[/QUOTE]
By Mikaela Koulle
Those dark days of 1974 when Attila the Terrible invaded Cyprus and brought devastation and destruction, status quo that still exists today with the illegal Turkish occupation of our territories, remembers speaking to the Cyprus Times Famagusta resident Andreas Papanikolaou.
Mr Andreas, 12 years old at the time, left his childhood dreams well kept in their home in Famagusta. Together with his parents and sisters they fled in the second invasion to escape the fury of the occupiers.
We left with the clothes we were wearing to escape... only the keys to the house were taken from us by my mother, we locked the door and left, because we would return. So we believed that in a few days we would return to our beloved city, to our home, says Mr. Andreas excitedly.
The keys to their home in the enclosed city of Famagusta are kept safe by Mrs. Cassandra Papanikolaou, 82 years old today. Almost half a century later she began to lose faith in returning, but the keys are there, with a note. "Keys of Varosha."
As Mr. Andreas recounts, his mother, then 33 years old, himself 12 and his brothers 10 and 8 years old, initially headed for Dhekelia after the town was bombed and evacuated.
"We slept in the car for two nights before the tents were even brought to us... Then we went to Frenaros, the parents were sleeping on the floor, in the same house refugees and other families found temporary shelter there.
I will not forget when we heard the planes bombing and passing over us with a piercing sound... Little children then, we ran under the beds to protect ourselves.
In the next room a woman pregnant, crying. We could hear the voices giving birth that night there in the house. Shocked we, our older parents remember more things. They also had more hope that we would return home. Every time there were talks about the Cyprus problem, they thought we would go back... they said now we will go back. Now the hope is gone.
To our house even when the barricades were opened we never managed to go because it is in the enclosed city, I only went there on Kennedy and Democracy avenues that I vaguely remembered. I made sure I went with friends who remembered more, as we left everything so did the buildings and streets.
The days of the war were overwhelming, they are forever etched in our memory and will follow us until we leave this world."
Contents of this article including associated images are belongs Cyprus Times
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or Cyprus Times
Source
