By
Chris Green
FIFTY years ago this week, agents for
the Greek Orthodox Church began the implementation of the infamous Akritas Plan
which amongst other things, called for the ‘removal of Turkish Cypriots from
Cyprus by all forceable means’. The period of December 21st-15th has thus become known as “Bloody Christmas” and now, half
a century on, this article re-visits a real human issue story that was first
published by this columnist in the spring of 2010, comprising as it does of eye
witness accounts together with the unique family photographs of just one of the
many villages deliberately and brutally liquidated by the Eoka terrorists in
their evil quest for Enosis in the period 1963/64 up until 1974.
Christmas came early to Küçük Kaymaklı,
and a bloody one it was too: Küçük Kaymaklı lies just south of Nicosia and its
location is now straddled by the UN buffer zone. Our story begins around the
fourth day of what might be described as the ‘Makarios Purges’ which began in
this area around December 18th 1963. As a thirteen-year-old boy Mehmet Abujuma
lived with his family; his mother and father, five sisters with respective ages
of four, seven, nine, ten and 21, a two year old brother and an elder brother,
Salim, who was serving in the British Special Branch mainly at Dhekelia. There
was also a sister in England and another in Nicosia.
The first indications of
the intentions of the Greeks was made known when a party of them shot up the
local high school and the Ataturk memorial statue. The children, all terrified,
were sent home from school. Eoka
had positioned themselves on the Greek side of the main street and were
shooting at the Turkish Cypriot dwellings. They were trapped in their house,
sporadically under deadly fire which included bazooka rockets and bombs, for
three days and nights. Indeed they were only able to go and use the privy
(outside toilet) after nightfall.
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| Archbishop Makarios |
In an ironic twist they were visited by
the village midwife, Irenau, a Greek Cypriot neighbour who warned them of their
impending doom at the hands of the Eoka terrorists. It
is entirely due to this woman's humanitarian initiative, Mehmet believes, that
his family and many of his fellow Turkish Cypriot neighbours were able to
escape, convinced as he is, that the kindness of that lady saved many lives!
Accordingly, but reluctantly, they abandoned their home, leaving all their possessions
behind them. It was latterly discovered that
theirs and other surrounding properties had been looted. They found a temporary
place of refuge at a nearby village and later, under British military escort,
the refugees got to Nicosia and stayed at Mehmet's aunts house. They were not
alone as many other like refugees found their way to his aunt's house. In fact
there were no fewer then 80 people living in the one house. In their case it was
six to a bed: They were to remain there for three months.
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| Terrified refugees take flight |
It was during this chaotic time that
one of Mehmet's uncles went missing. It later emerged that Eoka gunmen had
entered the family home and explained to his uncle's wife that she and her
children would not be ‘harmed’. They were, however, going to kill her husband
in order that she and her children would suffer for the rest of their lives.
His uncle was then forced to kneel and in true Eoka trademark style, was shot
in the back, his wife and children
being made to watch. The Eoka
gunmen however got one thing right; the
surviving family were indeed traumatised and remained so to this day. Mehmet
recalls sadly that his aunt did actually lose her mental faculties. This
family, like so many others, stood no chance. Whereas the Turkish Cypriots were
attempting to fight back with a single shotgun and a single M1 rifle, the Eoka
forces were heavily armed with weaponry contemporary to the time.
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| Selim Abujama |
Mehmet's father had become a naturalised
British subject in 1948 while Mehmet's older brother was a serving officer in
the British Special Branch. Being especially talented with Greek, Arabic and
Turkish linguistic abilities, Selim was able to communicate with the diverse
communities in Cyprus. Through these various connections Salim was able to
obtain British passports for Mehmet's entire family. Accordingly during the early part of
1964 they were escorted form Nicosia to Limassol, then headed to England via
Marseilles, Paris, and Dover. They ended up ultimately in Islington, North
London. There they quickly settled in, and those old enough managed to obtain
work very quickly. It is to be emphasised that at no time, either then or
since, did Mehmet's family or any other Turkish Cypriot to his knowledge
receive any state aid or financial benefits from the British government.
Returning to the period when the
village was attacked and destroyed, many of the villagers fled on foot to a
nearby Turkish village and for a time many people took shelter in open fields
and even in a mosque. Being farmers some of the villagers went back to Küçük
Kaymaklı to retrieve livestock; this proved to be fatal for all of them were
executed by the Greek Cypriots. One relative who was a Muslim ‘hoca’ (holy man),
who was around eighty years of age, had remained in Küçük Kaymaklı to take care of his severely disabled
grandson who could not be moved at that time to safety. Both of them were
dispatched in the usual manner practiced by Eoka. Of that village in excess of
300 men, women and children are known to have been killed or are officially
missing. In addition to which over 700 Turkish Cypriots were captured and
imprisoned.
Damage to Turkish Cypriot property was
extensive with over 200 dwellings being destroyed and/or demolished. In the
ensuing years much of the village has been restored but Mehmet's family home
lies derelict in the central part of the UN buffer zone. The overall conflict of 1963 to 1974 saw 103 villages substantially
destroyed and an excess of 30,000 Turkish Cypriots were rendered homeless,
comprising some twenty-five percent of the Turkish Cypriot population of Cyprus
at that time. And of course we know that during the ‘dark era’ of the period
(1963-74) Turkish Cypriots were forced
into enclaves occupying just three percent of the island.
Mehmet's wife, Harika, was a resident
of Limassol at the time. As a five-year-old
in 1964, she has scant recall of the details of the conflict. She does,
however remember having to get on to a boat sailing for Israel then onwards to
Italy, journeyed on through France right on to Calais and then a ferry to Dover
from where she ultimately settled in Surrey with a family relative. Harika and
Mehmet met each other in 1978 in London and were married the same year. There
are two children from the marriage; a daughter of 29 and a son of 22 and now a
grandchild of seven.
Many Turkish Cypriots, including
Mehmet, decided to visit Cyprus in or around 1971-72 to search for relatives.
They landed in Nicosia International Airport just years before it was abruptly
forced to be closed, never to be used again. Ironically one of the fellow
passengers on the aircraft was a relative of Harika! Mehmet and his friends,
being young and boisterous, were talking animately in the Turkish language. The
gentleman warned them in no uncertain terms not to speak Turkish when the plane
landed in Nicosia. On arrival no Turkish Cypriot taxis were to be found; an
uncomfortable few hours were spent searching for a ‘safe’ taxi. Eventually a
driver was found who was willing to drive them to Turkish Cypriot territory in
the sum of two pounds sterling each, additional to which a carton of cigarettes
from each of the passengers was required for the for the considerable risk he
was taking!
Salim, Mehmet's older brother, was
forced to resign from the Special Branch due to ill health, to which he sadly ultimately succumbed. However, in retirement, Mehmet
would regularly accompany his brother to Portsmouth to meet Sir Hugh Foot, the
former British High Commissioner of Cyprus, whom his brother had served personally
in his role as a bodyguard. Mehmet also recalls their visits to government
house in Nicosia during the 1950s when they would be served Coca Cola, a
product that was not available on the Turkish side of Cyprus in those days!
In the opinion of Mehmet Abujuma, the
Turkish Cypriots who settled in England and where he has lived there for 46
years, have all in general worked hard as citizens of Britain. To his knowledge
few have received state handouts or social security. Personally he is very
proud to be both British and Turkish Cypriot. He is outspokenly opposed to the
mass immigration to Britain in modern times. But ironically he and some friends
considered emigrating to Australia and had completed the relevant application
documentation: But a relative, with great insight imparted these words of
wisdom, "If you can't make it in this country, you won't make it in
Australia". After a bit of thought, Mehmet and his friends decided to stay
in England.
Today, Mehmet and Harika are regular
visitors to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Indeed, they have a
holiday home in Karakum near to the Bellapais road. They also occasionally
visit south Cyprus. However, to this very day,
Harika does not personally feel at all safe on the south side of the island by
virtue of her being Turkish Cypriot by birth. Mehmet recalls in his village
that the two communities lived generally quite separately, although before the
troubles the two communities lived fairly cordially and socially. They used to
play football against the Greek Cypriots, but because the Turkish Cypriots were
in general far poorer than their counterparts, it would not be unusual for the
Turkish to 'nick' the goal posts!
Asked to recall again the conflict of
1963 to 1974, Mehmet believes that the casualties of the Greeks must have been
relatively light in 1963-64, but following the intervention by the Turkish
Peace Forces after July 20, 1974 he considers the Greek casualties to have been
very heavy indeed. However, an uncle who had assisted the British during the
Cyprus emergency returned to Cyprus from England to volunteer for service with
the Turkish army. After '63 Osman Gardash became `Mucahit` and was stationed at
St Helarion. He was the sole survivor of a sustained Greek attack during which
one of Mehmet’s friends was killed aged 24. Osman was willing to do national
service for Turkey in the cause of the country of his birth and infant nurture.
Given the extent of his previous
service in Cyprus, the Turkish army declined his offer but did enlist him to
serve as a guide for the Turkish forces as he was intimately familiar with the
territory. After the event he remarked upon the tremendous levels of Turkish
casualties and in particular the area of St Helarion. He recalled to Mehmet
having witnessed some 500 Turkish soldiers being loaded onto transport having
paid the ultimate price in the proud service of the Republic of Turkey and for
the protection of the lives of their Turkish Cypriot brothers. [1317 Turkish soldiers made the ultimate
sacrifice during the Attila Operations of 1974]
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| Turkish Intervention Forces - "Attila" Operations 1974 |
When asked their opinion as to the
future of Cyprus as an island, both were of the view that the island will
remain divided, at the very least for a long, long time for in their opinion
there is no obvious solution other than ‘Taksim’ and Recognition. Indeed for there to be any form of
reconciliation it is critically important that the children are educated on
both sides of the divide, equally and uniformly on the basis of established
facts and more importantly the truth!
To highlight the many opportunities to
end the divide, Mehmet drew upon the situation of the former Nicosia
International Airport. Had the airport been rebuilt and both sides had use of
it for their respective national airlines and other international airlines,
perhaps that might have been a highly visible symbol of reconciliation
following past conflicts. But the
continued intransigence of the Greek side, whose stance is largely unchanged
during the ensuing five decades is such, that a commonsense solution is way out
of reach and the symbolism that would obtain from a shared airport facility was
always too much to hope for.
Fifty
years have now passed and whilst leaders come and leaders go, still no solution
has been agreed upon. Rauf Denktaş
embraced the Eternal Shadows on January 13th 2012 and his old sparring partner,
Glafcos Clerides joined him on November 15th this year, ironically the date of
the 30th anniversary of the Declaration of the Turkish Republic of Northern
Cyprus. Today’s leaders are now negotiating over the wording of a joint
statement ahead of yet more talks over the islands future which may be held
early next year.
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| The flag of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus adorns the Beşparmak Mountain range. |
The smoke may have cleared from the years of
armed conflict and the political fog
that continues to shroud the island of Cyprus may never disburse, but one thing
is quite clear and that is that the ‘sons and daughters’ of Denktaş’ creation
are now 30 years of age, and it is way past high time that they were allowed to
fledge and to trade and prosper.
*originally published Spring 2010 and written
in the tense current at that time.
By
Chris Green
Beşparmak Media Services
