 966518
00 90 542 853 8436

I sit in the garden at early hours of the morning to enjoy the coolness – soon it will be too hot to sit outside so I would have to move in… My heart -comrade is watering the flowers in pots and the trees and cats are jumping and playing as the turtles in the pond come out to see what's going on… We have a beautiful cat now, yellow – almost a pinky white – whom we tried to save from going blind… We managed to save part of his eye sight and now he is in the garden, playing with other cats, all grey…
Wood pigeons haven't come this year so we can sit by the pond – they are such shy birds that you can't be near them if they want to come down to drink water from the pond… Last year, we could never sit by the pond but this year they are nowhere in sight – I see lots of pigeons but they too are shy to come down – the only birds that come are the doves and sparrows…
Dates on the tree are green but slowly they will become ripe… The pecan nut tree is green and nuts and dates will soon attract the crows… We will wake up to their laughter and all birds will feed on the dates…
This Sunday I am home, last Saturday I was at Agios Athanasios for the funeral of `missing` Philipos Pantazis, brother of Vasilis – the remains of Philipos were found in Synchari…
As the remains of Philipos Pantazis were being taken inside the church, his sister Anthoulla cried out loud, `Oh! My brother!` and started crying and all of us started crying and could not stop throughout the funeral… It was such a cry from the heart, the sorrow, the loss, the love she had for him that it touched everyone's hearts… I had gone to the funeral with my husband and my dear friend Christina Pavlou Solomi Patsia whose father and brother are `missing` from Komi Kepir… She too would cry throughout the funeral and I would decide from now on, not to ask her to go with me because these funerals would really tear her heart apart…
This funeral was different because Vasilis did not invite any politicians on purpose and he would make a very critical speech about how politicians had been using the pain of the relatives of `missing persons`… Vasilis said in summary:
`With reverence and modesty we came to this sacred place to honour a hero and to express, simply and humanely, feelings of appreciation and gratitude for the sacrifice of the life of Philipos Pantazis on the altar of freedom of our country.
Philipos was not known. He became known with his sacrifice and heroism. He was a young man, simple, anonymous, a fiery young man with visions and ideals.
Facing his great love for his country he did not count his life so he went into Immortality. He left as a hero, and now from up there he is urging us all to walk the path of honour and duty, which he drew.
We feel very proud of you, our brother.
No, Philipos did not die. He lives and will always live in the history of this land. He lives and will always live in the blue skies of Cyprus.
Our beloved brother,
The gratitude of all of us belongs to you. Your honour and glory is recognized. You will live in our memories and in our life, eternal, pure, heroic, wonderful son and brother.
But there will always be a big question to us all: Why did all these had to happen? Why did no one deal with those who were lost for so many years?
The dead have the laurels, the missing have the wheres and whys on the bitter lips of their loved ones, the wounded and the prisoners the scars and the wounds…
All those who passed alive amongst molten iron and bullets, that heard painful whistling by taking the mortars, without ever bravo, are not looking for praise of poets, nor monuments at the entrances of military camps. They do not look for money, or medals, or favours from the absent state. The only thing they asked for, somewhere between the lines which were not written, the stories which were not said, is the truth. So that the coming generations will know it. So that it is a sign for tomorrow, those that will follow to avoid new betrayals, and the whys, the whys which are haunting their restless evenings in the fever of the nightmare and the wounds in the soul. The wounds which do not count as wounds of war. The whys, the unanswered whys of the tragedy.
The game of war is difficult. The uprooting of refugees bitter and heavy. Death even more bitter and heavy. But most bitter and heavy is the ignorance about the father, son, brother, your loved one.
I see all which they did not manage to live... We called them missing, while we knew that they are heroes. And we continue to forget it and live our lives indifferently, while each week we bury the remains of the bones of these heroes. Murdered by the Turks in 1974, we "murder" them also today with the now usual indifference of the Cypriot society and the Cypriot state.
We leave alone the elderly parents, if they did not leave with the grief, the siblings in front of a small box, which is too small to fit their sacrifice. We leave them alone in an almost empty church to attend in silence, accompanied by the unprecedented pain, the honours which a bankrupt state formally delivers, to listen to the wooden and meaningless language of the political obituaries and not words that heroes deserve…`
On the 23rd of August Saturday I will go to the funeral in Larnaka of another `missing person` one of my readers helped to find – we had gone to Lysi and had shown the place to the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee and when they exhumed, they found the remains of this Greek Cypriot `missing` person… And on Friday this week on the 15th of August, there will be the funeral of 34 `missing` Turkish Cypriots from Tochni – 32 of them from the first bus taken from Tochni to Palodia and killed and later buried in Gerasa and two of them `missing` from 1963-64 from Tochni – killed and buried in a well in Strovolos, Parisinos area… 34 funerals all at the same time in a special cemetery built for them and a museum where the remainder of their clothes will be exhibited… The funeral will be in Vouno and I cannot even conceptualize what sort of pain there will be on the outskirts of the Pentataktilos while the Turkish Cypriot relatives
would bury their `missing` in this new cemetery.
And on the 7th of September, I will go to another funeral in Aradippou, to bury the remains of the brother of Takis… We had gone twice to show to the officials of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee, his possible burial site close to the Saint Hilarion, on the mountains – Agios Pavlos Lapithou area… Finally they had exhumed the place we had shown and they found the remains of Giorgos Ttooulou, the brother of Takis… Giorgos was doing his military service and was about to finish on the 14th of September 1974… Then the war came and on the 20th of July 1974, on this spot we had come to at Agios Pavlos Lapithou he was killed as Turkish planes opened fire and a branch of a carob tree had hit his throat… One of his friends who was the son of a papaz had prayed and they had buried him where he had been killed.
Takis had never stopped searching for his brother and he had come at Agios Pavlos Lapithou many times to find the exact spot where he had been buried… And it was due to the efforts of Takis that the remains of his brother have been found…
40 years after his brother will come back to Aradippou, in a small coffin to be buried where he had been born… And I will go to lay flowers next to his coffin on the 7th of September in Aradippou…
A few weeks ago I went to see Takis and his wife in their home in Aradippou. His wife Eleni had cooked katimeri for me – everywhere were pictures of Giorgos… They had a lovely house and in the yard, another house, the house that had belonged to their mother… Their mother Theophania had waited for the return of Giorgos until the day she died in 1992, three years after her husband Stavros' death in 1989.
So the hot, painful, sorrowful summer continues but today is Sunday and I must rest in my garden, look at the trees, the flowers, the turtles, the cats and take some pleasure from life in order to get ready for more funerals coming up in the following weeks and months…

10.8.2014

Photo: The small coffin of Philippos Pantazis...

(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 24th of August, 2014 – Sunday.

Time for weddings and funerals…

Time for weddings and funerals…

Sevgul Uludag

caramel_cy@yahoo.com

Tel: 00 357 99 966518
00 90 542 853 8436

It is summer, it is blazing hot, it is time for holidays, weddings and funerals… It is time for reflection about the past and the future… Sitting in the centre of a hot sea, close to the Middle East while everything is practically burning, there is not much prospect for a starry future… All around us there is fire: Libya destroyed, Egypt destroyed, Palestine destroyed, Syria destroyed, Iraq destroyed, Lebanon destroyed – our geography in turmoil, tears and pain as death takes over all around us… The land of Aphrodite looks up towards new prospects of `gas and oil` but has it ever brought any happiness to anyone around us in this geography?
People have `theories` about how the `gas and oil` will bring about `a solution` and I certainly hope with all my heart that they should prove right… And yet, almost every week, I go to funerals nowadays, from Karpaz to Troulli to Limassol, to Larnaka… After a lapse of forty years, relatives of `missing` are burying their `missing persons` found in ditches and wells in Ornithi, in the shade of pine trees in Synchari or in makeshift shelters under the hot, burning soil of Messaoria… I go to weddings but weddings aren't enough to take away the sadness of the funerals of the `missing`… On the 15th of August 2014, Friday, we will have the funeral of a busload of `missing` from Tochni… More than 30 of them will be buried in Vouno, on the skirts of Pentataktilos… Soon there will be more remembrances, more tears, more bad memories from the past, our recent bloody past and I try to find a way out of this turmoil by reading, travelling, cooking,
watching crime serials and movies and playing with my cats and turtles…
I travel to Poland with a broken heart, terribly tired of the `Karagozi` games of politicians who seem to drag the `negotiations` for a `solution` that they see `fit` for us… I go with my husband to stay in a castle built in 1855, the hotel of one of our friends who had been inviting us all these years but we never managed to go until this summer when we decided to have a go at it… It is in Karnity, about two hours away from Gdansk or once upon a time Danzig where the Second World War started… The castle was built by an Englishman whose family probably had taken part in the Crusade and the land was taken by Crusaders to be passed on to that family… 1855: The castle saw the First World War, the Second World War and came to our days intact… Next to the castle our friend got flocks of deer, he has chicken, he plants his own potatoes, he has his own sheep and storks come to build their nests with their red beaks and legs on top of electric posts
and trees trimmed especially for them to accommodate their big nests… He has created a `survivor camp` type of game area and of course, there is the lake, just next to the castle and the horses…
We take walks in the forest where there is a small cemetery left over by the 19th century owners of the castle… I get close to the deer and feed them with fresh leaves… We sit by the lake while I read my books and we play creative, environmental card games with the grandchildren of our friend… We take a trip on canals connecting the lakes and on the boat as we pass through thousands of water lilies, we watch swan families and ducks and other birds and fish, enjoying the sun and the water…
On the terrace of the hotel, an old German couple arrives as it starts raining and we sit under the umbrellas drinking espresso and tea, talking. This whole area had belonged to Germans but after the Second World War, they were expelled from their homes… The old man tells me that his wife had been born here and had lived here until 1958 when they were forced to leave their homes… Now, every year, they come and rent a house and visit her birthplace, look at where she grew up, take long walks in the forest trying to capture memories that never left her heart… Even though she had been living in Germany for the past 56 years, her heart belongs here and she comes as often as she can to breathe the air and feel comfortable where she was born at… Germans have almost become extinct and we see that when we visit `The German House` in Ostroda – there are only 900 Germans left and `The German House` has German lessons for kids and they even have a
football team and they display their cups and medals proudly…
We move to Gdansk – Danzig – to explore city life leaving behind the so green forests and storks and deer to find a charming city that looks like Amsterdam… We walk in the streets, eat ice cream, cook chicken and read and all day long listen to street singers playing `The Four Seasons` of Vivaldi on the accordion or hard rock or heavy metal or romantic songs on Dluga Street… Dluga Street is elegant – the whole city was almost destroyed during the Second World War and rebuilt but we can still see remnants from the past… I try to heal my heart from the curse of our past and remedy the wounds by listening to the chime of the city clock with a melody, by watching the beautiful people of Poland and all the other countries walking down the street, discovering the Long Street and Billy's restaurant where they serve Humphrey Bogart Salad with Halloumi, watching the pirate ships pass by with tourists and buying souvenirs for our home and for our
friends – tiny ships in bottles, a beer opener in the shape of a sailor, a tiny seal smiling, silk scarves with rainbow colours, ladybugs jumping up and down, shot glasses with the seal of Danzig… Everywhere are flowers, flowers on balconies, flowers on lamp posts, flowers in street markets – we go to visit street markets where they sell meat, fish, chicken, clothes, shoes…
It is summer, holiday time, time for weddings and funerals… So we come back to more weddings and more funerals – my pain is nothing compared with the pain of the relatives of `missing` who are getting back the remains of their loved ones, arranging funerals, saying goodbye to them… Back in Cyprus, straight to work and meetings with relatives, investigating, visiting possible burial sites, going to funerals, laying flowers, trying to find a way to survive in this sticky heat with so many stories untold, so many stories exploited, so many stories that punch nails to my heart…

1.8.2014

Photo: The beautiful deer of Poland at the Castle Zamek Karnity where we stayed...

(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 17th of August 2014, Sunday.

Hopes of a woman in a wheelchair till the last moment…

Hopes of a woman in a wheelchair till the last moment…

Sevgul Uludag

caramel_cy@yahoo.com

Tel: 00 357 99 966518
00 90 542 853 8436

`I was always dreaming of my father and when I woke up, I would be shocked and sad that it had only been a dream… I was only 14 when he went `missing` and all the years I was growing up, I was seeing him in my dreams and waking up and realizing that it was just a dream would make me so sad… But then God sent me a son who is the spitting image of my father! I am so happy just watching him… My father was exactly like my son – the way he walked, the way he talked, the way he looked… I thank God for sending me this gift… At least I can console myself like this…
I remember when my father would get out of the bath and getting dressed, I would go and play with his arms, he was a very strong person… My mother would say `Leave your father alone to get dressed peacefully` but my father would say `No, let him stay and let us play…` I remember those moments…
My father was such a kind person, he was helping everyone whether they were Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots. You know this because you spoke to many Turkish Cypriots from our mixed village… And I wait and wait and wait – 40 years have passed and I still wait for his remains to be found…`
We drive on a dirt track climbing up a steep hill near Athienou as the son of a `missing` person tells me these things… There, up on the hill is a small church called Ayia Marina but the reason why we are here is not the church but the scenery from top of the hill – there is a mist so it is not very clear but despite this we can see the whole area at an angle of 360 degrees! We can see Larnaka and the Pentataktilos, we can see Athienou and Melousha and Archoz… There is no vegetation, no trees, only barren hills…
`I bring all my friends here to see the view` he explains…
The sun is setting and we must get back before it falls completely dark… We get in his car, my husband and I, to go back to his house – his wife has cooked and we sit down to eat as his friends arrive…
Earlier I was at a funeral, feeling sad and moved…
Now I am trying to unwind and relax under the stars as the breeze from the sea, not far away, comes to caress us and feel us a bit chilly…
At the funeral was a woman, the wife of a `missing` person, Maroula Plarkou who had been taken to the church in a wheelchair… She had waited and hoped till the last moment that her husband Andreas Plarkos would come back to her alive – the way he had gone from home… I have been speaking with her daughter Yiota for many years now and she had asked me not to publish anything in POLITIS but only in YENIDUZEN, the Turkish Cypriot newspaper because she feared for the health of her mother… We were searching for information about her father and I had found all the details about how he was kidnapped and taken to Assia to be killed there… I had written in YENIDUZEN and my readers had called to give details… I had gone to meet people from the area he had disappeared and had learnt more details and wrote it all up but only in Turkish, not in Greek, in case the woman in the wheelchair, Maroula would find out and would feel even more devastated… I
respected the decision of the family and had done all I could to trace the steps of those who had kidnapped him, finding out the names of the kidnappers and learning all the details…
His remains were found in an area one of my readers had shown us and now he was being returned to his family for burial…
The woman in the wheelchair is devastated and the church is fully packed. Nestoras Nestoros, the Greek Cypriot Member of the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee delivers a speech, talking about Andreas Plarkos…
We hear the speech of Yiota speaking to her father, now laying in a coffin… Although I cannot understand Greek, I understand almost every word she utters: She is speaking to her father that she has been missing for 40 years – it comes from her heart… She says:

"Our beloved father,
Words are too poor to describe our feelings.
The memories we have of the few years that God made us worthy to live with you are few, but only good and valuable for us. You were an exceptional father and husband and you only offered us love and affection.
How much you liked to take us to trips in Cyprus, to the sea, for swimming, to the cinema and even with you to work, the "arapouthkia" (dark kids – arapcikları) as you affectionately called us and how much we were enjoying all of these!
But it did not last for long. Suddenly, one day in September, 40 years ago, everything changed for us. We were lost and this was destined to be forever. We were expecting you to come back as always to our home, to hear your footsteps, your voice, but in vain. In our children's soul there was hope and expectation that soon you would return and the nightmare would end. So slowly we were growing, with the hope nested in our soul.
How much we would have liked to have you beside us during our school years but you were not! How much we would have liked to have you beside us at our wedding, the birth of our children, our joys and sorrows, the easy and the difficult, all these years, but you were not!
Daddy, how many years it has been since we said that word! How many years we were deprived of you! How many things we have not lived together! How much strength was necessary all these years, for mother, our mother, who from one moment to the next she became both mother and father. She stood next to us and we brought us up with the always undying hope of your return.
You did not meet your six grandchildren, dad, but they know so much about you, because we were talking to them about you, because they also always asked, wanting to know about you.
We learned and still learn about you, how good a man you were, how patriotic you were, how you loved relatives and friends, what a sociable man you were. Through our research, all these years we were learning that we are helping our fellow citizens in need. Not even our mother knew because you were this man who helped quietly.
We, you children, were always making efforts to clarify your fate through various ways, without our mother knowing, who always wanted to hope and did not even want to hear nor to experience what we are experiencing today. At this point it is worth thanking the Commission and the Office of Missing Persons, CMP, and Mr. Nestor Nestoros, its representative, our friend Katy Mangerdjian, the Team of the Anthropology Lab for the very human way they approached us, the National Guard, the friend of the family MEP Eleni Theocharous for their valuable contribution to our efforts, as well as the T/Cy journalist Sevgul Uludag who helped us in our efforts and who is with us today with her husband. Finally, we thank the parliamentarians, mayors, Chairman Committee on Defence and Education of the Parliament and all of you.
In all the difficulties we went through, relatives, uncles, aunts, cousins, stood by our side, by our mother, supported us and embraced us and we thank them wholeheartedly for what they offered us.
They are all here today, in your hometown, Troulloi that you so loved, relatives, friends, your godchildren, your acquaintances even from abroad (Nottingham, London), and who we thank, who with their presence commemorate you.
Thanks also to the muhtar of Troulloi, the Community Council of Troulloi and the church of Agios Mamas. We also thank the community of Livadia for their support all these years.
As for the few, those who occasionally tried to tarnish your memory, let God forgive them.
We thank God who has listened to our prayers and made us worthy to have you today, even after 40 years, even for the ultimate farewell, to honour you and to give you a funeral as you deserve, like every missing person deserves.
Our beloved father and husband,
your soul can now rest.
Be sure that from today your candle will burn and will remain lit, like the hope which kept you alive in our memories these 40 years. We are so proud of you!
Blessed is the path you are traveling today, which we were all travelling for 40 years.
Have a good trip! Long live your memory.
May the soil which will now cover you be light.
Your wife, your children, your grandchildren and all the relatives."

I go to lay flowers under his coffin and hug his children. I take the hand of the woman in the wheelchair, his wife, and speak to her… I go out and people come to say hello, to ask about their own `missing` persons.
We all live, love, eat, sleep, wake up, work, laugh and cry… We all feel sad and happy in different moments of our lives… We are all human after all, even though we don't acknowledge our humanitarian side and focus more on our ethnicity… We need to move away from this mentality and realize that we are only on this earth for less than 100 years and we will all go under the soil, we will all be buried, dead, lying in a coffin or wrapped in a sheet… If we can't find our humanity while on earth, when shall we find it?

26.7.2014

Photo: Maroulla Plarkhou at her husband's funeral...

(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 10th of August, 2014 Sunday.

Two psychologists speaking about `missing` persons…

Two psychologists speaking about `missing` persons…

Sevgul Uludag

caramel_cy@yahoo.com

Τel: 00 357 99 966518
00 90 542 853 8436

Two psychologists, one Turkish Cypriot and one Greek Cypriot from the Cyprus Missing Persons' Committee speak to Oncel Polili, a young lawyer and activist who wrote the report entitled `Human rights concerning `missing` persons and their families in north Cyprus`… Ziliha Uluboy who works with relatives of `missing` Turkish Cypriots and Katy Mangerdjian who works with relatives of `missing` Greek Cypriots talk of their experiences for the report prepared by the Turkish Cypriot Human Rights Foundation. This report, as well as ten other reports concerning different aspects of human rights were sponsored by the EU with a view of mapping human rights in the northern part of our island.
I know both of these psychologists, Ziliha and Katy and I want to share with you some of their observations about their work… You may read the full report at http://www.ktihv.org/index_ENG.htm
Ziliha Uluboy in summary says:
`The mourning period of someone who died forty years ago starts when the remains are found. Most of the families of the `missing` persons experienced forced migration. In addition to this, one or more members of their families disappeared. Naturally, the families are gravely affected by this situation. Particularly the older ones that happened to know the `missing` relative when he/she disappeared have been experiencing serious mental problems. Especially I often came across with the mental problems of parents, siblings and older children facing post-traumatic depression, stress disorder and somatisation and individuals had to live with these so many years without having any psychological support. Also, the children at a young age whose fathers disappeared have been experiencing psychological problems. The ones who were at a young age when their father or mother disappeared do not have any memories with them as they cannot remember them. They always
lived as if the `missing` person would always come. There are children of the `missing` persons who first saw their parents in the Anthropology Laboratory on the Green Line. They touched their father or mother for the first time, there. This issue is a traumatic situation. Other families say "I do not remember him/her like this" when they see the bones and this is another traumatic situation. However, on the other hand, this situation has beneficial aspects for the families of the `missing` persons in terms of reaching the truth partially. It is an important issue for them why, when and how the `missing` person was killed. The anthropologists of the C.M.P can give verbal information on the physical traumas during the time of death, such as; whether the person was shot, had a physical shock or buried with other people, so these can contribute to learning the truth to some extent and this can be beneficial. The process of finding the `missing` persons
being too long has increased the time of the traumatic period for the families of the `missing` persons. They could not mourn and reduce their trauma.
Particularly, the families of the `missing` persons whose families disappeared between 1963-1964 had great difficulties. The authorities provided little or no aid to those families. Although 11-12 years passed from 1963 to 1974, the families of the `missing` persons have never accepted their death. The division of the island in 1974 was a serious trauma for the families of the `missing` persons. The families migrated from their original houses and they had an opinion that the disappeared loved ones would not be able to find them if they returned there.
As most of the `missing` persons were men, I often observed that the children of the `missing` persons grew up being deprived of the father figure. However, they never accepted their father as dead. The children of the `missing` persons have always lived with the hope that their father would return. The children of the `missing` persons have experienced problems at school. Their friends were talking about their fathers or their fathers were taking them from the school. As I listened to one child of a `missing` person, he said that he was deeply influenced by the fact that when everyone was talking about their mothers or fathers on the first day of the school, he had nothing to say about his father.
Another child of a `missing` person was upset by the headmaster's unfair slap on him and he went to the headmaster and asked if he had a father would he slap him again? This indicates how this child was affected negatively… In my view, some children of the `missing` persons related all the negative experiences they had with the disappearance of their fathers. Another story that really affected me is the story of a child of the `missing` person who is 50 years now. He was interested in hunting and every time he went hunting he was wondering if his father was under that soil he was walking on and this feeling was affecting him deeply. This is a serious psychological trauma and it is really difficult to live with such a feeling.
A common story I have listened to from many children of the `missing` persons is that, as they were at a very young age when their mothers or fathers disappeared, they did not remember them and when someone passes by, they suspect if this person is their father or mother and they lived with that feeling for so many years. Not only the ones in Cyprus but also the ones who went to Turkey to study lived with that feeling.
The families of the `missing` persons have been deeply influenced by not being able to learn the truth. The authorities had to conduct investigations and inform them about the truth. The relatives of `missing` always question why they started searching and identifying the `missing` persons after such a long time and not much earlier…
In this period, the burial sites are being discovered, excavations are taking place and the identification of the `missing` persons is continuing. This is a pleasing situation for them.
However, after this process, they are expecting to learn the truth and the punishment of perpetrators. It is not enough to finish this issue in their lives just by the discovery of the `missing` persons. Some families of the `missing` persons know the name of the murderer and even know this person. However as nothing was done during all these years, they feel injustice and they do not feel safe psychologically.
The authorities have not been conducting any research for many years resulting in prolonged painful situations. Some family members died without ever finding that their families were found. Some family members are too old now and after such a long period, some old people quite simply cannot deal with finding their loved ones due to their old age.`
Psychologist Katy Mangerdjian dealing with the Greek Cypriot relatives of `missing` persons says in summary:
`The families of the `missing` persons have been facing post traumatic disorder, which is the outcome of their experience after all these years. After the notification that their relative is found their trauma comes to the surface after 37 years. The mourning period starts here, the trauma can manifest itself as nightmares, grief, sadness, stress and memories from those days. Viewing of the remains of their loved one is the peak of the grief and the emotional pain. This is not what they expected to see. Eventually, the funeral with the religion customs and rituals and the burial of the remains brings the closure of the whole situation. Only when a funeral takes place, hope of their loved one being alive, comes to an end. 4 years ago at the beginning of our work, it was very difficult for the families to accept that their loved ones were dead because we had no funerals or remains. However, after the families experience some realities such as funerals and
see the remains, people begin to realize that their loved one might be dead. It is very human to keep hope alive until the end. Sometimes we meet families that even after the funeral cannot believe that their loved ones had been found and that their agony of not knowing has come to an end.
Research found that, parents were affected the most, secondly the wives, children and finally siblings. Most of the wives did not get marry again, although the average age was 20 – 35 years old, as they carried a hope that their husbands were alive.
The children who were very young at the time of their mother's or father's disappearance were affected as deeply as the ones who remembered them and making it very difficult for them to accept. However, all of them admit to experiencing a feeling of emptiness. Furthermore, Greek Cypriot society had many orphans, resulting in these orphans were being stigmatized especially from school peers, who sometimes can become very cruel especially at a young age.
When the families of `missing` persons see the remains of their loved ones at the anthropological laboratory, they are in agony and they ask many questions such as "what information do you have about the circumstances he/she was last seen, was our relative tortured, was he captured alive, did he die immediately, who gave the information". Sometimes they can get answers to some of the questions. But most of the time they do not get answers because we do not have the information. In most of the cases, anthropologists can observe the physical traumas on the bones and how this trauma occurred.
They are angry about this and they want justice. I have seen very few people that have forgiven the murderers. When justice is not awarded people are cognitively imbalanced. I can feel for them, that they expect at least an apology. In other countries even after many years have passed, war criminals have been prosecuted in international courts. We have not seen something similar in our country…`

2.7.2014

Photo: Children were traumatized with the loss of their fathers or mothers...

(*) Article published in the POLITIS newspaper on the 3rd of August, 2014 Sunday.