Cyprus-Forum.com

[Natty]

Was it a horrible time for you kipaku? I hope it wasn't awful.......

[Issy1956]

Kikapu,
I would also love to share your experiences especially as my family also fled Kaimakli in 1963/4 when I was abou 6/7. What a co-incidence. I have a few memories of my own that have always stayed with me ever since. One is of my father crying as he watched our house burning from just inside the old city walls in the Turkish sector of Nicosai where we had fled when the fighting started looking towards Kaimakli we could see th palls of smoke .
Yeah lets hear them-they might remind me of a few that I had fogotten.

[Natty]

It must have been a truly horrible time for bothe the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots involved, especially since many people were not involved!

[Kikapu]

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 uponn 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.......

.....to be continued soon.

[Kikapu]

Kikapu,
I would also love to share your experiences especially as my family also fled Kaimakli in 1963/4 when I was abou 6/7. What a co-incidence. I have a few memories of my own that have always stayed with me ever since. One is of my father crying as he watched our house burning from just inside the old city walls in the Turkish sector of Nicosai where we had fled when the fighting started looking towards Kaimakli we could see th palls of smoke .
Yeah lets hear them-they might remind me of a few that I had fogotten.

Issy 1956,

Only came across your post yesterday. There were 2 Kaymaklis near Nicosia, one was that I lived in, Kücük Kaymakli ( Small Kaymakli ) and the other was Buyuk Kaymakli ( Big Kaymakli ) that we had relatives there also. Both were next to each other really. I believe we had to walk through Buyuk Kaymakli to get to center of Nicosia from Kücük Kaymakli. You know, you and I could have come across each other before 1963. I'm only 1 year older than you. We may even played together. I'll write a little, about both the places in the next page or two of my story.

[Issy1956]

Kikapu,
Its possible. I look forward to hearing more. I definitely remember the Kennedy bread and milk story. I also remember seeing the dried bloodstains in the road after a policeman was shot near our house. A very vivid memory was us all being bundled into the car by our father and driving off at speed from our house with the sound of gunfire in the background. Strangley I dont remember being scared until I saw the worry and stress in our parents faces.

Issy

[Kikapu]

Strangley I dont remember being scared until I saw the worry and stress in our parents faces.

It's one of the things I'll write later, that as kids, we did not understand fear, but the events however did leave it's prints in our minds.

[Snad]

We went up to see our new house a couple of days ago and next to the development lives an old GC man. He invited us onto his patio for a drink and he started talking to us about the way things used to be.
As he spoke about his TC friends, who he no longer see's, tears came into his eyes. I was very moved as he spoke. It is all so sad that people like him have lost their friends, and for what? Bloody politics

[Kikapu]

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.......

.....to be continued soon.

In my little neighbourhood, we did not have verymuch 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 they 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 citc center, that came the news that 2 men were shot dead and that there were a lot of concerns as 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 etleast 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 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 matress, 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 ment all males. The way kids think sometimes is amazing....

..to be continued....soon.

[michalis5354]

We lived in a small town called "Kücük Kaymakli" which I believe is some where, a little South of Nicosia

There were 2 Kaymaklis near Nicosia, one was that I lived in, Kücük Kaymakli ( Small Kaymakli ) and the other was Buyuk Kaymakli ( Big Kaymakli ) that we had relatives there also

my family also fled Kaimakli in 1963/4 when I was abou 6/7.

I have also grown up in Kaimakli but I dont know If it is the small or the big Kaimakli you refered above! My grandparents were originaly from kaimakli and spent their whole life there! Not as unlucky to be forced to re locate though!

Yes it is South of Nicosia very closed to the current borders!