In search of the father and the son from Gouphes…

I had first heard from readers the story of the `father and the son` about two years ago. The story came to me through the `Hot Line` I had established with my readers in Yeniduzen – they would call me with or without their names to tell me the `untold stories` of Cyprus, pointing out probable burial sites of `missing` persons. The story came to me saying that `A father and son had been killed back in 1974… The father had begged the killers to kill him first, in order not to see the death of his son… But the killers were so arrogant, they had killed the son first and then the father, allowing him to experience the pain of seeing his son die…`

Time had passed and one day a few weeks ago, another reader added more details:

`You know what happened to the killers of the father and the son? Three persons killed him and they all died strange deaths… Some of them had to suffer seeing their child or grandchild having cancer...`

When I went to work, I searched for those `missing` from Gouphes (Chamlica)… I called my reader back:

`I found their names and pictures… I will publish this tomorrow…`

So I wrote the story, as was told to me by my reader…

Next day, I got a call from another reader in Lefkonico…

`I am so happy you wrote that story about the Loizou family` he was telling me… `They were really nice people… Sometimes I had worked for Michael Loizou, so he paid me and I ate their bread… I want to tell you their story…`

So I went to Lefkonico last week, to interview this reader of mine…

`Gouphes was a mixed village once` he was telling me, `but all the Greek Cypriots had left the village over time except the Loizou family. Michael Loizou remained in the village… He had two tractors, maybe 200-300 animals and he was also taking care of the property of the Greek Cypriots who had left the village. I worked for him sometimes and his wife, a true lady whose hand must be kissed, would cook for us… One day she had cooked kolokassi and moulihiya but she only served me mulihiya while they were eating kolokassi…

`Mrs. Phiyou!` I said to her, `why did you serve me only moulihiya and not kolokassi?`

`Because, the kolokassi I have cooked with pork. I know you are not supposed to eat pork… But if you want kolokassi, go ahead, the pot is there, serve yourself…`

She was such a thoughtful woman… They had a son and two daughters. I think the daughters were studying in the gymnasium at Lefkonico or Larnaca… The son was only about 15 years old.

Three persons killed them. It was after the discovery of the mass graves of the Turkish Cypriot women and children raped and killed at Maratha-Sandallaris-Aloa. One person from Gouphes had his relatives killed there and the commander had told him to `take revenge`.

The Loizou family had been arrested and kept in a house and that day, they had sent the father and mother of Michael Loizou to their house, so they would not see their son and angoni being taken. They came and took the father and the son with a tractor towards Artemi (Aridami). This was the Dennarga forest and there was a big pine tree at the top of the field of Ramadan. There, they were killed and buried. I did not see this with my own eyes but later, I saw freshly dug earth there. I heard that the Missing Persons Committee dug somewhere around there but did not find anything… When they could not find the bones, perhaps a rumor started that the family of Loizou, had found a way to take back the bones. I think this rumor is a lie – no one took those bones… I will bring you to the place that is said to be their burial site…`

He had other stories to tell me, showing me other probable burial sites in Lefkonico at the entrance of the village. These were some wells where some `missing` Greek Cypriots might have been buried…

So we went, on a dirt track, from Gouphes to Artemi in search of the father and the son Loizou… I was driving slowly, to give him a chance to find the pine tree… Finally we found the place, the probable burial site for Michael and Loizos Loizou… We got off the car, walking around and checking at this place where there was no sign of `civilization`…

It was quiet under the pine tree and we stood, listening to the silence of the hills…

`See? There are marks here that the Missing Persons Committee might have dug – but I think they dug the wrong place… It is within 40-50 square meters of this pine tree, the graves you are looking for… The graves must be shallow since they had not used bulldozers but dug them by hand…`

I was taking photos and walking around, walking carefully in order not to upset snakes, in case they had a nest around here… There wasn’t one but two big pine trees, apart from the much smaller ones…

`This is the place` my reader was telling me… `See? Just across, there is this place where the villagers take mosaics to decorate their houses… That’s how I remember it… I used to come for hunting here, that’s how I saw the freshly dug earth, back then…After the checkpoints opened, I learnt that their daughter came looking for me but could not find me… If you reach them, please give my regards… I will do everything to help you to find their bones…`

Later, another reader would call me to tell me that his father, the deceased Mustafa Oztash  had been the commander of the village Gouphes and had nothing to do with the decision of killing the father and son Louizous.

`It was the big commander from Turkey that resided in Caoz that gave the order. He was suspicious of Michael Loizou who was visiting Lefkonico often… He was suspicious of him `spying`. So he gave the order. My father tried to convince the Loizou family to leave the village but they would not since they had not yet taken their harvest and had not sold their animals… They were living across our house… My father wasn’t even in the village when this happened…`

On my way back, I saw birds with blue wings that I had never seen before… In Gouphes, they told me, they call these birds `peacocks` even though they are not peacocks… They were beautiful, flying all together, towards the pine tree… Perhaps, we would be lucky enough, to find the traces of the father and son, buried somewhere in this silent place…