by halil » Fri Nov 28, 2008 11:24 am
More stories ...... by Sevgül Uludağ
The real friendship story of Christos and Ahmet…
Maria, in her small car, drives me to Larnaca, to see a `miracle man` - no, not someone who makes miracles but someone who managed to survive Caoz (Chatoz-Serdarli) back in 1974…
He is a maestro, a builder, someone who used to make mosaic graves and water tanks, someone who used to work with Turkish Cypriots in different constructions… His name is Christos Kyprianou…
We go to the Turkish mahalle of Larnaca to a beautiful house, that whispers stories of another life – the tiles on the floor, the five stone steps leading to the front door, the door knock that is shaped like the hand of a woman with a ring, the huge hall with two rooms on each side with a height of 4 meters with a lot of air circulating is like a poem from another age… At the end of the hall, a few steps lead to a secret garden behind the house and this is huge! On just one vine tree, I see three different kinds of grapes! And so many flowers! So much to look at!
`What about water?` I ask Christos…
He points to a well in the garden:
`It only flows for half an hour and then stops…`
`Still, you are lucky!...`
Maritsa, his wife, with a chubby smile and beautiful eyes, welcomes us with a plateful of delicious figs from her garden – we sit inside and the maestro is very proud of the house… He tells us how he has painted it himself and how he repairs things… Downstairs, the house has a huge basement where the maestro keeps some partridges and there too, is his workshop for small repairs. He looks very fit and shining for his age – he is actually 70 years old, tall and dark and his wife, chubby and cute, a woman from Lefkonico, my father’s village. Christos Kyprianou too, comes from Lefkonico.
`Until 1955-58, Turkish Cypriots also used to live there… I remember Salih who had a hump and who used to repair motorcycles… After the `fasariya` (troubles) began, Turkish Cypriots left the village…`
After he had graduated from the elementary school of his village, Christos began to work as a builder:
`I was building houses but also graves` he says… `Remember how the old water tanks were made out of mosaics? I was also doing those… I used to work in different places like Akanthu (Tatlisu) and Nicosia… In Nicosia, I was working with Turkish Cypriot workers. One of them was from Melunda (Mallidagh) and his name was Suleyman. There was Mukaddes who was from Psillati (Ipsillat) – she was carrying cement in constructions. There was Hussein from Caoz (Chatoz – Serdarli) – all in all, there were around 6-7 Turkish Cypriot workers with whom I worked – a few of them were very young…`
On the day of the coup, that is the 15th of July 1974, he was together with some Turkish Cypriot workers in Nicosia. He would hide some of them in a friend’s house in Athalassa for a few days so that EOKA-B would not harm them. Later, he would help them to get to the Turkish side… Among these were Ahmet from Caoz and Mukaddes from Psillati. Later Christos would go back to his village:
`Nothing happened on the 20th of July 1974. But prior to the 14th of August, bombing began and we had left the village with my wife and two kids. At that time, we had two kids. There was also my father in law and his new wife and my mother Photini with us. We went to Xylotymbou and stayed there for three days. Later when there was cease-fire they heard on the radio that `it was safe to go back to their village` so Christos decided to go back to Lefkonico in order to get some mattresses from his house so his children would not sleep on the floor at Xylotymbou. Together with a group of 6-7 Greek Cypriots they went to Lefkonico – all of them were arrested and later released except Christos.
On the way to Caoz they found a Greek Cypriot soldier from Arnadi (Kuzucuk) on a bicycle and arrested him as well. As they were going to Caoz, the soldiers who arrested them were talking in Turkish amongst them. One of them said:
`See these two gavur? We will kill both of them!`
Since Christos knew some Turkish, he had understood what they had said! A Turkish Cypriot soldier said to him:
`You know Turkish?`
`Yes, some` he said. So they had stopped talking amongst themselves. But Christos had heard what he needed to know…
`Where were you?` one of them asked him.
Christos said, `I am not a soldier. I am a builder. I was working in Nicosia with Turkish Cypriots…` and he started saying the names of the Turkish Cypriots with whom he was working…
Before entering Caoz, they stopped the small truck near a bridge and took them down. They were going to kill them! But suddenly a UN car appeared so they got them on the truck again.
As soon as they entered Caoz, Christos was shocked! The first person he saw there was Ahmet, the 17 year old worker whom he had protected during the coup, hiding him in a house in Athalassa!
`Maestro!` Ahmet said… `Maestro! Don’t be afraid! Nothing will happen to you! You are not a soldier! You are a builder!`
The others who arrested him must have realized that the story Christos had told them was true. That in fact Christos was not a soldier, he was a builder and that he actually knew the Turkish Cypriots he had said he was working with. Ahmet was live proof of that! Meeting Ahmet at the entrance of Caoz would change his destiny: He had saved Ahmet and now Ahmet was saving his life!
They took them to Marathovouno (Ulukishla) and executed the Greek Cypriot soldier. There had been blood on the uniform of this soldier so a Turkish Cypriot explained to Christos that `He must have killed some Turkish Cypriots – that’s why there was blood on him…` This was the pretext for the order of his execution…
Christos was standing there, watching everything.
Then they took Christos and tied his eyes.
`We are doing this for your own good and for our own good` they told him.
Christos was dying of thirst. He asked for water. Somebody gave him a bavuri of water and he drank. The soldier standing next to him hit him on the head with the bavuri later!
But no harm would come to him. After the execution of the Greek Cypriot soldier who was from `Special Forces`, they took him to Famagusta… Later he would be brought to Nicosia where in the Sarayonu police prison a Turkish Cypriot policeman would help him… He would later be sent to Adana and Amasya prisons and after three months there, finally was exchanged as a prisoner of war.
Two days before I published the story of Christos, an Ahmet from Caoz called… He started telling me the story of how his maestro had saved him! And how he saw his maestro in Caoz!
`Wait a minute!` I told him… `In two days time, I am publishing a story – take a look at the photo and read this story… Maybe it is your maestro!`
It was… So he called back and said, `He remembers my name wrong! He thinks I am Hussein but my name is Ahmet!`
I gave him the phone number of Christos Kyprianou and described where he lives in Larnaca. He went immediately with his family to meet his maestro! They hugged each other and cried… This would be the beginning of a renewed friendship…
The following week, Ahmet was going to have an operation in a hospital in Larnaca. Christos Kyprianou and his wife Maritsa, would visit him in the hospital every day!
I called Andreas Kannaouros, the president of the Union of Cyprus Journalists, to suggest an activity during the annual gathering of journalists in the Cyprus Journalists Village in Pervolia on the 28th of September, 2008.
`Mr. Kannaouros, why don’t we invite Ahmet and his family and Christos and his family to come to the gathering? They have saved each other’s lives and they found each other through the media, because of the article I wrote… It would be good to honour real friendship stories of this island…`
Of course, Mr. Kannouros accepted my suggestion and at the end of this month, we will meet in the Journalists Village and this real friendship story will be more visible for all to see…
