Kikapu wrote:Deniz,
Thanks for opening this thread.
Here is an excerpt from a short story I wrote on the forum last year, as to what happened to us in Kucuk Kaymakli during this time 44 years ago in 1963.
I have not forgotten what we went through, but I have moved on.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 affright on his face, follow 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 (school) 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's 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.
For the full story............. http://www.cyprus-forum.com/cyprus6336-20.html
Thanks Kikapu, I had read this when you first posted it. One of my comments was I think, that you must have known my first wife and her family, as they were among the captives of Kucuk Kaymali. My future father in law had a lucky escape as he was a member of the 'Teshkilat'.
I also have moved on, but there is no denying that these events had changed the course of my planned life.
Regards
).
I am sure my brother in-law will remember becausehis father was the Muhallebici (Thanks for he spelling) 
