Ozkaramehmet

This is a story of my father who has been missing since July 1974 and would like you to publish it to remind our people of what many of us lived through at the hands of the Greek and Greek Cypriot terrorists. I am sure many of them are in the same situation as I am. I live in the village of Kopru (Kukla) in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. I am a 32 year old teacher my name is Sozer Ozkaramehmet. As I am writing the story of my father, who was only one of the hundreds, thousands of Turkish Cypriots men women and children who were butchered by Greeks and Greek Cypriots, I am trembling and reliving those terrible fearful days of July 1974

I can still hear the screams of my mother and my relatives in the village. Kopru is a small Turkish Cypriot village. Before 1974 it had a population of 180 people mostly working on their land. All the neighbouring villages surrounding Kopru were Greek Cypriot. On the 15 July 1974 Greek Cypriots stared to fight among themselves and later they turned on to the innocent Turkish Cypriots. On 22 July 1974 at around 13:00 hundreds of Greek Cypriots from the surrounding villages aided by Greek soldiers attacked our village. Men folk of the village including my father started to defend the village. My mother took my two sisters and me and ran to the centre of the village trying to protect us from the flying bullets and exploding bombs. All the women and children were hiding in two houses, every one was crying and screaming. I was only nine years old and it was the first time that I had experienced so much fear. Bombs were exploding all around us. My two older sisters and I were hanging on to our mother's skirts and could not stop shivering. It seemed like the bombs would never stop exploding. Attack of the Greeks on the village carried on until 19:00 and gradually died down with the nightfall. They could not take our village. Once the attack stopped, one by one the men of the village started to come back to the houses where we were hiding to see their families. My mother, my sisters and I were also waiting for my father's safe return. Alas, hours went by but he did not return. We were worried that something terrible had happened to him. That night everyone searched for him with no result. Search went on the next day and some of the men found traces of blood where he was the previous night Next few weeks were like hell for us, our pain and suffering would not end. Later investigation by our relatives revealed that, that terrible night my father was wounded and captured by the attacking Greeks. Information came from the neighbouring Greek Cypriot villagers that when the Greeks could not take our village they were very angry and they decided to make my father pay for their failure. That night my father was subjected to a terrible torture, his nails were pulled off; his body was cut up. Next day he was taken to the Greek Cypriot village of Kallopsida. There, he was tied up to a Land Rover and was dragged through the streets of the village. His remains were buried some where outside the village. Search for my father went on for years with no result. For a long time at nights my mother used to cuddle us and cry until the morning. This went on until she had no more tears left to shed. Years went by and we grew up without a father. We still miss his affection and we never stopped loving him. My mother has never recovered; she has never managed a real smile. Somehow she is still waiting for his safe return. I still want to recover my fathers missing remains so that I can put him into his final resting-place. This is the sad story of my father Mehmet Huseyin who was butchered by Greeks and Greek Cypriots. He will always live in our hearts. Those who are forcing us to live with the Greeks in a mixed Cyprus, think again. I for one will never accept it and there are hundreds and thousands like me. His loving son Sozer Ozkaramehmet