Lala Mustafa, triumphant, after 11 whole months of siege and relentless shelling, rides his horse in the kneeling and looted city of Famagusta. Behind him, with your car, you slowly pass the walls of the old city and whether you like it or not, you get lost in the space, time and history of your place.
Franks, Venetians, Ottomans are there. Stacked on top of each other, they tell you their own piece of history. Even Shakespeare gets confused in your mind and you inevitably hear Othello screaming just before he ends his life.
And you see and hear all this with the eyes and ears of your mind because in reality in front of you there are only Turkish inscriptions, cafes, an old Ottoman bath that was turned into a restaurant, an imposing, huge Saint Nicholas of the Franks that was turned into mosques, dozens of orthodox and catholic churches, most of which are in ruins and half-ruined from every corner of the city.
These you see, and the walls. The walls were built to protect this city, but in the end they trapped its soul and since the Ottomans occupied it, they have not allowed it to breathe freely.
You lost Lala Mustafa in front of you. Go, it disappeared from your eyes because before him, the soul of this city spoke other languages but above all it spoke Greek.
It was built by the Achaeans and called Salamis. It became Arsinoe, Constantia… Famagusta. And she continued to speak Greek and as she believed in the twelve gods of the Greeks, she put on her cross and prayed to the Virgin Mary. He built churches and chapels and continued to speak Greek.
And the Franks came first and said to show their superiority. They raised to the sky the imposing church of Agios Nikolaos. No matter how much the Most High gave you, in front of this building you look very, very small.
"Superb architectures, Larion, Famagusta, Buffavento", the poet shouts in your ears. Indeed, magnificent architectures built in the heart of the city, made it from Famagusta Famagusta, and wanted to impose their power.
As soon as you think about it, you make a round with your eyes and start counting churches. The Franks erected the catholic church of Agios Nikolaos, the Greek Orthodox responded with the church of Agios Georgios of the Greeks. It is as if they were trying to transgress the West and the East, they started building churches in every corner of the city and as soon as you realize this, the monks of Kantara who martyred in the hands of the Lusignans refusing to embrace Catholicism come to mind.
Church of the Apostles Peter and Paul, church of Agios Georgios the Latino, church of Agios Georgios Exorinos, church and monastery of Agios Frangiskos, the double church of the Templars and the Knights, the church of Agios Nikolaos the Orthodox, the church of Agia Z Annas, the church of the Carmelites… 365 churches this city had within its walls, according to tradition. You can not know the truth or lies, but it does not seem strange at all.
And as you do the "walk" with your mind, you fall on the tower of Othello. Nowhere does Shakespeare speak of Famagusta in his work, but the tower has been associated for centuries with the story of the Moorish general of the Most Peaceful Republic of Venice, who was sent to Cyprus to fight the Turks because he secretly married the beautiful Disdaimos. Disdaimona followed him on his journey, but this proved fatal for both of them. Disdaimona was slandered by Iagos to Othello, who killed her in his jealousy. But when her virtue was later proven, the general could not bear his crime and committed suicide.
General of the Most Peaceful Republic of Venice. Yes, after the Franks the Venetians came to us and they also started to build churches, palaces, forts. In the center of the city, is the palace in which the Venetians grew up. "Palazzo del Proveditore", the Palace of the Governors.
But they did not build it themselves. And they inherited it from the Franks since its previous occupants were, as it turns out, the Lusignans. It also stood majestically in the middle of the city and showed the power of the conquerors of the island until the day when the Ottomans began to shell the city mercilessly. The palace became a ruin. You hear the Ottomans screaming for eleven whole months outside the walls that still stand firmly in front of you. And somewhere there, outside the palace, the great and great Lala Mustafa appears triumphant again and has been eating your soul ever since. He has since shown them his intentions. Markantonios Bragadinos confirms it to you. You see him on the walls humiliated carrying out the tortures of the ruthless Ottoman. From September 1570 to August 1571, the Ottomans pounded Famagusta. The city resisted, and the walls fortified by the Venetians did their job. But the duration of the siege, the famine, the lack of ammunition, the death of thousands of soldiers and civilians, finally brought Famagusta to its knees.
On August 15, 1571, Lala Mustafa enters the ruined city triumphantly and officially. This part of the history of Famagusta is hard. Bragadinos had visited Lala Mustafa in his tent to hand over the keys to the city. He was accompanied by many officials in a formal majestic and spectacular procession, with pride and
dignity.
Lala Mustafa, however, accused them of systematically destroying warehouse supplies during the truce and executing Ottoman prisoners. Bragadinos replies that these were isolated disasters and that some prisoners had been sent to Venice, while the rest were in the Famagusta prison. Lala Mustafa beheads Bragadino's entourage and subjects him to horrific torture. At first he forces him to bend down and pretends three times that he will behead him, but he cuts off his ears and nose. After 10 days in the dungeons, they take him around the city and force him to carry a sack of soil to the top of all the bastions. Chained, he is transported to the square, where he is suggested to convert to Islam. He refuses, undresses and is tied to the flagpole and they start skinning him alive. The abrasion started from the head, went to the neck and chest and when Bragadinos scratched up to the navel, he exhaled. His skin was stuffed with straw and cotton, and he was paralyzed in the streets of Famagusta on an ox…
Your soul can not bear to "paint" this spectacle anywhere in the city. But you know that since then Famagusta within the walls, began to speak less and less Greek.
The lost part of our history
After the fall of the city, very few Greeks remained there. They preferred to go outside the walls, to build a new city, to live away from the ruthless conqueror. The Ottomans were closed inside the walls and only a few Greeks were left to keep, who knows, their own Thermopylae.
Some could not bear it, they converted to Islam and survived and only when the Ottomans left us in 1878 and handed over Cyprus to the English, the Greeks who remained in the old city took a deep breath and their population began to grow again. But it did not last long. In 1956, when Cyprus revolted and demanded its freedom, the "divide and rule" of the British, did its "miracle" in Famagusta.
The Greeks, its Christians within the walls of Famagusta, were constantly attacked by Muslims. They gave up the effort. They also passed the walls and settled in the new city of Famagusta that had already begun to grow. In 1963 the gates of the walls were closed for the Greek Christians, enclosing a history of centuries. You are standing there. You think about all this and because no one had taught you this part of the story, you start asking and wondering: Will we take this part of Famagusta back with the solution? The answer is "no". "We will take, next to the closed city, the one we call a ghost town." And this piece? Do not we want this city that hides literally the whole history of Cyprus? We want it, but since '56 the Greek Cypriots had left.
You do not quite understand all this. You who are not from these places, you who did not know, because no one taught you, not even at school that a whole treasure is hidden through the walls of Famagusta, you remain to look around in amazement. You only know the Frankish Saint Nicholas from some black and white photos and now you have recently learned about Saint George the Exile from the news. The history of Cyprus for some reason was when you went to school the "companion" of the history of the Greek nation. You do not know if this was right or wrong, but you certainly feel very "poor" in knowledge. You turn your back on your story and go out, you do not drive so you do not follow the route. Suddenly in front of you, next to a well-built hotel, also stolen by a Greek Cypriot who abandoned it in the black summer of '74, you see the fence and from above a dilapidated apartment building. You go down to the beach, dozens of abandoned, bombed, half-destroyed apartment buildings are standing in front of you. The image is well known.
You grew up with her. From below the tourists enjoy the sandy beach sand carefree and smiling.
Do they know why the apartment building above their head is ready to fall and flatten them? You wonder. You do not get an answer. You get angry, grumble and leave…
Source: Phileleftheros / Marilena Panagi / Photos: Giannis Nisiotis