Q. Before starting to tell your story, would you please
tell the condition of that day. What was the condition of
people, what were their and your feelings on that particular
date?
For 11 years, we lived in very bad conditions. I don't mean
that we had no money. Rather, we were not in comfort. Greek
Cypriots started actions to reach their goal -- ENOSIS. Whenever
we read newspapers, we saw that some Turkish Cypriots were
killed. Sometimes they killed one person, sometimes they killed
all people of a village. Of course, under this situation, the
condition was very bad. Living with the feeling of death was
incredible.
Q. Ok. What is your experience?
On the 20th of July, I washed dirty clothes and went out to
the garden to hang up the clothes on a rope. While I was hanging
up them, I heard some sounds of guns. Then, I saw the bullets.
Q. What did you feel?
I remember my fear quite well. My heart rate increased
suddenly. I thought that Greek Cypriots had come to our village.
Of course, I ran to get my child and a bag to put some clothes
in. I was 20 years old. I mean I was nearly a child. So, I
went to my neighbor with my child and a bag. My husband was in
the army on that date and I was alone. My neighbor's house was
in a safer place and many people came to that house. There were
approximately 20-25 people in that little house. Everyone was in
fear and they were in panic. After a while, we learned that the
reason for the war was that Turkish troops came to Cyprus and
Greek Cypriots were resisting against Turkey.
Q. What did you think when you heard that?
Of course, I became very happy. Although it was a war, I was
happy. This is because I was sure that Turkey would save our
lives. Anyway, in order to save ourselves from the bullets, we
put ourselves under the beds. We spent the night in that house.
The next day, we heard that the war had temporarily stopped.
Then, we began to walk to the British base. We passed very bad
roads, streams, etc. I had slippers on my feet and they got
damaged very quickly. So, I had no more shoes. Fortunately
someone else gave me other shoes and I could keep walking.
Finally, we reached the base. People there gave us water, meals
and tents. Seeing this kind of behavior was good. Then, we used
our tents and we never came back to our homes. We lived in the
tents for 5 months.
Q. How were your feelings when you realized that you would
not go back to your home?
It is obvious that if you leave your home against your will,
you will be very upset. So, I was really very sad. We organized
everything for our life in my village and my home was finished
just 3 months before we moved to tents. So, it was a very bad
feeling. We had our jobs in our village and we also had to leave
our jobs there. We had to reorganize our whole life from the
starting point. In short, I can say that I never want to live
this kind of experience again.
Thank you for telling me one of your experiences.
DEMOGRAPHICS
Occupation: Housewife.
Age: 43.
Sex: Female.
Nationality: TRNC.
Where now lives (country and city/town/village): Lefkosa.
Where lived during the events described during the interview:
Evdim, a village in Limassol.
Occupation (or life's work) of the main income earner in
household when growing up: Father grew grapes.
Education: Graduated from secondary school.