Bridging the ‘rivers of blood’
By Rebecca Bailey
“TRUE HEROISM is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.”
The words of Arthur Ashe, an American social activist and tennis player, seem to be especially fitting to describe the ten “unsung heroes” from Cyprus who were honoured recently acts of courage and humanity in times of war.
These were men who, during the intercommunal conflicts of the 50s and 60s, and in the later Turkish invasion of 1974, risked their lives to save and protect members of the ‘other side’, their supposed enemies, at immense personal risk.
The ceremony was conceived of by Sevgul Uludag, a Turkish Cypriot journalist who has dedicated the last eight years of her life to investigating the cases of those still ‘missing’ from the conflicts, from both sides. On the Turkish Cypriot side, the issue was still very much a taboo subject.
“When I started talking about it, it was like an earthquake in our community,” she said. “There was just this enormous flow of words, the relief of being able to speak about it.”
Stories of barbarity poured down the hotline she had set up; stories of rape, murder, massacre, and betrayal. Every now and again, though, she was told a story that was not about pain; a story that was rather about the triumph of humanity over animalism, a story of bravery and pathos.
“Unless we have a common understanding of the past, how can we have a common vision?” asked Uludag.
Events like these hinge around the idea that “common pain can be used as a catalyst for peace.” In this case, there was more than pain uniting the two sides though; there was hope, courage and humanity.
Although ten men were honoured, Uludag assured there were many more. Some do not want to be named, for fear of retaliation from their neighbours, even after all these years. Some will not be named by the ones they saved, because the latter do not want to admit they owe their life to an official enemy. Some people's stories will be lost forever because everyone involved in them perished.
As Phaedon Vassiliades, of Stop the War Coalition-Cyprus expressed it, on Wednesday night, people gathered to say “a very big «Efharisto» or «Teshekkurler» to those who, with courage and humanity, saved not only human lives but human values and the hope for future peace.”
CENGIZ RATIP
In 1963, Cengiz Ratip journeyed from Polis to Kokkino to save a bus full of Greek Cypriot children being held hostage there.
Ratip was an MP and a man highly respected by both sides of the conflict. The children from Polis had been kidnapped in the hope of making the exchange for two Turkish Cypriots who had been captured.
What the kidnappers did not know was that the two men had been killed. Ratip had the unenviable job of explaining this to them, and negotiating the release of the children.
“If you kill these children now,” he is reported to have told them, “You stand alone. The Turkish Cypriot community will not stand by you.”
He succeeded, but his efforts cost him his life. Plots to assassinate him sprung up. Many assassins refused to kill a man they respected so highly, but eventually some were found.
The trap they sprung exploited the very thing that made so many respect him; his desire to help people, and determination to stop bi-communal tension. The assassins created a disturbance in a village nearby, supposedly by mounting a Greek flag on a mosque.
Ratip and a local schoolteacher went to calm the situation. The assassins were waiting for them. They gunned them both down and buried the bodies. To this day, no one knows where they lie.
A letter from his widow was read out as his plaque was displayed. Her opening sentence was crushing in its simplicity, summing up a bewildered pain most of the audience easily identified with. “I wish that my dear husband Cengiz Ratip had not been killed, because he was a very kind person, who had never harmed anyone.”
CHRISTOFIAS POSEIDIAS
Poseidias protected Turkish Cypriot women and children from rape and death by EOKA B'. He hid them in his own house. One of the women he saved was Mahan Halil, who was there on the night of the celebration to present him with his plaque.
“This good man saved us, took us to his house, hid us, protected us all, women and children,” she said, clearly very moved. Poseidias then took the mike. “All I can say is we want peace,” he said in a quavering voice.
Christos Kyprianou and Ahmet Yorganci
One of the most touching stories was that of Christos Kyprianou and Ahmet Yorganci, a master and worker who ended up saving each other’s lives. Before 1974, Ahmet had worked for Christos as a labourer. When the coup happened, Christos realised that Ahmet, then only seventeen, was in danger.
Risking his own life, he took Ahmet secretly to Nicosia and hid him in a friend’s house, warning him to remain there until it was safe. “I did my duty as a human being; and in the same situation I would do it again,” said a tearful Christos at the ceremony.
Later, Christos himself was caught by a Turkish Cypriot patrol, along with a young soldier. By chance they happened to be near to Catoz, Ahmet’s village. Christos pleaded with the Turkish Cypriots: “I am not a soldier, I am a worker! I worked with people from this village!” They refused to believe him; but whether by fate or luck, Ahmet happened to be passing by at the time. With a huge cry of “Mastro!” he embraced Kyprianou.
The young soldier was shot dead in front of the two men. Ahmet managed to persuade the Turkish Cypriots to let Christos go free.
They were reunited by Sevgul Uludag in the course of her research. “They are now very close,” she said. “When Ahmet had to have an operation on his back in Larnaca recently, Christos was there almost every day visiting him.”
The other men honoured:
Christofias Poseidias protected Turkish Cypriot women and children from rape and death by EOKA B'. He hid them in his own house.
Stavros Poirazis, a muhtar from Strongylos who turned an angry mob away from his village with the words: “Go back to your villages! You will not touch the Turkish Cypriots of Strongylos!”.
Alpay Topuz, who treated the 600 war prisoners at Voni camp with respect and kindness, which some testified to.
Ertan Akincioglu, Papa Kleanthis, Panayiotis Kosti Patsalou and Yorgis Mouzouros, who all saved members of the other side and hid them in their houses from the militia.
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2009
...these representatives of a race called Human did not forget.
