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CyprusΣενέρ ΛεβέντThey were buried alive….The article of Sener about the missing Cypriots that started the …fire
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
By Sener Levent
Those who were murdered and buried en masse in big ditches that were dug by bulldozers. Those who were thrown in wells. We are looking for them all the time…
The missing Cypriots are still a festering wound in our hearts. Those who were murdered and buried en masse in big ditches that were dug by bulldozers. Those who were thrown in wells. We are looking for them all the time, but we still cannot find them. After all, those that know anything about this keep silent.
Is it because there is no way to force them to speak up? Of course there is a way. But those who are handling this matter in such a manner so that “they can have their cake and also eat it” are hardly the ones to force those who know to speak up. What do they do? They keep pleading. They keep pleading to those who know. “Come, show us the places [where the missing are buried], and nothing will happen to you, your identity will be kept secret”, they tell them.
The members of the committee [Committee on the Missing Cypriots] give assurances. But there are not many who take into account these assurances. However, the members of the committee could have done exactly the opposite. They could have said: “whoever have committed a crime and those who know and do not speak up will be brought to trial for these crimes”.
That is, whoever speaks up will be saved. Whoever keeps silent will be in trouble. Then you could see how fast they would come out in the open—willing or not willing—and they would speak up. Are the missing persons [buried] only on the island of Cyprus? No, they are buried in Turkey as well. There are some who were taken to Turkey. To Adana. To Mersina. Very many prisoners never came back from the places that they were carried to and interned. They were murdered there. What will happen with them?
I do not know how many Greek Cypriot prisoners were taken to Turkey, and how many of them came back to Cyprus alive. I do not even know why the Committee on the Missing Cypriots has not issued any statement, or taken any initiative on this matter. However, if all those that were taken as prisoners to Turkey did not return, as per many eyewitness accounts, should such missing persons not be searched for in Turkey itself, as indeed this seems to be the case? Here is one such eyewitness. He is around sixty years old. He come from a village of the Kyrenia District. He was around 17-18 years old in 1974, he says.
The Turkish Army assigned him a job, along with others, in the port of Kyrenia. They were pouring concrete, he says, in the port of Kyrenia, so that there could be easier access to big ships from the sea. And Greek-Cypriot prisoners, he says, were transferred there in groups. When those working in pouring concrete turned and looked at the Greek Cypriot prisoners, the soldier-guard who was there ordered them by saying “do not look over there”.
Exactly while such a situation was unfolding he eavesdropped, he says, and overheard two soldiers talking. One soldier said this to the other while pointing at the prisoners: “We will also carry them to Adana, and we will treat them just as we did with the others. We carried those others, we tied their hands and their feet and we buried them alive in the area next to the river there. We did not waste any bullets. Just because we buried them near the water, with time the river will catch up to them as well and carry them away. No one will be able to trace them”. My dear friend thought very hard, he says, as to whether he would tell me the story.
He considered it as one of the most important secrets he knew. In the end he decided to tell me the story. After all, he told me the story by choosing his words very carefully. He remembered the events that transpired as if they had taken place only yesterday. There are more secrets that need to be investigated. It has been said that Kutlu Adali [a Turkish-Cypriot journalist-friend of the author] who was murdered twenty years ago yesterday, was assassinated exactly because of what he learned on the matter of the missing Cypriots. That is, he was not murdered because of the presumed treasures hidden in the Monastery of Apostolos Barnabas*. It has been said that in the garden of the Monastery of Apostolos Barnabas there was a huge mass grave.
This was the place, it has been said, that all Greek Cypriots from nearby villages that were murdered, were then buried. After the founding of the Committee on the Missing Cypriots, in the beginning of the 1990s, Turkey wished, it has been said, to eliminate all mass graves that existed in the island. For this purpose she sent several individuals to the island entrusted with this specific mission and duty. As a matter of fact, these individuals went door-to-door here in Cyprus, looking for all those who knew where the mass graves were located. This is exactly what Kutlu Adali learned, it has been said. This is the reason, it has been said, that Kutlu Adali insisted on looking into the matters concerning the Monastery of Apostolos Barnabas. As a matter of fact, it has been said, this is the reason that the military authorities [of the Turkish Armed Forces of Occupation of Cyprus] threatened him with death. But no one dares to investigate this matter and tell the truth. The missing Cypriots are still a festering wound in our hearts. If we have any respect for them, we must at least pay our last debt.
• Note: Saint Barnabas, was a follower of Saint Paul, and the founder of the Church of Cyprus (Acts). The monastery in question is located ca. 10 km north of the twin cities of Famagusta/Varosha, and nearby the ancient ruins of the cities of Salamis and Egkomi.
- Sener Levent is the editor of the Turkish Cypriot newspaper Afrika.
ΠΗΓΗ: http://politis.com.cy/article/thaftikan-zontanitou-sener-levent
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