<\/p>\n
July 15th 1974: Peristerona, Famagusta\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
Loucas sat with his family around the radio listening intently as news broke out about a military coup orchestrated by Greece.\u00a0 \u201cArchbishop Makarios III has been removed from the Cypriot Presidency,\u201d a voice cracked over the radio.\u00a0 \u201cNikos Sampson has been put into power.\u201d\u00a0 Sampson was a Pro-Enosis journalist, a puppet for the Greek government to try to promote a political unification between Greece and Cyprus.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 His cousins who lived next door came over to watch the news with them.\u00a0 Everyone sat quietly clinging on to any piece of information about the coup and a possible threat from Turkey.\u00a0 Whenever there was a little bit of conflict, the Cypriots were fearful that the Turks would invade.\u00a0 Even at 10 years old, Loucas was aware of the possibility of an invasion.\u00a0 In school they practiced sheltering drills and evacuations.\u00a0 That night the village was quiet and the roofs, usually full of villagers sleeping to escape the summer heat, were empty.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n July 16th 1974: Peristerona, Famagusta\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n The next few days the village was filled with anxieties, but life didn\u2019t stop, the chores still needed to be done.\u00a0 Jacob fed the cows and sheep with his father.\u00a0 Loucas collected water from the wells, and his sisters helped their mother bake loaves of bread in the big clay ovens outside their house.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 He quickly put on his Sunday church clothes and followed the priest to the church.\u00a0 The church was a five minute walk from the house.\u00a0 It was a big white building with three blue domes adorned with a cross atop each one.\u00a0 Numerous small, circular windows covered the walls.\u00a0 Mothers and fathers were already waiting in front of the three arches with their little babies ready to be quickly baptized.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 He worked alongside the Priest as he performed 15 minute versions of the usual hour-long Orthodox baptisms.\u00a0 He poured oil from a clay pitcher on the priest\u2019s hands for him to lather the babies up before dunking them three times in the tub.\u00a0 He wrapped the babies in towels before handing them off to their parents and bringing forth the next baby to be christened.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n July 20th 1974: Peristerona, Famagusta\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n At 5:30am sirens broke out throughout the island signaling what everyone had been waiting for the past five days. Turkey had finally invaded.\u00a0 Loucas jumped out of bed, startling the cat that slept beside him and ran to turn on the radio.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 \u201cCalling all Cypriot reserve troops: report for active duty.\u201d\u00a0 Loucas thought of his 20 year old neighbor who had just returned back to Peristerona for the summer from a university in Australia.\u00a0 He would report for duty the following day and never return.\u00a0 Loucas thought of his two older brothers, thankful they were safe in the U.S., working.\u00a0 When the sun rose that morning, they watched aircrafts gliding across the blue skies, dropping bombs a mere 60 kilometers away.\u00a0 They were too far away to hear the bombs, but they watched as the sky began to fill with smoke and turn gray.\u00a0 Everyone stayed close to their houses and their radios that day, listening for any updates on Kyrenia and the movement of the Turkish troops.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n July 30th 1974: Orange Groves\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Peristerona was ordered to temporarily evacuate as the Turkish troops continued to advance across the island.\u00a0 They were going to take cover in the orange groves about a 30 minute drive from the village.\u00a0 Loucas\u2019 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.\u00a0 Panayotis made sure the animals were well fed before they left.\u00a0 His wife, Antigone, packed up some family photos, clothes for the children, some canned items, and loaves of bread still warm from the oven.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Loucas fed his cat and its two kittens that it had given birth to in his bed a few months earlier.\u00a0 Cyprus was filled with cats.\u00a0 It was said an Egyptian Princess brought them to Cyprus to get rid of rats and snakes.\u00a0 The cats had jobs to do, and they weren\u2019t inside animals. Loucas\u2019 cats were the exception.\u00a0 They came and went as they pleased, but he fed them and they slept in his bed.\u00a0 He let the cats outside before they left.\u00a0 Antigone, Panayotis, their children, along with their cousins loaded up in the back of the dump truck and drove to the orange groves.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It was like camping.\u00a0 They slept out in the open air covered by the shade of hundreds of orange trees.\u00a0 They listened to the cicadas buzz at night and watched cats run through the groves as they hunted for their next meal.\u00a0 The air smelled sweet and smoky from the fruit trees and the fire that they kept going.\u00a0 The oranges weren\u2019t ready to be picked yet, but there were peach and plum trees filled with ripe fruit that they ate.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n August 4th 1974: Orange Groves\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Panayotis and Antigone were fighting loudly.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Antigone\u2019s brother Paraskevas and his nephew Tenasis left the orange fields with about 15 other people and headed back to the village.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n August 5th 1974: Orange Groves\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Loucas was woken up by intense whispering.\u00a0 It was still dark out, but he could see that his cousin Tenasis had returned and was whispering to his parents and aunt frantically.\u00a0 Tenasis explained how the villagers had made it back to the deserted village without any resistance.\u00a0 They fed the animals and grabbed a few belongings, but on their way back, they were intercepted by Turkish troops.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 As the Turks began to fire at them, Paraskevas tackled Tenasis and brought him down as he was shot.\u00a0 Tenasis survived the firing squad, and waited throughout the night underneath the dead bodies and escaped.\u00a0 Tenasis held Paraskevas\u2019 wedding band that he took off his body before he escaped.\u00a0 He handed the ring to Paraskevas\u2019 wife whose sobs had now woken up the others.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n January 1975: Larnaca Marina\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n The Sofocli family was leaving Cyprus.\u00a0 They had been staying in Nicosia, the capital, with Antigone\u2019s brother for the past few months and had received word that her other brother in America was going to sponsor them.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 From Athens, they would fly to the US.\u00a0 It was Loucas\u2019 first time on a boat and his stomach felt uneasy.\u00a0 A bad combination of seasickness, sadness, and a longing to stay.\u00a0 He stood on the deck with his family as the cargo ship slowly pulled away.\u00a0 Hot tears slid down his checks as he took in the last sights of his beautiful little island.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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