Fifty-two years after the events of 20 July 1974, Anna Tselepou still returns in her memory to one of the most painful moments of her life, when, as a twelve-year-old girl, she was asked to search for her brother's name on a list of the dead following the Battle of Mouttalos in Paphos.
As she recalls, it was afternoon and the city was sinking into the silence that war leaves behind.
News of the first casualties had begun to spread. Among those killed were Dimitrakis Adamou from Mesogi and Filippos Papaloukas.
The Paphos hospital, located only a short distance from her family home, had filled with relatives desperately searching for news of their loved ones. At the morgue, scenes of anguish unfolded, with cries, tears and despair creating images that, she says, have never faded from her memory.
At the same time, there was no information about her brother, soldier Yiannos Tselepos, who had been fighting in the Battle of Mouttalos.
As the hours passed, the anxiety grew.
Faced with the uncertainty, her mother made a difficult decision. Taking her daughter by the hand, she led her to the hospital to check the list of the dead.
It was twelve-year-old Anna who had to read the names. "Be careful. Yiannis A. Tselepos, not Yiannos. Make sure you look properly," her mother repeatedly told her, looking her in the eyes.
Anna remembers that in that moment her mother's face had hardened with fear and anguish.
The young girl read through the list again and again. The letters, she says, seemed to dance before her eyes.
Eventually, she did not find her brother's name.
She turned to her mother and delivered the answer she longed to give: "No."
Mother and daughter returned home hand in hand, still carrying their fear, but also a measure of relief.
Their home, already marked by the loss of Anna's father ten years earlier, was once again living through the nightmare of war.
Anna Tselepou says the sounds of people weeping as they discovered the names of loved ones on the casualty lists never left her memory.
Even more deeply engraved is the look on her mother's face when she learned that her son's name was not among the dead.
Her testimony ends with a condemnation of those responsible for Cyprus' tragedy and a reminder that, no matter how much time passes, memory always returns.
