Huseyin's Story

Q. Can you tell me your story about moving in 1974? Where do you come from and what happened?
I came from Southern Cyprus to the Northern Cyprus in 1974. I came here from Paphos and as a captive, because I was a policeman and Greeks took captive some policemen in 1974. Then the first [Turkish] peace operation happened and Greeks brought all captives from Southern Cyprus to Northern Cyprus. In other words they bartered captives. Turks gave Greeks captives to the Greeks and Greeks gave Turkish captives to the Turks. So I became free because of this event. Then the government sent me to Karpaz and I continued my work, but my wife and other members of my family could not pass through to northern Cyprus so I was alone.

After the second peace event in 1975, my family came here. Then everything started to change. I felt that I had been born again. The government gave us a home but it had no furniture in it. We slept on the floor and we became very poor because we had lost all of our money, home and fields. But I got a chance because I was a policeman and I started to bring some goods and built my house. Shortly they were very difficult days that we did not want to remember.

Q. Did you have any feelings or emotions at that time (when you came to Northern Cyprus)?
Yes. I felt very sad and angry. I was sad because I did not receive any news from my family. I did not know if they were alive or dead. Then I learned that Greeks killed my mother and that was the event which made me lose my temper. Greeks killed my mother and they cut her fingers and took her rings. So this hurt me, and made me very angry.

Q. Did these feelings or emotions help you in a way?
No. They could not help me. I just cried and expected that other members of my family would return to me.

Q. Were these feelings or emotions a problem for you in any way?
Yes. For example, I could not think right. I did not want to live. In other words I did not feel that I was alive, I just thought of myself as an animal that lives in a prison and could not do anything.

Q. Did you have any questions or confusions at that time?
Yes. I had many questions. For example, what will happen to us? How can we get together? What kinds of events were waiting for us? Was my family alive or dead?

Q. Did these questions or confusions help you in any way?
No. Because I could not find answers to my questions.

Q. Were these questions or confusions a problem for you in any way?
Of course they were problems for me, because they were the questions of my own life, and the answers would show my future. The answers could cause my happiness and sadness. They retired me from my environment.

Q. Was there anything that happened during this time that was helpful for you?
Yes. I remembered that one of my friend said to me that "We must be powerful, we must not lose our expectation, otherwise we can not succeed to live and protect our family and our country."

Q. How did this help you?
These words gave me a power, they helped me to think better and became more powerful. These words made me believe that if I had my power my family would became powerful as well.

Q. Was there anything that hurt you or got in you way or was a problem for you somehow?
Yes. I said that after I came Northern Cyprus one person said to me that Greeks killed my mother and they also cut off her fingers to take her rings. At that moment I felt that I had heard a story, but this was not a story. It was real. I became very sad. These words hurt me. I became very angry. I wanted to kill all Greeks at that moment.

Q. How did this hurt you or was a problem for you?
After this event whenever someone tried to give me information about someone, I did not let him or her, because I was afraid of hearing bad information.

Q. Was there anything that might have helped you or could have helped you?
Yes. Only my family; in other words, only my wife could have helped me.

Q. How would this have helped you?
I believe that family is one part of the human life. If you lose your family, you feel alone and when you are alone you just think bad things. But my wife and my family gave me power. They made me happy. For example I learned that I had lost my mother, but I also knew that my wife would help me. In other words, you lost one of your important parts but you also knew that there was another important person who was waiting for you.

Q. Is there anything in your experience during this time that you would say was a "lesson for life?"
I wanted to answer this question like this: a lesson for life for me is an idea or feeling that makes you understand something. And I want to say this: All these events that I lived in 1974 showed me that freedom is one of the important things in the world. If you are free everything is perfect.

Q. Is there anything you else you would like to say about your experience during this time?
No, that's enough I think.

Q. Is there anything you would like to say about the questions I have asked or the style of the interview itself?
This was a very difficult interview. When you said to me that you wanted to do an interview with me I thought that I would just tell you some events, but you led me to think and also feel lots of things.

DEMOGRAPHICS
Occupation: Retired policeman
Age: 47
Sex: Male
Nationality: Turkish Cypriot
Where now lives (country and city/town/village): Ziyomet village, near Erenkoy in the Karpaz.
Where lived during the events described during the interview: Paphos.
Occupation (or life's work) of the main income earner in household when growing up: Policeman.