Cyprus-Forum.com

[denizaksulu]

TURKS MARTYRED IN 1963 (Kaymaklı )

Name (Age) Place Date
Ali Osman (53) Kucukkaymaklı / Lefkoşa 31.12.1963
Ahmet Kara Ali (50) Kucukkaymaklı / Lefkoşa 25.12.1963
Osman Hudaverdi (33) Kucukkaymaklı / Lefkoşa 25.12.1963
Seyit Huseyin (37) Kucukkaymaklı / Lefkoşa 27.12.1963
Ali Mehmet (24) Kucukkaymaklı / Lefkoşa 27.12.1963
Turgut Hasan (23) Kucukkaymaklı / Lefkoşa 27.12.1963
Hasan Husnu (40) Kucukkaymaklı / Lefkoşa 26.12.1963
Osman Cevdet (45) Kucukkaymaklı / Lefkoşa 26.12.1963
Şukru Şevki (44) Kucukkaymaklı / Lefkoşa 26.12.1963
Hasan Huseyin Cinko (23) Kucukkaymaklı / Lefkoşa 27.12.1963
Huseyin Mehmet Emin (22) Kucukkaymaklı / Lefkoşa 29.12.1963
İsmail Mustafa( 28 )Kucukkaymaklı / Lefkoşa 29.12.1963
Turgut Fahri (24) Kucukkaymaklı / Lefkoşa 29.12.1963
Kemal Ahmet Koccino (45) Kucukkaymaklı / Lefkoşa 26.12.1963
İrfan Mehmet (24) Kucukkaymaklı / Lefkoşa 26.12.1963
Omer Hasan Debreli (46) Kucukkaymaklı / Lefkoşa 26.12.1963
İbrahim Ahmet (60) Kucukkaymaklı / Lefkoşa 29.12.1963
Osman Derviş (50) Kucukkaymaklı / Lefkoşa 26.12.1963
Şukru Tevfik (39) Kucukkaymaklı / Lefkoşa 30.12.1963
Sezai Nidai (23) Kucukkaymaklı / Lefkoşa 31.12.1963
Cemal Huseyin Arifoğlu (26) Kucukkaymaklı / Lefkoşa 31.12.1963
Erdem Mehmet (24) Kucukkaymaklı / Lefkoşa 26.12.1963
Munur Yusuf (29) Kucukkaymaklı / Lefkoşa 27.12.1963
Huseyin Mustafa Vreccalı (39) Kucukkaymaklı / Lefkoşa 27.12.1963


MAHI (Publishing in South Cyprus)

31.12.2005


SAMPSON’S ATTACK ON KUCUK KAYMAKLI (Summary)


"In 1963, attack on Kucuk Kaymakli was an example of heroism. During that period, Turks saw Sampson as a charming revenger whom nobody could stand against. Even the simple expression of his name used to create panic amongst the Turks. Armed Turks living in Kucuk Kaymakli used to shout, "Sampson is coming" and left their position in panic and move towards northern parts of Nicosia.

Despite Sampson used to fight with older weapons and armors; with bulldozers and attack with slow-motion tracks full of sandbags, the situation was like this. Sandbags were used to set up small windows and very small amount of men used to count the bullets one by one and fire them with automatic guns.

"THERE WAS ONLY ONE SLOGAN: TURKS TO THE SEA"

Hellenic part of Cyprus was in a period where the only slogan amongst its leadership and people was ‘Turks to the sea’...And under these conditions; without being aware of how the results would affect the whole process of Cyprus state, many Cyprus Hellenics especially the ones in Kaymakli-Kucuk Kaymakli-Kizilbas-Yenisehir, used to applaud those who had the courage to get involved in the war for protecting Cyprus Republic from the extremist Turkish Cypriot Leadership.

In order to understand under which conditions Kucuk Kaymakli operation was made, we should go back to 40 years earlier, right after the proclamation of the Cyprus Republic in 1960. This period was a period which was resembled to be ‘a divorced couple who live in the same house" by a foreign journalist.

Halil,

Do you have the rest of the story, or is this all there is. Please post the rest, if you have them.

Thanks.

İ am afraid i don't have rest of the story . My wive and her families are from Hamitmandrez and Kaymaklı . They have lot's of saying and bad memories . As deniz say's at his below writing Lets pray and we can't Have those terible days again . You might get confuse with me again Kikapu. My anger is GC's are always showing that things are started at 74. Which is not true as we all know. Some of them excepts it but their policies are what ever happened in Cyprus just started with Turkish İnvation . İ am strongly against this theory.

You are the people that you can write your own stories what has happened in Kaymakli.

Some of them from web:
Daily Mail, 10.1.64
Several Turkish homes were ablaze tonight in the Omorphita area of Nicosia, and others were looted by Greek irregulars. This has brought new tension to the situation.


Kyle notes “there is no doubt that the main victims of the numerous incidents that took place during the next few months were Turks”. 700 Turkish hostages, including women and children, were taken from the northern suburbs of Nicosia. Nikos Sampson led a group of Greek Cypriot irregulars into the mixed suburb of Omorphita and massacred the Turkish Cypriot population indiscriminately[By 1964, 193 Turkish Cypriots and 133 Greek Cypriots were killed, with a further 209 Turks and 41 Greeks missing, presumed dead. The British Daily Telegraph called it the "anti Turkish pogrom.

“The Imam of Omorphita and his paralysed blind son were found today murdered in their beds in Nicosia. Turks returning to Omorphita suburb under British escort found the 75 year old priest. Huseyin Igneci riddled with machine - gun bullets.
Bernard Jordan Daily Mail 3 -1 – 1964

I live in the area of Chaglayan which is close to the Famagusta Gate, Ayios Kasianos and Omorphita… In 1963, I was only five years old when barricades were buing built… We had a construction in our house and had lots of sand - I remember soldiers coming to fill bags with this sand and creating makeshift barricades to divide the city of Nicosia… Bullets were being fired and one night towards midnight soldiers knocked on our doors to tell us `to leave immediately`… We went inside the walled city to find a `safer place` away from our homes… To live in a room for some months with 25 other persons… To sleep on the floor… Of course I could not sleep, I was too frightened… I missed the garden I grew up in, my cat Ugur (Lucky), my toys… I couldn't tolerate darkness because of gunfire. I didn't want to close my eyes…

İn one street in omrphite all the misery of war was on view in the deserted bullet-riddled home of MR and MRS MENTES.The place was ransacked.the walls were scored with bullet holes.i picked up a bullet shattered memory of happier day their wedding potrait on a table nearby lay a tiny doll , in a bedroom bullets hat shattered a cot but there was no trace of the Mentes family.What happened to them perhaps they die, perhaps they live. Daily HERALD 31-12-1963

Also I know Kikapu GC's had this kind of the things . Like you had it during your childhood. May be you or Deniz knows Mentes family .Are they in Live ?

What I belive is Cyprus problem is not the Who is occuping who is land or properties . It is more than that .

Sorry Halil. Until 1963, I had not much knowledge of Omorphita, K.Kaymakli or Hamit Mandrez. However I lived in the Neapolis/Yenisheir area for three years, which bordered on to Kaymakli. I did also know a lot of classmates from the areas. Most of the 'band' members were from Kaymakli.

Personally I only knew Huseyin Ruso (our PT teacher). Missing since then.
And the Yogurt maker. Thats all.

[halil]

İ know Ruso's and Yogurtcu families .
one of the secondary school in Nicosia carries Ruso's name. It is called Şehit HÜSEYİN RUSO ORTAOKULU.
His name will be forever.School is in the yenisehir.
Also street names , stadium are nominated for his name. like :Sht Huseyin Ruso Cad., K.Kaymakli. Lefkosa.
Lefkoşa Şehit Hüseyin Ruso Stadyumu.
BUT what do you think about below article published one of the Turkish papers.Don't you think it shows that we don't teach hate or bad things in our schools or something else is behind this.

The forgotten cost
Friday, December 7, 2007

A must-read book from Kilercioğlu, a retired general and a former minister who devoted a large portion of his life to the Turkish Cypriot people.

Orhan Kilercioğlu, a retired general who was involved in the planning of the 1974 Cyprus intervention of Turkey, who served on the island as a commander and who as a minister helped Turkish Cypriots build their state in northern Cyprus stone by stone, wrote a book on the Turkish Cypriot struggle: “The Forgotten Cost: The Painful and Courageous Years of the Turkish Cypriot people.”

It was difficult to stop reading it... It was not just a book providing an in-depth account of the struggle of the Turkish Cypriot people against a systematic campaign of annihilation. It was as well reminding the post-1974 generations in northern Cyprus of the heroic episodes of their history, the devotion of their fathers to the defense of honor, pride and status of the Turkish Cypriot people and under what conditions that brave struggle was waged.

One may, of course, share the personal assessments of the writer or may discard them for being “obsessive,” but the story of Turkish Cypriot struggle was penned in such excellence by Kilercioğlu that perhaps after the famous “30 Hot Days” written by Mehmet Ali Birand about the 1974 Turkish intervention of Cyprus, this is the best “personal account” I have read on the Cyprus issue.

A few years ago, during the heated debates in both Greek Cypriot southern Cyprus and Turkish Cypriot northern Cyprus on the failed United Nations peace plan – the so-called Annan plan – I noticed with great frustration how severely the Turkish Cypriot Education Ministry ignored teaching students in secondary schools the history of the island. I was walking through the front yard of the Şehit Hüseyin Ruso high school and some schoolchildren were playing and waiting for the school bell to ring. I approached the group and asked one of the kids, “Who was Şehit Hüseyin Ruso?” The boy was annoyed of me for asking him such a difficult question. “A martyr...” he said. “That's obvious from his name, but who was he?” I asked again. “Must have been a student here, or perhaps was teaching here when he was fallen... That's why perhaps they named this school after him...” he said.


Appalling education system

I asked the same question to some ten students in that garden that day before I was stopped by an annoyed schoolteacher who asked me leave. None of the kids were able to name the person their school named after. Before leaving the school, I asked the same question to the teacher who was annoyed with my presence there. His answer was appalling. “You fascists are trying to make young people feel hatred against Greek Cypriots. Whoever he was, he is long gone... We have to look into the future now rather than teaching our students what happened at one time in history?”
Hüseyin Ruso was indeed a teacher who sacrificed on December 22, 1963 his life trying not to allow advancing Greek Cypriot EOKA hordes cross a bridge into the Küçük Kaymaklı area of the Turkish quarter of Nicosia... He lost his life but, as did many other brave Turkish Cypriot freedom fighters defending their posts to the death, helped thousands of people escape to safer areas and thus in a way saved their lives...
Reading Kilercioğlu's “The Forgotten Cost,” I remembered not only Ruso, but as well my dear friend Hüseyin Aşkar who replaced me on early morning duty to collect weapons and ammunition that were parachuted outside Gönyeli – a village just outside Nicosia on the way to Kyrenia. I recalled how on that second day of the 1974 Turkish intervention we picked up the remains of his body scattered all around in a field along with the impact of explosion of a box of ammunition hit by a Greek Cypriot fired bullet.

In the “The Forgotten Cost” by Kilercioğlu the story of not only the Turkish Cypriot Resistance Movement (TMT), its conversion into the Turkish Cypriot Security Command, but also a history of the political organization of Turkish Cypriots can be found as well.

Naturally one cannot expect today's young generation who has no idea about the hero their school was named after to know Necati Özkan, Burhan Nalbantoğlu, Mehmet Remzi (Okan), Kemal Tanrısever, Mehmet Zekai, Fadıl Korkut, Osman Örek and others who devoted their lives like Dr. Fazıl Küçük, Rauf Denktaş to the Turkish Cypriot cause.

Only with books like Birand's “30 Hot Days” and Kilercioğlu's “The Forgotten Cost” new Turkish Cypriot generations may perhaps learn with what cost they now have a secure and free atmosphere in their country.

[denizaksulu]

İ know Ruso's and Yogurtcu families .
one of the secondary school in Nicosia carries Ruso's name. It is called Şehit HÜSEYİN RUSO ORTAOKULU.
His name will be forever.School is in the yenisehir.
Also street names , stadium are nominated for his name. like :Sht Huseyin Ruso Cad., K.Kaymakli. Lefkosa.
Lefkoşa Şehit Hüseyin Ruso Stadyumu.
BUT what do you think about below article published one of the Turkish papers.Don't you think it shows that we don't teach hate or bad things in our schools or something else is behind this.

The forgotten cost
Friday, December 7, 2007

A must-read book from Kilercioğlu, a retired general and a former minister who devoted a large portion of his life to the Turkish Cypriot people.

Orhan Kilercioğlu, a retired general who was involved in the planning of the 1974 Cyprus intervention of Turkey, who served on the island as a commander and who as a minister helped Turkish Cypriots build their state in northern Cyprus stone by stone, wrote a book on the Turkish Cypriot struggle: “The Forgotten Cost: The Painful and Courageous Years of the Turkish Cypriot people.”

It was difficult to stop reading it... It was not just a book providing an in-depth account of the struggle of the Turkish Cypriot people against a systematic campaign of annihilation. It was as well reminding the post-1974 generations in northern Cyprus of the heroic episodes of their history, the devotion of their fathers to the defense of honor, pride and status of the Turkish Cypriot people and under what conditions that brave struggle was waged.

One may, of course, share the personal assessments of the writer or may discard them for being “obsessive,” but the story of Turkish Cypriot struggle was penned in such excellence by Kilercioğlu that perhaps after the famous “30 Hot Days” written by Mehmet Ali Birand about the 1974 Turkish intervention of Cyprus, this is the best “personal account” I have read on the Cyprus issue.

A few years ago, during the heated debates in both Greek Cypriot southern Cyprus and Turkish Cypriot northern Cyprus on the failed United Nations peace plan – the so-called Annan plan – I noticed with great frustration how severely the Turkish Cypriot Education Ministry ignored teaching students in secondary schools the history of the island. I was walking through the front yard of the Şehit Hüseyin Ruso high school and some schoolchildren were playing and waiting for the school bell to ring. I approached the group and asked one of the kids, “Who was Şehit Hüseyin Ruso?” The boy was annoyed of me for asking him such a difficult question. “A martyr...” he said. “That's obvious from his name, but who was he?” I asked again. “Must have been a student here, or perhaps was teaching here when he was fallen... That's why perhaps they named this school after him...” he said.


Appalling education system

I asked the same question to some ten students in that garden that day before I was stopped by an annoyed schoolteacher who asked me leave. None of the kids were able to name the person their school named after. Before leaving the school, I asked the same question to the teacher who was annoyed with my presence there. His answer was appalling. “You fascists are trying to make young people feel hatred against Greek Cypriots. Whoever he was, he is long gone... We have to look into the future now rather than teaching our students what happened at one time in history?”
Hüseyin Ruso was indeed a teacher who sacrificed on December 22, 1963 his life trying not to allow advancing Greek Cypriot EOKA hordes cross a bridge into the Küçük Kaymaklı area of the Turkish quarter of Nicosia... He lost his life but, as did many other brave Turkish Cypriot freedom fighters defending their posts to the death, helped thousands of people escape to safer areas and thus in a way saved their lives...
Reading Kilercioğlu's “The Forgotten Cost,” I remembered not only Ruso, but as well my dear friend Hüseyin Aşkar who replaced me on early morning duty to collect weapons and ammunition that were parachuted outside Gönyeli – a village just outside Nicosia on the way to Kyrenia. I recalled how on that second day of the 1974 Turkish intervention we picked up the remains of his body scattered all around in a field along with the impact of explosion of a box of ammunition hit by a Greek Cypriot fired bullet.

In the “The Forgotten Cost” by Kilercioğlu the story of not only the Turkish Cypriot Resistance Movement (TMT), its conversion into the Turkish Cypriot Security Command, but also a history of the political organization of Turkish Cypriots can be found as well.

Naturally one cannot expect today's young generation who has no idea about the hero their school was named after to know Necati Özkan, Burhan Nalbantoğlu, Mehmet Remzi (Okan), Kemal Tanrısever, Mehmet Zekai, Fadıl Korkut, Osman Örek and others who devoted their lives like Dr. Fazıl Küçük, Rauf Denktaş to the Turkish Cypriot cause.

Only with books like Birand's “30 Hot Days” and Kilercioğlu's “The Forgotten Cost” new Turkish Cypriot generations may perhaps learn with what cost they now have a secure and free atmosphere in their country.

Thanks Halil. I am aware of the immortilising of Ruso's name. As to the education in the schools, the History of Cyprus is still being written.

As for teaching hatred, as far as I know, nowhere was hatred taught in our schools.

[halil]

İ know Ruso's and Yogurtcu families .
one of the secondary school in Nicosia carries Ruso's name. It is called Şehit HÜSEYİN RUSO ORTAOKULU.
His name will be forever.School is in the yenisehir.
Also street names , stadium are nominated for his name. like :Sht Huseyin Ruso Cad., K.Kaymakli. Lefkosa.
Lefkoşa Şehit Hüseyin Ruso Stadyumu.
BUT what do you think about below article published one of the Turkish papers.Don't you think it shows that we don't teach hate or bad things in our schools or something else is behind this.

The forgotten cost
Friday, December 7, 2007

A must-read book from Kilercioğlu, a retired general and a former minister who devoted a large portion of his life to the Turkish Cypriot people.

Orhan Kilercioğlu, a retired general who was involved in the planning of the 1974 Cyprus intervention of Turkey, who served on the island as a commander and who as a minister helped Turkish Cypriots build their state in northern Cyprus stone by stone, wrote a book on the Turkish Cypriot struggle: “The Forgotten Cost: The Painful and Courageous Years of the Turkish Cypriot people.”

It was difficult to stop reading it... It was not just a book providing an in-depth account of the struggle of the Turkish Cypriot people against a systematic campaign of annihilation. It was as well reminding the post-1974 generations in northern Cyprus of the heroic episodes of their history, the devotion of their fathers to the defense of honor, pride and status of the Turkish Cypriot people and under what conditions that brave struggle was waged.

One may, of course, share the personal assessments of the writer or may discard them for being “obsessive,” but the story of Turkish Cypriot struggle was penned in such excellence by Kilercioğlu that perhaps after the famous “30 Hot Days” written by Mehmet Ali Birand about the 1974 Turkish intervention of Cyprus, this is the best “personal account” I have read on the Cyprus issue.

A few years ago, during the heated debates in both Greek Cypriot southern Cyprus and Turkish Cypriot northern Cyprus on the failed United Nations peace plan – the so-called Annan plan – I noticed with great frustration how severely the Turkish Cypriot Education Ministry ignored teaching students in secondary schools the history of the island. I was walking through the front yard of the Şehit Hüseyin Ruso high school and some schoolchildren were playing and waiting for the school bell to ring. I approached the group and asked one of the kids, “Who was Şehit Hüseyin Ruso?” The boy was annoyed of me for asking him such a difficult question. “A martyr...” he said. “That's obvious from his name, but who was he?” I asked again. “Must have been a student here, or perhaps was teaching here when he was fallen... That's why perhaps they named this school after him...” he said.


Appalling education system

I asked the same question to some ten students in that garden that day before I was stopped by an annoyed schoolteacher who asked me leave. None of the kids were able to name the person their school named after. Before leaving the school, I asked the same question to the teacher who was annoyed with my presence there. His answer was appalling. “You fascists are trying to make young people feel hatred against Greek Cypriots. Whoever he was, he is long gone... We have to look into the future now rather than teaching our students what happened at one time in history?”
Hüseyin Ruso was indeed a teacher who sacrificed on December 22, 1963 his life trying not to allow advancing Greek Cypriot EOKA hordes cross a bridge into the Küçük Kaymaklı area of the Turkish quarter of Nicosia... He lost his life but, as did many other brave Turkish Cypriot freedom fighters defending their posts to the death, helped thousands of people escape to safer areas and thus in a way saved their lives...
Reading Kilercioğlu's “The Forgotten Cost,” I remembered not only Ruso, but as well my dear friend Hüseyin Aşkar who replaced me on early morning duty to collect weapons and ammunition that were parachuted outside Gönyeli – a village just outside Nicosia on the way to Kyrenia. I recalled how on that second day of the 1974 Turkish intervention we picked up the remains of his body scattered all around in a field along with the impact of explosion of a box of ammunition hit by a Greek Cypriot fired bullet.

In the “The Forgotten Cost” by Kilercioğlu the story of not only the Turkish Cypriot Resistance Movement (TMT), its conversion into the Turkish Cypriot Security Command, but also a history of the political organization of Turkish Cypriots can be found as well.

Naturally one cannot expect today's young generation who has no idea about the hero their school was named after to know Necati Özkan, Burhan Nalbantoğlu, Mehmet Remzi (Okan), Kemal Tanrısever, Mehmet Zekai, Fadıl Korkut, Osman Örek and others who devoted their lives like Dr. Fazıl Küçük, Rauf Denktaş to the Turkish Cypriot cause.

Only with books like Birand's “30 Hot Days” and Kilercioğlu's “The Forgotten Cost” new Turkish Cypriot generations may perhaps learn with what cost they now have a secure and free atmosphere in their country.

Thanks Halil. I am aware of the immortilising of Ruso's name. As to the education in the schools, the History of Cyprus is still being written.

As for teaching hatred, as far as I know, nowhere was hatred taught in our schools.

Deniz,
at below link u can find web page of the national education history books about Cyprus History. Read it and make your comments please.It is in Turkish.
http://www.mebnet.net/Kitaplar/

[denizaksulu]

İ know Ruso's and Yogurtcu families .
one of the secondary school in Nicosia carries Ruso's name. It is called Şehit HÜSEYİN RUSO ORTAOKULU.
His name will be forever.School is in the yenisehir.
Also street names , stadium are nominated for his name. like :Sht Huseyin Ruso Cad., K.Kaymakli. Lefkosa.
Lefkoşa Şehit Hüseyin Ruso Stadyumu.
BUT what do you think about below article published one of the Turkish papers.Don't you think it shows that we don't teach hate or bad things in our schools or something else is behind this.

The forgotten cost
Friday, December 7, 2007

A must-read book from Kilercioğlu, a retired general and a former minister who devoted a large portion of his life to the Turkish Cypriot people.

Orhan Kilercioğlu, a retired general who was involved in the planning of the 1974 Cyprus intervention of Turkey, who served on the island as a commander and who as a minister helped Turkish Cypriots build their state in northern Cyprus stone by stone, wrote a book on the Turkish Cypriot struggle: “The Forgotten Cost: The Painful and Courageous Years of the Turkish Cypriot people.”

It was difficult to stop reading it... It was not just a book providing an in-depth account of the struggle of the Turkish Cypriot people against a systematic campaign of annihilation. It was as well reminding the post-1974 generations in northern Cyprus of the heroic episodes of their history, the devotion of their fathers to the defense of honor, pride and status of the Turkish Cypriot people and under what conditions that brave struggle was waged.

One may, of course, share the personal assessments of the writer or may discard them for being “obsessive,” but the story of Turkish Cypriot struggle was penned in such excellence by Kilercioğlu that perhaps after the famous “30 Hot Days” written by Mehmet Ali Birand about the 1974 Turkish intervention of Cyprus, this is the best “personal account” I have read on the Cyprus issue.

A few years ago, during the heated debates in both Greek Cypriot southern Cyprus and Turkish Cypriot northern Cyprus on the failed United Nations peace plan – the so-called Annan plan – I noticed with great frustration how severely the Turkish Cypriot Education Ministry ignored teaching students in secondary schools the history of the island. I was walking through the front yard of the Şehit Hüseyin Ruso high school and some schoolchildren were playing and waiting for the school bell to ring. I approached the group and asked one of the kids, “Who was Şehit Hüseyin Ruso?” The boy was annoyed of me for asking him such a difficult question. “A martyr...” he said. “That's obvious from his name, but who was he?” I asked again. “Must have been a student here, or perhaps was teaching here when he was fallen... That's why perhaps they named this school after him...” he said.


Appalling education system

I asked the same question to some ten students in that garden that day before I was stopped by an annoyed schoolteacher who asked me leave. None of the kids were able to name the person their school named after. Before leaving the school, I asked the same question to the teacher who was annoyed with my presence there. His answer was appalling. “You fascists are trying to make young people feel hatred against Greek Cypriots. Whoever he was, he is long gone... We have to look into the future now rather than teaching our students what happened at one time in history?”
Hüseyin Ruso was indeed a teacher who sacrificed on December 22, 1963 his life trying not to allow advancing Greek Cypriot EOKA hordes cross a bridge into the Küçük Kaymaklı area of the Turkish quarter of Nicosia... He lost his life but, as did many other brave Turkish Cypriot freedom fighters defending their posts to the death, helped thousands of people escape to safer areas and thus in a way saved their lives...
Reading Kilercioğlu's “The Forgotten Cost,” I remembered not only Ruso, but as well my dear friend Hüseyin Aşkar who replaced me on early morning duty to collect weapons and ammunition that were parachuted outside Gönyeli – a village just outside Nicosia on the way to Kyrenia. I recalled how on that second day of the 1974 Turkish intervention we picked up the remains of his body scattered all around in a field along with the impact of explosion of a box of ammunition hit by a Greek Cypriot fired bullet.

In the “The Forgotten Cost” by Kilercioğlu the story of not only the Turkish Cypriot Resistance Movement (TMT), its conversion into the Turkish Cypriot Security Command, but also a history of the political organization of Turkish Cypriots can be found as well.

Naturally one cannot expect today's young generation who has no idea about the hero their school was named after to know Necati Özkan, Burhan Nalbantoğlu, Mehmet Remzi (Okan), Kemal Tanrısever, Mehmet Zekai, Fadıl Korkut, Osman Örek and others who devoted their lives like Dr. Fazıl Küçük, Rauf Denktaş to the Turkish Cypriot cause.

Only with books like Birand's “30 Hot Days” and Kilercioğlu's “The Forgotten Cost” new Turkish Cypriot generations may perhaps learn with what cost they now have a secure and free atmosphere in their country.

Thanks Halil. I am aware of the immortilising of Ruso's name. As to the education in the schools, the History of Cyprus is still being written.

As for teaching hatred, as far as I know, nowhere was hatred taught in our schools.

Deniz,
at below link u can find web page of the national education history books about Cyprus History. Read it and make your comments please.It is in Turkish.
http://www.mebnet.net/Kitaplar/

Halil, it will take me a while to read and comment on these books.

The first comment I can make is the incident of the GC police firing at us in the garden of the Lefkosa Turk Lisesi.

I looked at the drawing and I smiled. The two landrovers were open backed. In the back were 2 or 3 policemen. They were not armed with machine guns /automatic weapons. They had crowd control weapons like the 'Greener' Lee Enfield type rifles which fired buck shot and not bullets. My friend next from Pergama who was shot in the mouth was injured by the buck-shot and not by a bullet. Otherwise he would have been dead. Now I believe he is i the medical profession somewhere in Australia.


I will read more later. Thanks for the info and links, Halil.

[halil]

İ know Ruso's and Yogurtcu families .
one of the secondary school in Nicosia carries Ruso's name. It is called Şehit HÜSEYİN RUSO ORTAOKULU.
His name will be forever.School is in the yenisehir.
Also street names , stadium are nominated for his name. like :Sht Huseyin Ruso Cad., K.Kaymakli. Lefkosa.
Lefkoşa Şehit Hüseyin Ruso Stadyumu.
BUT what do you think about below article published one of the Turkish papers.Don't you think it shows that we don't teach hate or bad things in our schools or something else is behind this.

The forgotten cost
Friday, December 7, 2007

A must-read book from Kilercioğlu, a retired general and a former minister who devoted a large portion of his life to the Turkish Cypriot people.

Orhan Kilercioğlu, a retired general who was involved in the planning of the 1974 Cyprus intervention of Turkey, who served on the island as a commander and who as a minister helped Turkish Cypriots build their state in northern Cyprus stone by stone, wrote a book on the Turkish Cypriot struggle: “The Forgotten Cost: The Painful and Courageous Years of the Turkish Cypriot people.”

It was difficult to stop reading it... It was not just a book providing an in-depth account of the struggle of the Turkish Cypriot people against a systematic campaign of annihilation. It was as well reminding the post-1974 generations in northern Cyprus of the heroic episodes of their history, the devotion of their fathers to the defense of honor, pride and status of the Turkish Cypriot people and under what conditions that brave struggle was waged.

One may, of course, share the personal assessments of the writer or may discard them for being “obsessive,” but the story of Turkish Cypriot struggle was penned in such excellence by Kilercioğlu that perhaps after the famous “30 Hot Days” written by Mehmet Ali Birand about the 1974 Turkish intervention of Cyprus, this is the best “personal account” I have read on the Cyprus issue.

A few years ago, during the heated debates in both Greek Cypriot southern Cyprus and Turkish Cypriot northern Cyprus on the failed United Nations peace plan – the so-called Annan plan – I noticed with great frustration how severely the Turkish Cypriot Education Ministry ignored teaching students in secondary schools the history of the island. I was walking through the front yard of the Şehit Hüseyin Ruso high school and some schoolchildren were playing and waiting for the school bell to ring. I approached the group and asked one of the kids, “Who was Şehit Hüseyin Ruso?” The boy was annoyed of me for asking him such a difficult question. “A martyr...” he said. “That's obvious from his name, but who was he?” I asked again. “Must have been a student here, or perhaps was teaching here when he was fallen... That's why perhaps they named this school after him...” he said.


Appalling education system

I asked the same question to some ten students in that garden that day before I was stopped by an annoyed schoolteacher who asked me leave. None of the kids were able to name the person their school named after. Before leaving the school, I asked the same question to the teacher who was annoyed with my presence there. His answer was appalling. “You fascists are trying to make young people feel hatred against Greek Cypriots. Whoever he was, he is long gone... We have to look into the future now rather than teaching our students what happened at one time in history?”
Hüseyin Ruso was indeed a teacher who sacrificed on December 22, 1963 his life trying not to allow advancing Greek Cypriot EOKA hordes cross a bridge into the Küçük Kaymaklı area of the Turkish quarter of Nicosia... He lost his life but, as did many other brave Turkish Cypriot freedom fighters defending their posts to the death, helped thousands of people escape to safer areas and thus in a way saved their lives...
Reading Kilercioğlu's “The Forgotten Cost,” I remembered not only Ruso, but as well my dear friend Hüseyin Aşkar who replaced me on early morning duty to collect weapons and ammunition that were parachuted outside Gönyeli – a village just outside Nicosia on the way to Kyrenia. I recalled how on that second day of the 1974 Turkish intervention we picked up the remains of his body scattered all around in a field along with the impact of explosion of a box of ammunition hit by a Greek Cypriot fired bullet.

In the “The Forgotten Cost” by Kilercioğlu the story of not only the Turkish Cypriot Resistance Movement (TMT), its conversion into the Turkish Cypriot Security Command, but also a history of the political organization of Turkish Cypriots can be found as well.

Naturally one cannot expect today's young generation who has no idea about the hero their school was named after to know Necati Özkan, Burhan Nalbantoğlu, Mehmet Remzi (Okan), Kemal Tanrısever, Mehmet Zekai, Fadıl Korkut, Osman Örek and others who devoted their lives like Dr. Fazıl Küçük, Rauf Denktaş to the Turkish Cypriot cause.

Only with books like Birand's “30 Hot Days” and Kilercioğlu's “The Forgotten Cost” new Turkish Cypriot generations may perhaps learn with what cost they now have a secure and free atmosphere in their country.

Thanks Halil. I am aware of the immortilising of Ruso's name. As to the education in the schools, the History of Cyprus is still being written.

As for teaching hatred, as far as I know, nowhere was hatred taught in our schools.

Deniz,
at below link u can find web page of the national education history books about Cyprus History. Read it and make your comments please.It is in Turkish.
http://www.mebnet.net/Kitaplar/

Halil, it will take me a while to read and comment on these books.

The first comment I can make is the incident of the GC police firing at us in the garden of the Lefkosa Turk Lisesi.

I looked at the drawing and I smiled. The two landrovers were open backed. In the back were 2 or 3 policemen. They were not armed with machine guns /automatic weapons. They had crowd control weapons like the 'Greener' Lee Enfield type rifles which fired buck shot and not bullets. My friend next from Pergama who was shot in the mouth was injured by the buck-shot and not by a bullet. Otherwise he would have been dead. Now I believe he is i the medical profession somewhere in Australia.


I will read more later. Thanks for the info and links, Halil.

verygood spot deniz, i never noticed , even i didn't look at the picture.

[denizaksulu]

Tomorrow is another Anniversary of the beginning of the intercommunal violence. So many years have past. What have we learnt so far. People come and go. Politicians come and go. We have the Gospel according to GCs and another one according to TCs. Each want their own way and the only thing we have succeeded in doing is the division of our motherland - Cyprus.

I dont give a piastre for the politicians but will say a prayer for all the 'innocents' who have lost their lives for these politicians mis-deeds.


LONG LIVE CYPRUS AND i HOPE THAT PEACE WILL REIGN.

REGARDS

DENIZAKSULU

[waldorf]

Well said Deniz. We have to live in hope.

[Kikapu]

Tomorrow is another Anniversary of the beginning of the intercommunal violence. So many years have past. What have we learnt so far. People come and go. Politicians come and go. We have the Gospel according to GCs and another one according to TCs. Each want their own way and the only thing we have succeeded in doing is the division of our motherland - Cyprus.

I dont give a piastre for the politicians but will say a prayer for all the 'innocents' who have lost their lives for these politicians mis-deeds.


LONG LIVE CYPRUS AND i HOPE THAT PEACE WILL REIGN.

REGARDS

DENIZAKSULU

.................and this is one little kid's story (Kikapu's) from that time period, Deniz!

"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 dumpsters 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 potatoes 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 tomatoes 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 aggressiveness 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 Left us, we heard footsteps come towards the door that we were all hiding behind. Then the door opened by my cousin with a fright on his face, followed by several Greek soldiers 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 soldiers. 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 basically 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 floor 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 surroundings 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 another case, where, soldiers came to an old mans house, where upon entering his house, he stabbed one of them in the heart with a shish kebab skew, in which he was be-headed and left in a field.

Eventually, myself and my grandmother were sleeping in my uncles carpentry 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 behind 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 cursed 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 grandmother 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 disruption 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 grateful 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."

http://www.cyprus-forum.com/viewtopic.p ... th&start=0



This is the Kykkos School where we were kept as prisoners.

I did return to my homeland Cyprus in April 2007. Here is the full report.

http://www.cyprus-forum.com/cyprus11420.html

[SSBubbles]

Kikapu

That was truly a very emotional and moving story, thank you for sharing it with us.

It both saddened and uplifted me and I am happy that you have 'moved on'.

I will read your report regarding your visit to Cyprus last year for another day.