When a dream becomes a nightmare

                What would you do if you learned that you were never going to see your house again?  It was an early morning on the 20^th of July 1974 in Cyprus when the Turkish army started a war in order to occupy the island.  The reason that Turkish occupied Cyprus is still unclear to most Greek Cypriots, but one of the main reasons that they occupied us is for the favorable geographical position of Cyprus.  The war sirens began, and fear and panic overwhelmed the island.  My grandmother woke up my mother and my uncle in a hurry to get dressed, so they could flee and leave the village as far as they could to save their lives.  At that moment, my grandfather was preparing the car while Turkish airplanes started bombing the area.  They didn’t have much time to take anything with them, except some food supplies, so they got into the car and started getting away.  This historic event has changed my mother’s family’s lives because they had to leave their village and endure the horror of war.

                At that time my mother’s family became refugees in their homeland, and lost everything they had.  They tried to escape by going towards the mountains where they could be safer.  My mother’s family and other relatives lived in caves for a couple of days trying to hide from Turkish soldiers.  However, they couldn’t stay there for a long time because Turkish soldiers were getting closer to the mountains.  In the middle of the night, they heard airplanes passing above the area where they were hiding, and suddenly Turkish airplanes started bombing the whole area.  My grandparents immediately ran to my mother and my uncle to cover them with their bodies, so when a bomb landed it would hit them first and not their children.

                Living through war was the hardest part, and no one from my mother’s family or anyone who lived through the war could escape from the bad memories. Fear was spread to all the citizens that were running away to save their lives. The next morning when everything was calm for a while, my grandparents took their kids and started moving away from the mountains.  They had probably crossed the one third of the island by foot.  As they were walking, they passed by dead bodies of women, soldiers and even kids.  I can’t imagine the feeling that my mother and my uncle had that moment when they saw so many dead bodies.  My mother told me that there wasn’t a second of the day that she wasn’t afraid for her life, or her family’s life she didn’t know if they would be able to survive that nightmare.  She didn’t have a clue about her friends, or about her relatives, if they were alive or if they left their houses in time before Turkish soldiers entered their village. The Cypriot army wasn’t prepared for a war because no one knew about it.  As a result, they didn’t have the necessary equipment to fight back, and they didn’t have enough guns.  Despite this fact, The Turkish found the chance to take captives and torture them without merci they raped women and then they killed them or they let them pregnant and make them to raise a Turkish kid.  Their actions were full of hate, it’s hard to understand this kind of behavior.

                Forty years have passed and there isn’t a day that my grandparent’s family doesn’t think about that awful nightmare they experienced, and everything they lost.  The war has especially affected my grandfather’s life, as he never stops talking about it and telling us stories about the awful experience he and his family have been through.  Every year on the 20^th of July, memories come up when the war sirens overwhelm the island, which they are about to keep the memory alive in people’s minds.  The siren is a part of the war and it’s about keeping in Cypriots memory their lands, the people who lost their lives, the soldiers, the captives and those who are still missing, to remind the pain it has been caused that day in the beautiful island of Cyprus.  Every time my grandfather tells me stories about that horrifying day, his voice breaks.  Every time he speaks about the land where he grew up and the village of Karavas he loved, and lived his life.  His heart breaks into tiny pieces when he talks about the land he lost in the war and how he misses the village of Karavas, which is the place where now he has to get permission to enter and to show his passport to get in.  He have to see others living in his house, his land, in everything that gave his heart and soul to build. 

                This is how this historic event affected their lives.  From one day to another, they lost everything they had, their dreams, and hopes.  Everything they built and worked for was lost. From middle class citizens, they became refugees and had to start all over again for a crime which they never committed.  They lost everything they had just to pleasure other government’s economic benefits.  As Cyprus had favorable geographical position and it has been conquered from many other countries before many ages ago. Cyprus geological position was helpful for trading and it’s possible to see more than three countries including Turkey from Cyprus, and it was good for their wars and the safety of Turkey.  I am just wondering why wars have to exist, and why pain, fear, death and injustice have to be caused to people.  Is it just to pleasure other’s needs? After all my mother’s family has been through, I hope that wars will stop, and people will live in peace.  However, I wish that someday my grandfather can wake up in his house in Karavas and I can see my homeland free again and gain all of our property back.  I want to see my family happy again.