Baptisms and Bicycle Keys
Nicole Sofocli
July 15th 1974: Peristerona, Famagusta
Loucas sat with his family around the radio listening intently as news broke out about a military coup orchestrated by Greece. “Archbishop Makarios III has been removed from the Cypriot Presidency,” a voice cracked over the radio. “Nikos Sampson has been put into power.” Sampson was a Pro-Enosis journalist, a puppet for the Greek government to try to promote a political unification between Greece and Cyprus. Loucas and his brother Jacob rolled the television out onto the veranda, put the antennas up and turned the news on to see what was being said about the coup. His cousins who lived next door came over to watch the news with them. Everyone sat quietly clinging on to any piece of information about the coup and a possible threat from Turkey. Whenever there was a little bit of conflict, the Cypriots were fearful that the Turks would invade. Even at 10 years old, Loucas was aware of the possibility of an invasion. In school they practiced sheltering drills and evacuations. That night the village was quiet and the roofs, usually full of villagers sleeping to escape the summer heat, were empty.
July 16th 1974: Peristerona, Famagusta
The next few days the village was filled with anxieties, but life didn’t stop, the chores still needed to be done. Jacob fed the cows and sheep with his father. Loucas collected water from the wells, and his sisters helped their mother bake loaves of bread in the big clay ovens outside their house. The village priest, Father Thorese, came to the house and asked Loucas to be an altar boy. The priest was performing baptisms on the newborn babies in the village who had not yet been christened. He quickly put on his Sunday church clothes and followed the priest to the church. The church was a five minute walk from the house. It was a big white building with three blue domes adorned with a cross atop each one. Numerous small, circular windows covered the walls. Mothers and fathers were already waiting in front of the three arches with their little babies ready to be quickly baptized. The bright summer sun streamed through the stained glass windows. It bounced off the metal tub, filled with holy water in the center of the altar, and blinded Loucas. He worked alongside the Priest as he performed 15 minute versions of the usual hour-long Orthodox baptisms. He poured oil from a clay pitcher on the priest’s hands for him to lather the babies up before dunking them three times in the tub. He wrapped the babies in towels before handing them off to their parents and bringing forth the next baby to be christened.
July 20th 1974: Peristerona, Famagusta
At 5:30am sirens broke out throughout the island signaling what everyone had been waiting for the past five days. Turkey had finally invaded. Loucas jumped out of bed, startling the cat that slept beside him and ran to turn on the radio. The rest of his family gathered around the radio and listened as the broadcasters announced attacks on villages in Kyrenia, about 60 kilometers from their own village of Peristerona in Famagusta. “Calling all Cypriot reserve troops: report for active duty.” Loucas thought of his 20 year old neighbor who had just returned back to Peristerona for the summer from a university in Australia. He would report for duty the following day and never return. Loucas thought of his two older brothers, thankful they were safe in the U.S., working. When the sun rose that morning, they watched aircrafts gliding across the blue skies, dropping bombs a mere 60 kilometers away. They were too far away to hear the bombs, but they watched as the sky began to fill with smoke and turn gray. Everyone stayed close to their houses and their radios that day, listening for any updates on Kyrenia and the movement of the Turkish troops.
July 30th 1974: Orange Groves
Peristerona was ordered to temporarily evacuate as the Turkish troops continued to advance across the island. They were going to take cover in the orange groves about a 30 minute drive from the village. Loucas’ father, Panayotis, had a big dump truck that they would load up with necessities for a few days and transport as many people from the village as they could. Panayotis made sure the animals were well fed before they left. His wife, Antigone, packed up some family photos, clothes for the children, some canned items, and loaves of bread still warm from the oven. Loucas and his brothers locked up their bicycles behind the house and hid the keys in a hole in the clay walls of their house. Loucas fed his cat and its two kittens that it had given birth to in his bed a few months earlier. Cyprus was filled with cats. It was said an Egyptian Princess brought them to Cyprus to get rid of rats and snakes. The cats had jobs to do, and they weren’t inside animals. Loucas’ cats were the exception. They came and went as they pleased, but he fed them and they slept in his bed. He let the cats outside before they left. Antigone, Panayotis, their children, along with their cousins loaded up in the back of the dump truck and drove to the orange groves.
It was like camping. They slept out in the open air covered by the shade of hundreds of orange trees. They listened to the cicadas buzz at night and watched cats run through the groves as they hunted for their next meal. The air smelled sweet and smoky from the fruit trees and the fire that they kept going. The oranges weren’t ready to be picked yet, but there were peach and plum trees filled with ripe fruit that they ate.
August 4th 1974: Orange Groves
Panayotis and Antigone were fighting loudly. They had received information that the Turks had not invaded Peristerona and a bunch of villagers wanted to go back to take a few more belongings and check up on the cows and sheep. Panayotis wanted to go, but Antigone was yelling at him, saying it was too dangerous in her voice that told Panayotis her say was final. Antigone’s brother Paraskevas and his nephew Tenasis left the orange fields with about 15 other people and headed back to the village.
August 5th 1974: Orange Groves
Loucas was woken up by intense whispering. It was still dark out, but he could see that his cousin Tenasis had returned and was whispering to his parents and aunt frantically. Tenasis explained how the villagers had made it back to the deserted village without any resistance. They fed the animals and grabbed a few belongings, but on their way back, they were intercepted by Turkish troops. The Turks released the Priest and an elderly man, but the rest of the villagers, about a dozen people including him and Paraskevas, were lined up in a firing squad. As the Turks began to fire at them, Paraskevas tackled Tenasis and brought him down as he was shot. Tenasis survived the firing squad, and waited throughout the night underneath the dead bodies and escaped. Tenasis held Paraskevas’ wedding band that he took off his body before he escaped. He handed the ring to Paraskevas’ wife whose sobs had now woken up the others.
January 1975: Larnaca Marina
The Sofocli family was leaving Cyprus. They had been staying in Nicosia, the capital, with Antigone’s brother for the past few months and had received word that her other brother in America was going to sponsor them. They had arrived at the marina in Larnaca, about a 40 minute drive from Nicosia, and boarded a cargo ship that would take them to Athens. From Athens, they would fly to the US. It was Loucas’ first time on a boat and his stomach felt uneasy. A bad combination of seasickness, sadness, and a longing to stay. He stood on the deck with his family as the cargo ship slowly pulled away. Hot tears slid down his checks as he took in the last sights of his beautiful little island.
Nicole Sofocli is from Freehold, New Jersey. She was an English major with a political science, and she graduated in May 2024. She writes, “This is a piece I wrote about my father and his village in Cyprus during the Turkish invasion in 1974.”
Nicole wrote this piece in a course taught by Paul Blaney, who selected this piece for inclusion in WHR.