She was one of the most beautiful girls in the village. Always polite, down to earth and mature. Unfortunately, the war turned her dreams upside down, leaving a past full of frustrations and shadows that left deep imprints on her heart.
This woman is like embroidering her story on her wedding dress with all those moments full of tears, pain but also joy, dignity and pride of heart.
She holds her beautiful wedding dress as a precious amulet and together with her husband, for 43 years, they are looking to find the then wounded 19-year-old soldier…
Ms Dina Skaya tells ant1iwo:
"I was born on 7/4/1949 in Achna and I have 11 brothers. I had a difficult and poor childhood. Many times we had no food at home. If we found some bread in the morning, we would be very lucky.
When I was 11, I left school to look after my siblings. After 2 years, my mother got sick and I went to work in her place. At the age of 22, I got engaged to a fellow villager, Kyriakos. After 3 years of engagement, we decided to get married. We set a date of September 1, 1974.
Everything was ready for our wedding. My wedding dress was sent from England by my sister and it was really wonderful. Our house was almost ready, they brought us the furniture. It was so much anxiety and so much joy for me that they cannot be described. I dreamed like any girl my age, but everything was lost in the most violent way…
August 28, 1974…
The Turks entered Achna and dismantled everything. Fortunately, we managed to get several things, the furniture and my wedding dress.
When we came to the free areas and specifically to Dasaki Achnas, we had nowhere to stay. We slept under the trees next to a small chapel. For 3 whole years, we had all our things in the chapel. We had put the furniture, the refrigerator and my wedding dress that was in a box under the sanctuary.
Kyriakos and my brother went as soldiers. I remember, together with my brothers, we slept under an orange tree. After a few months, we managed to make a small room with tin.
Kyriakos did not contact us at all and I was very worried. People scared me with what they told me. I was told that something very bad could have happened to him or that he might have been injured in a hospital. I cried and prayed every day to Saint Eleftherios to bring my fiancé and brother back alive. My soul was burning and only prayer gave me strength and courage.
After 3 months, while I was praying, my brother came back. In fact, he told me that Kyriakos was well and that he would soon come back to me. I was so happy that I promised the Saint that I would take our first child, Eleftherios. When I said it on Sunday, he replied: "I wish we lived and we will do whatever you want." I never forgot his words…
On March 2, 1975 we got married and with the money of the wedding, we bought a cow. A little while later we made them 4 and little by little we managed to build our own house in Dasaki Achnas.
A few days after our wedding, I gave my wedding dress to another girl to wear. Then people did that, whoever had her own wedding dress gave it to other girls. Unfortunately, the girl who asked me for it, never wore it…
Her fiancé was a soldier in 1974 and no matter how much he waited for him to return to get married, he never returned; he is missing. She was waiting for him anxiously and she was very happy that my wedding dress was made for her and in fact it suited her very well. Unfortunately, he returned it to me with tears in his eyes.
The war was an occasion for us not to rejoice in my beautiful wedding dress that in the end was wet with tears of pain and not joy.
When Kyriakos returned from the war, he told me his own story and since then we have been looking together to find this man…
That day, he was in the camp with our fellow villager, Sotiris Sotiriou Markou and another 19-year-old soldier whose name Kyriakos does not remember. My husband started looking for pieces of paper so he could light a fire and put potatoes to eat.
The 19-year-old was standing at the door and was looking at him. The mortar, machine gun and anti-tank fire started from the Turkish side and at some point, a bullet found the 19-year-old soldier in the abdomen. The young man fell unconscious on the ground full of blood and was holding his belly. Kyriakos was bent over and when he raised his head and saw him, he raised his voice. Together with Sotiris, they put him in my husband's car and took him to the General Hospital of Nicosia. There a nurse who was also from Achna saw them and they said: "We leave him and please do him good".
A few days later, they learned that the young man had been saved. For 43 years, we have been trying to find him because Kyriakos wants to see him so much, but also Sotiris, who unfortunately has serious health problems and is confined to a wheelchair.
May he read this report and contact us. His comrades-in-arms Kyriakos and Sotiris, of the 3rd Battalion of 211 TP in the Green Line, led by the then Captain Charalambos Lottas, want to meet him again with all their hearts.
In the photo are Kyriakos and Sotiris a few days before the incident.
Everything I lived and heard in the war in 1974…
I wrote them and almost every day, I write poems that talk about asylum. In 1999 I wrote my first book and a few years later I made a cd with songs that talk about Achna and the refuge. I will never stop writing and keeping my wedding dress like a precious amulet ".
Source: ant1iwo.com