×
Whose house?
Paylaş
LinkedinFlipboardLinki KopyalaYazı Tipi
Reading the reports on the decision of the European Court of Justice backing the right of Greek Cypriots to reclaim property they abandoned in the north of the island in the aftermath of the 1974 Turkish intervention, I remembered a discussion under a bower in a Nicosia suburb.
It was immediately after the April 23, 2004 opening of the border gates between northern and southern Cyprus, the first time since the 1974 Turkish intervention provided Turkish Cypriots a safe haven in the northern third of the island. Ahmet was drinking Turkish coffee together with some of his customer-friends under the bower covered with a giant "verigo" grapevine "tree" on the sideline of his barber shop next to an old church, converted into a mosque after Turks moved into the area from their houses in southern Cyprus in the aftermath of the 1974 Turkish intervention. His wife Sadiye was busy preparing lunch back in the house several yards away, while the deaf mother in law who spent more than ten years cooking for free for the Turkish Cypriot resistance fighters, after her husband, a fisherman, went missing in early 1964 on the Limassol highway.
Accompanied by a woman in her seventies, a man in his fifties stopped in front of the barber shop. He opened the iron gate of the garden as if he was entering his own home. He approached Ahmet and his friends and in broken and heavily accented Turkish yelled at the group: "Çıkın evimden!" (Get out of my house!). Like many Turkish Cypriots who moved after the Turkish intervention from their villages in what became the Greek Cypriot southern Cyprus and were settled on properties left by the Greek Cypriots in the north, Ahmet was expecting such a visitor ever since the gates were opened and the two peoples of the island found an opportunity to see "the other side" freely. Ahmet stood up in respect for the visitor. In broken Greek, he replied "Ela re gumbare" (Come on in my friend) and extended his hand to shake the hand of the approaching Greek Cypriot. The Greek Cypriot man, hiding his hand behind his back to avoid a handshake, shouted again in anger: "Get out of my house!"
Ahmet, maintaining his calm, showed a chair to the Greek Cypriot man and asked whether the accompanying "old lady", who was still standing outside the fence with wet eyes, would like to enter as well. He called Sadiye as well to come and greet the "guests."After the man and the lady in his seventies sat under the bower, nearby neighbors started to gather seeing that something exciting was happening in Ahmet’s house. "Welcome," Ahmet said, "I understand that you are the former owners of my shop and house. We have some items that we have been keeping for you ever since we settled in here. There are some family photographs and a small wooden box containing some hand-made toys. Simple things, but we kept them in anticipation of this day.""Really?" the Greek Cypriot man asked. "I am Andreas. This is my mother Maria." In the mean time, Sadiye dashed into the house and came back with the photographs and the wooden box. The photographs were wedding photos of Maria and her husband, and photos of some babies and some elderly people. Maria did not know Turkish or English, but Andreas started to translate. "Thank you...
You have given me precious gifts. You have given me my memories," the old woman in tears was saying. Andreas said the wooden box belonged to him and the toys inside were made by his late father.Soon, the discussion focused once again on the key demand of Andreas: "When are you going to give back our house?""I do understand you," Ahmet said. "You want your house back and you are ready to forget whatever has happened on Cyprus over the past many decades. But, who is going to give back my father. Who is going to give back my childhood that I spent in sheer poverty because I was left without a father. Who is going to give back my youth that I spent fighting to stop you Greek Cypriots annihilating all of us Turkish Cypriots on Cyprus? Who is going to give back the husband of my mother or give back her hearing that she lost in the fighting? Am I responsible for whatever went on in Cyprus? Who started this fight and what for? Who is to compensate my loses?"After an hour-long discussion, they became friends. Since then Andreas has been stopping once a while to have a coffee under Ahmet’s bower. Both of them wait for a resolution to the Cyprus problem which might provide a comprehensive settlement on the Cyprus issue, including the property matters that take into consideration not only the "former owners" but also the "present owners."
Accompanied by a woman in her seventies, a man in his fifties stopped in front of the barber shop. He opened the iron gate of the garden as if he was entering his own home. He approached Ahmet and his friends and in broken and heavily accented Turkish yelled at the group: "Çıkın evimden!" (Get out of my house!). Like many Turkish Cypriots who moved after the Turkish intervention from their villages in what became the Greek Cypriot southern Cyprus and were settled on properties left by the Greek Cypriots in the north, Ahmet was expecting such a visitor ever since the gates were opened and the two peoples of the island found an opportunity to see "the other side" freely. Ahmet stood up in respect for the visitor. In broken Greek, he replied "Ela re gumbare" (Come on in my friend) and extended his hand to shake the hand of the approaching Greek Cypriot. The Greek Cypriot man, hiding his hand behind his back to avoid a handshake, shouted again in anger: "Get out of my house!"
Ahmet, maintaining his calm, showed a chair to the Greek Cypriot man and asked whether the accompanying "old lady", who was still standing outside the fence with wet eyes, would like to enter as well. He called Sadiye as well to come and greet the "guests."After the man and the lady in his seventies sat under the bower, nearby neighbors started to gather seeing that something exciting was happening in Ahmet’s house. "Welcome," Ahmet said, "I understand that you are the former owners of my shop and house. We have some items that we have been keeping for you ever since we settled in here. There are some family photographs and a small wooden box containing some hand-made toys. Simple things, but we kept them in anticipation of this day.""Really?" the Greek Cypriot man asked. "I am Andreas. This is my mother Maria." In the mean time, Sadiye dashed into the house and came back with the photographs and the wooden box. The photographs were wedding photos of Maria and her husband, and photos of some babies and some elderly people. Maria did not know Turkish or English, but Andreas started to translate. "Thank you...
You have given me precious gifts. You have given me my memories," the old woman in tears was saying. Andreas said the wooden box belonged to him and the toys inside were made by his late father.Soon, the discussion focused once again on the key demand of Andreas: "When are you going to give back our house?""I do understand you," Ahmet said. "You want your house back and you are ready to forget whatever has happened on Cyprus over the past many decades. But, who is going to give back my father. Who is going to give back my childhood that I spent in sheer poverty because I was left without a father. Who is going to give back my youth that I spent fighting to stop you Greek Cypriots annihilating all of us Turkish Cypriots on Cyprus? Who is going to give back the husband of my mother or give back her hearing that she lost in the fighting? Am I responsible for whatever went on in Cyprus? Who started this fight and what for? Who is to compensate my loses?"After an hour-long discussion, they became friends. Since then Andreas has been stopping once a while to have a coffee under Ahmet’s bower. Both of them wait for a resolution to the Cyprus problem which might provide a comprehensive settlement on the Cyprus issue, including the property matters that take into consideration not only the "former owners" but also the "present owners."
Paylaş
LinkedinFlipboardLinki KopyalaYazı Tipi
