the_snake_and_the_crane wrote:Oh yeah - and you still havent given me the dates and names of villages that were cleared of Turkish Cypriots by EOKA.
How aout these dates and names then Snake
Kikapu wrote:
The year is 1963, but I'm not really aware what time of the day it is, let alone the year, after all, I was only 8 years old. I don't remember too much about my childhood in Cyprus, but the things I do remember, are very vivid and real, so I will try to tell you what was Cyprus, my country was for me that I left 42 years ago, and have not returned since.
We lived in a small town called "Kücük Kaymakli" which I believe is some where, a little South of Nicosia, but within walking distance, since as a child, my brother who was 11, and my cousin who was around 17, (which actually acted as our older brother) we would walk often to Nicosia where my uncle had his own carpentry shop. We often imitated my uncle while he did his work, you know, picking up a piece of wood, and bringing it close to one eye while you closed the other, to see whether the wood was straight or not. My uncle would look at me with a grin on his face, as if to say, this kid is too much, like he knows what the heck he is doing. I remember, on one of our walks to the shop bringing my uncles lunch to him, in one of those food holders. It was a great design. It was made out of tin, that had about 4 or 5 tin containers where you can put various kinds of food into each can, then stack them on to each other, and then fasten them all together with a metal loop, that held all the cans together, to be carried by a handle. Anyway, on this one occasion, I found a £1 pound note, that had gotten stuck on some bushes, and upon arriving at my uncles shop, he told us that we can keep it and do what ever we wanted with it, so all three of us, bought kebabs and ayran ( yogurt drink ) and su mahallebi ( pudding with sugar and rose water ). We still had some change left over. That's when a £ was a £.
My school was not very far away from our home, just a short walk really, but I remember we had to wear a school uniform. It came only in black, much like the robe of a judge, and we had a white collar, in plastic or cloth, that was a separate piece, held by a button around your neck. I don't remember there ever being any Greek kids in our school, then again, as kids, we did not speak greek at all, but at home, all the grown ups were speaking Greek all the time, specially, when they did not want us kids to hear what they were talking about. I remember, in school, we were given bread and butter to eat and milk to drink during one of our brake times, since we went home to have lunch. We were told, that this food that was given to us, was sent by Kennedy. I had no idea who this person was, but we were told to be very appreciative of the fact, that this food was sent to us by this person. Well, few years later, I got to learn who Kennedy was, and maybe that's why I voted as a Democrat in the States, even though, I'm now living in Switzerland.
We did not have very much in our family. I was one of 6 kids, and fell second in line along with my twin sister. Actually, I felt like I was the 3rd child in line, since my twin sister was always taller than me until the age of 14, when I actually started to out grow her. I was always being teased, like, "we're going to have a hard time finding a wife for you" or being called a "mouse". That stuff really builds your confidence in life...not. We lived in 2 houses next to each other, that one can walk to one side or the other from the garden. Since my father was in the UK most of my childhood, and only on one occasion I remember being told that, "this is your father, go and give him a kiss". So I lived with my Grandmother, aunt and uncle, while my mother lived next door with the other five kids. It use to be a fashion to name your first born son after your grandfathers name, which got you a little extra attention and goodies over the other siblings, which I did. But my brother should have been named after my grandfather, except, the father of my 17 years old cousin died in some war before 1952, possibly Korea, so my brother was named after an uncle that we never met.......
In my little neighbourhood, we did not have very much to pass the time with, so as kids, we would go through dumsters and pick out parts of bicycles and put them all together to create a working bike. We would make our own kites from bamboo sticks, usually at a hexagon shape, but a large one. As for glue, we use to chew bread, and with the added saliva, we would attach the paper to the frame of the kite. It was amazing how well that stuff worked. Of course, playing with marbles was also good for passing time. for some reason, my uncle thought, playing with marbles was same as gambling, so we needed to hide the game from him. Collecting coke bottle caps was also big. But, for a kid at our age, the big thing was to be able to spin a "TOP", to see who can spin it the longest. In the evening, the kids from the neighbourhood, would come to the local cafe to watch TV. What ever was on, was always good fun, as the adults would play cards or Tavla.
I remember when the local yogurt maker would come by with a hand pulled wagon, and we would give him the empty clay bowl, and get a full one from him. Then there was the local bakery, which we would buy the classical Cypriot round shaped bread from him, cooked in the classical oven build from bricks. On the weekends, the locals would prepare their patatoes and meat in a oven pan, and bring it to the baker, for few pennies would cook your food for you, and then we would pick it up to take it back to the house for our meal. I can still smell the hot breads and the oven foods even now. I have not tasted tamatoes or a good watermelon since those days. And of course, going to the beach once in a while was also a great treat for us. This was my world as a 8 year old kid that did not have any other concerns, and time was of no importance. But all this would change literally over night. Come tomorrow, I would enter a new world that I was not familiar with, and what I had the last 8 years would be taken away from me for the reasons I did not know.
As usual, we woke up to have our breakfast, and my uncle prepared to go to his Carpentry shop in the city center, then came the news that 2 men were shot dead and that there were a lot of concerns as to what may happen.Then a family member came looking for their son-in-law that was taken away by Greek policemen during the night, and were very concerned for him. He had just gotten married 4 months ago to a cousin and she was already 3 month pregnant. My uncle decided to go to the city center to find out what was going on. Pretty soon we could hear gunshots from different directions. The sound of gunshot did not frighten me really, since I have heard them before, when the locals one time went around and shot every street dog that did not have a collar on, due to their aggresiveness towards people. The gun shots were getting closer and louder. All the family gathered together, and then we all went to next door to join another family in their house. By now, there must have been at least 20 young and old in one room waiting to see what was going to happen.
After a while, one male adult in the group said to my 17 year old cousin, " why don't you go out there and see who the troops are. Perhaps they are Turkish, in which case we can all come out". So my cousin went to see who was marching down the street. As any war movie you may have seen, where families gather in a room and the adults tell the kids to keep quite and don't make a sound. Half of the family there were only kids. After a short time went by since my cousin letf us, we heard footsteps come towards the door that we were all hiding behind. Then the door opened by my cousin with afright on his face, follew by several Greek soilders behind him. They asked if there were any weapons in the room, which the man said that he had a shotgun under the mattress, in which it was taken away from him. We were told to come out of the room and were lead away to a place where there were other people waiting guarded by soilders. We were there for awhile, until several dump trucks drove up, and we were told to get on.
I really cannot remember how far we were driven, but eventually, we came to a large building, that some people knew that it was a university. Once inside the building and lead into the court yard, there were other Turkish Cypriots there. They announced for all the men to move to one side, and as they did, I started walking in their direction, when my mother pulled me back by my collar, as if to say, "where the hell are you going". I just thought all men meant all males. The way kids think sometimes is amazing....
The university building that we were "prisoned" in had a 2-3 story building on one side of the court yard, while it had a one level building adjacent to it. The men were kept in the tall building, while women and children were kept in the ground floor building. It was more like a assembly hall, or a lunch room hall. Everybody were just sleeping on the floor with what ever blankets that were given to us. I came to learn later, that there were in total about 700 people that were kept as "prisoners" at the university. Given the size of my family, that would have made us about 1.5% of the people there.
As you can imagine, there was no privacy. Actually, there were no free space between you and the next person on the floor. During the day time we were free to roam around the court yard, but there really wasn't very much to do. Women cooked food on an open fire that were provided by the soldiers that were guarding us. My mother would tell me to go and visit my 17 year old cousin who was kept with the man in the main building. The main building basicly had the class rooms, so the men were spread out in different rooms. I often did visit my cousin, and I did not notice any concerns on his part. There were some man who were joking by saying, that they have finally attended a university and laughed about it. But the men were not allowed to come down to the court yard.
In the court yard, it was always busy with women cooking and washing what ever little clothes we had. Kids were everywhere, just running around and playing various games that did not involve anything other than their imagination, as how to pass the time. For me, I could not understand why we were there. Only yesterday we were at our home, and now we were sleeping on the flor in some strange place. I did not think in terms of being in a bad place, since I did not see any fear from anyone. There were a lot of talking, but non of it made any sense to the kids.
Then few days later, there were talks of us being returned back to our homes, so there were a lot of happy faces, but it took another day or two, until we saw many dump trucks escorted by military jeeps. I suspect, it was the UN military force that came to take us away from there. By early afternoon, all the trucks were full with all of the 700 people that were held as "prisoner" for one week, and were driving in a convoy of many trucks.
After couple of hours later, we found our selves in part of Nicosia that was vaguely familiar to me, in which there were thousands of people waiting for our arrival. There were a lot cheering and crying going on at the same time. It was almost like a football champions being driven through a emotional crowd. I didn't understand why these people were there, until I saw my uncle who came to look for us. Obviously, all the rest were there to "claim" their families. No body had any idea who would be arriving on the trucks, other than about 700 men, women and children. There was no name list, so for all those that had a relatives that was taken away at the point of a gun, had come to find their love ones.Well sadly, not all those that were missing were on the trucks, so there were a lot of emotional and upset people, that their fears of their love one's well being were getting worried. There were some false reports that there would be more trucks coming soon. I don't know if any more came that day, or ever.
My pregnant cousins husband was not amongst the returning trucks, and neither were many other men that had gone missing while we were kept as "prisoners". In fact he has never surfaced, and the cousin had a child without his father. She eventually accepted his doomed faith and moved on with her life and got remarried few years later. I have not seen her since.
My uncle took me and my grandmother and the 17 year old cousin to a house were there were relatives there. These relatives were living in their home in "Buyuk Kaymakli" which we visited often. They had a much nicer home than ours and there was always a treat waiting for us to eat. What else does a kid care more about than some food and sweets. As I told Issy1956, the two Kaymakli's were next to each other, so it was a short walk between the two. The relatives in their new sorroundings were very determined to know what has happened to their house in Buyuk Kaymakli, so once again, my 17 year old cousin was sent on a mission to find out. Well, he returned few hours later, unable to say the words directly to the relatives, which they started to cry . They must have heard the rumours about Turkish homes being burned in BK, and when my cousin told them that has happened also to their house, just like Issy1956 house.
I don't know where my mother and the 5 siblings went after arriving with the trucks. Then soon after we were freed, all the boys were gathered together, on a heliport with a giant military helicopter nearby, as if it was a field hospital, much like M*A*S*H , and we were all made to lay on a gurney, or some kind of a simple bed, and wearing nothing but a gown. It was a mass circumcision was to be performed on us, and they did. We had all gotten "clipped". It was a painful experience, where we had to walk around only wearing this gown for the next several days.
Now, I was staying with my mother and the siblings in another building were it was crowded with people, sleeping on insect infested, and urine stained mattresses. They would come and spray DDT to kill the insects. That stuff has been banned from most developed countries today, due to their harmful side effects. Then people were talking of the horrible things that has happened to other people. In one case, where a mother and her children were murdered in cold blood in their bath tab one of the Kaymakli's. There was a picture showing the dead bodies in a blood stained bathtub walls. Even till today, when ever I think of these people being killed in the bathtub, I seem to focus on a particular house that was on the way to my school. I don't know if that was the house where the murders took place or not, but I seem to get drawn to it. Then there was a case where soldiers put a bottle inside a woman, then broke the bottle just for the fun of it, and onother case, where, soldiers came to an old mans house, where upon entering his house, he stabbed one of them in the heart with a sish kebab skew, in which he was be-headed and left in a field.
Eventually, myself and my grandmother were sleeping in my uncles carpentrys storage room, which was very small, while my uncle slept in the shop itself. The shop was only about 100-200 feet from what was now a barrier between the TC's and the GC's. There were soldiers who would guard the division behing sand bags. Now and again you would hear a shot or two. One day, there were few soldiers running after a man, that run into the GC's side, the the TC's were upset with themselves, how this person managed to escape to the Greek side. They were debating why wasn't this person shot while running away. My grandmother would often curse the Greeks to Allah, as how could they do this to us. She curesed them till she died several years later.
I did not see my mother or my siblings that much anymore. They lived in a very ran down building with very little inside. My mother was working by cooking for the Turkish soldiers. On daily bases, we would go with our ration cards to get some food from a food centre. We would try to get what ever we could, from food to anything to wear. It was a far distant memory from only short time before, we could have gone to a covered market place in Nicosia, where there were so much food, and we could have what ever we wanted, but now, we were rationed.
By summer of 1964, my granmother and me were sent to live with my aunt in Ankara for 2 years, and by 1966, we went to live with my father and another aunt in London. My twin sister and older brother also arrived in London from Cyprus in 1966, but it wasn't until 1968, when my mother and the younger 3 sisters came to London. At age 11, I began my new life in the UK, and as they say in the movies, the rest is history.
I only saw my uncle twice after 1964, and he died many years later alone in his shop, but wasn't discovered until 3 months later. We send mum to Cyprus once a year to see who ever is left in her family. As for me, I really had no desires to go back to Cyprus, my birthplace that caused so my distruption to my childhood. But for me, if there was ever an unforgettable moment, has to be the moment, when the Greek soldiers came into the room, where we were all hiding. I would like to think, we were discovered by Cypriot soldiers that wanted to protect us from evil soldiers as not to be remembered like the family in the bath tub, and for this I will forever be greatful for their protection.
The last paragraph seems to gotten to me emotionally, so its best I stop right here. This is just one story of what the cyprus problem meant for me. I can honestly say, that I do not curse or hate anyone going back to 1963. I have moved on, and I hope you will also.
