The two young men, Andreas Petrou Georgiou and Christos Socratous Ioannou were going on a trip on their motorcycle on the 4th of February 1964… They were not aware that Fehim Mehmet and Kamil Huseyin Koushouri from Piroi had been kidnapped recently by some Greek Cypriots and were “missing”. Some Turkish Cypriots from Koshi would kidnap them and their motorcycle, in order to use in a possible “exchange” of prisoners so that they would get back Fehim Mehmet and Kamil Huseyin Koushouri…
Andreas was barely 24 years old and Christos was 20… From the place they had been kidnapped, they would be taken to Louroudjina… Why were they taken to Louroudjina? It was because there was a Turkish Cypriot police station there and the kidnappers took them there, in order to be used in an “exchange” in return for Fehim Mehmet and Kamil Huseyin Koushouri…
Andreas Petrou and Christos Socratous Ioannou.jpg
The two young men would be kept in a house (in a bathroom) or in a warehouse/barn for six months… Their motorcycle would be buried in the garden of a Turkish Cypriot from Louroudjina. Some people would try to help these two young “prisoners”… A shepherd would be brining milk for them every day since one of the two had a problem with his stomach.
As months went by, the hope that Fehim and Kamil were alive died away… In fact, Fehim and Kamil had been killed by some Greek Cypriots who had kidnapped them. Their remains would be found years later during the exhumations of the Cyprus Missing Persons’ Committee and would be returned to their families in 2008 for burial.
Decision to kill them
When hopes died that these two young Greek Cypriots would be used for “exchange” for Fehim Mehmet and Kamil Huseyin Koushouri, the Turkish Cypriot authorities in Louroudjina decided to kill them… Some of our readers told us that the health of one of them had deteriorated and he needed medicine that they could not get but this is just another “pretext” I believe for finding an “excuse” to “explain” why they killed them. The two young Greek Cypriots, Andreas Petrou and Christos Socratous Ioannou would be killed about six months later from the date they had been kidnapped and would be buried somewhere in Louroudjina…
Information from my readers
When I started writing about “missing persons”, I would also start getting information about some possible burial sites of these two young Greek Cypriots. One of my readers told me that they had been buried in a well in the area called “Aloubolakko” which literally meant “The Well of the Fox” and I would go there back in 2008 in search of this well… They would point out the area called “Aloubolakko” and I would show this place to the investigators of the CMP.
Another reader would point out another well in a different area of Louroudjina… We would go and try to explore it… The reader also claimed that there was an unexploded bomb in that well… But in fact, there were no remains in that particular well he showed us. Another reader told us that they had been buried in the “Field of Mouscos”…
Anna Petrou Karaloizou
I would continue: One reader was from Louroudjina and during the time the two young Greek Cypriots had been killed and buried, he had witnessed the closing of a well that he had found strange… He had told me the following:
“In those days, I was a young soldier doing my military service. I was always passing from ‘Bashoumamma’s Field” in order to go on duty at a place called “The 15th Hill”. The reason I passed from here was the presence of couple of fig trees. I would collect the figs and eat them. Hence, I would always use this path… In this area, next to the stream, there had been an unused well. When I came out one day from my duty, I saw that this well was closed and a new well was dug out next to it. I suspected that the two young Greek Cypriots were buried in the well that they closed suddenly since it was in those days that they were taken from the barn where they had been kept for months and killed.”
The field he was talking about would later be called “The thick bread” (“Kalin Ekmek”) and later on “The Field of Djili” or “The Field of Ayshaba…”
Together with this reader we would show the wells he was talking about in this field to the CMP’s Turkish Cypriot investigators back in 2008… As far as I know, the wells in question have not been exhumed yet…
So throughout 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011 and 2013, I would visit Louroudjina in search of more information, also calling readers from the village and trying to find out what exactly had happened and information about their possible burial site…
Going through Koshi
We would also go with the Assistant of the Greek Cypriot Member, Xenophon Kallis (may he rest in peace) but not through the Turkish Cypriot sector but through Koshi. We would bring a Turkish Cypriot witness from Petrofani village who knew details of what had been going on in the area as a youngster. We would pass from Koshi to go up the hills into an area on the hills. There, my reader from Petrofani would show us some places… UN soldiers would come to the area to see what we were doing and Kallis and the Turkish Cypriot counterpart of his of those days would speak to the UN and explain to them that we were looking for some possible burial sites… This was an area where people from the village would go often to collect “agrelli”…
Why hadn’t we gone from the Turkish Cypriot sector of Louroudjina and instead from Koshi? Until recent years, Greek Cypriot investigators of CMP (and anyone who was a Greek Cypriot) was banned from entering Louroudjina. Only in recent years, this ban was lifted by the Turkish Cypriot side and nowadays, it is possible for Greek Cypriots to go to Louroudjina…
Some of the places we had shown to the investigators of the CMP were excavated with no results and some of the possible burial sites have not been explored yet.
Some of my articles in Yenidüzen newspaper in April and May 2008 about missing GC from Louruodjina
Recently CMP did a surface search at a place called “The Giant’s Crack” (“Shistra tou Drakou”, “Dev Yarighi/Dev Yirtighi”). We had shown this place to the Turkish Cypriot investigators on the 2nd and 28th of April 2008… After 18 years, the CMP decided to do a survey investigation there, but they would find nothing…
Feeling of relatives
esMeanwhile I would also interview the sister of Andreas Petrou, Anna Petrou Karaloizou and published it in May 2008… The family was from Omorphita with two girls and three boys. Anna was the only sibling who had been alive in 2008. Andreas Petrou was the youngest of the five and was working in Omorphita as a marble worker. “One day my father Petros came and told us that our brother was missing…” They would live in Omorphita until 1974…
“At that time Andreas was newly married to Androula. They had no kids yet. We were constantly waiting for his return. We would cook the things he loved eating and wait for him to come back. When my brother went missing, my father went into depression. Andreas was an easy going person… We want his remains to be found so that we can bury him in the cemetery at Aglandjia where everyone from our family are buried. There is a park in Latsia with the name of my brother…”
I would also interview Eleni Ioannidou, the sister of Christos Socratous Ioannou. She would tell me that their mother, even though in later years would have Alzheimer would never forget her missing son. Their father, Socratis Ioannou was from Agios Loucas area of Nicosia and was a famous builder of village ovens. They were living for many years in Omorphita Neapolis area. When the brother of Socratous, Andonis Blackis was killed by a Turkish Cypriot from TMT back in 1959, they would leave the area. Eleni would say, “Socratous was tall, strong… He had two motorcycles. When he rode his bike, my mother would say, ‘He goes like the wind’! He was working with my father and an easy going person… He was very good friends with Andreas Petrou… On the day they were kidnapped, they were going on a trip on the motorcycle… I heard that the woman who had been cooking for them in Louroudjina begged the TMT to set them free… I want to thank this woman for taking care of them…”
The Turkish Cypriot woman she mentioned and her husband, in fact tried to save Andreas and Socratous but this was beyond them… That’s why they were feeling bad and were telling their children about it all the time…
I hope that more investigations are done to find their burial sites and if you know something, please call me on my mobile with or without your name at 99 966518 or call the CMP so that we can bring some closure to the relatives of Andreas and Socratous.
