FIVE MEMBERS of a Greek Cypriot family between the ages of two and 48, who were murdered during the 1974 Turkish invasion will be buried on Sunday, 35 years after they were killed.
Surviving brothers Costas and Petros Souppouris, who were eight and ten at the time, in an interview with the Cyprus News Agency yesterday said “never again” as they prepared for the funerals of their father Andreas Souppouris, 48, their mother Areti Souppouris, 39, brother Dimitris Souppouris 6 years old, sister Julia Souppouris, 2, and aunt Thekla Souppouris, 47.
The remains of the five were recently located in a mass grave along with the remains of 12 other people, murdered during the same incident in Palekythro and identified through the DNA method.
“We hope that what we have been through does not happen again, so that our children do not experience anything like that,” said Costas describing the incident on August 17, 1974 when a group of young Turkish Cypriots went to the family home, where 23 Greek Cypriots were hiding.
“We hope that what happened then and past mistakes made by some persons from both sides on the island teach us a lesson. It is the only thing we hope for,” added Petros who said the funeral was very important for the family. “At least now we know what happened”, said Costas, who managed to escape the murderers just minutes before the killing.
“One by one, they took us out of the house, my father, my mother, the Liasis family. My brother managed to escape and he went to our grandmother’s house,” said Petros of Costas. My brother Yiannis, whose remains have not yet been found, and I left the house last. They kept shooting. One of them ordered us out of the house and the rest were shooting at us. I was wounded. After a couple of hours, the Turkish army arrived and offered us medical care. During the next days I met up with my brother Costas and my aunts. After a few days they took us to the school at Voni village and a month later we came to the southern government controlled part of the country.”
Petros said that he had never asked to learn the names of those who killed six members of his family.
“The point is what will happen in the future. Of course the criminals still remain criminals, but the most important thing is what we, as Cypriots, choose to do; either to continue a vendetta and the killings or to learn about what happened and try to understand why those things happened. I have opted for the second choice,” he said.
