By ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ (GREEK) TÜRKÇE (TURKISH)
Spoils; is an important word on the island of Cyprus… Would the word “spoils” carry so much meaning if there hadn’t been a war on this tiny island? Yes, perhaps spoils wouldn’t hold such significance for the country and its people if there hadn’t been a war…
If you’d like, let’s take a look at the definitions of spoils before continuing. According to the dictionary, spoils means “any movable or immovable property seized from the enemy in war.”
The word spoils has two other meanings, but let’s not delve into them. The meaning I mentioned above is the one that concerns us, that is relevant to us.
In 1974, after the war, when we left our homes and places, and migrated from the south to the north, the thing that I could never forget was how we were selecting belongings from the houses the Greek Cypriots had simply abandoned.
I was a child, and I couldn’t fully grasp the significance… Some people would leave their belongings behind and go, and others would come and take what they liked.
The house we were given already had furniture, but if we thought something was missing or wanted something better, we would go to another house and take it.
I remember feeling the need to ask my mother, “Weren’t you the one who told us that taking someone else’s property without permission is theft? While we were never allowed to pick a single fruit from our neighbour’s fruit-laden tree, how are we now taking other people’s belongings?”
My mother fell silent for a moment, before replying, “You’re right, my son. This rule hasn’t changed for you and your brother. However, we left our belongings behind in our village. Others claimed our belongings, and now we take what we find here…”
We had a large house that we left behind in our village in the south, and our belongings were relatively new, but I must admit, it felt like we found better belongings in our new village.
Our old village didn’t have electricity; it hadn’t been connected yet. Naturally, we found devices, which were technological devices of the time like a television and a washing machine that we didn’t previously have…
In the meantime, some people who moved into certain houses or took ownership of certain shops would paint the words “Taken” on their walls so that no one else would move in in their absence. There were many “Taken” signs painted in red or black on the houses, meaning “this is claimed.”
In some houses or shops, those “Taken” signs remained for years, serving as reminders of our recent past.
Perhaps I should have mentioned it earlier, how the issue of “spoils” comes to mind.
In Ayla Kahraman’s book “Gölgem ve Ben” [My Shadow and I], the concept of spoils is explored in the story titled “Safiyaba.” Apparently, in a certain area of Famagusta where the story takes place, there was a ban and warning placed by the authorities/soldiers against “looting”. Those who disregarded the warning and carried out looting but who were caught by the soldiers, men or women, had their hair shaved off completely, meaning clean shaved to the skull.
So the story tells about a woman whose hair was shaved off completely. That’s what made me think of this issue of spoils. Meanwhile, there was no such punishment in our area…
Returning to our topic, I remember that some people were not concerned about possessions; there were those who only looked for money and valuable jewellery.
A person looking for money and jewellery was told by another, “Don’t bother searching. The locals from the nearby Turkish village knew who was wealthy in this village, and they came and took the money and jewellery with them.” Those words never left my mind…
I asked my mother, “Who are these locals, Mom?”… My mother replied, “Probably not Native Americans, my son. I mean the ones who didn’t migrate, who didn’t come from the south, who are located in the north and are the Turkish Cypriot villagers around here.”
How strange, even after I grew up, we still referred to people living in the villages in the north, I mean those who didn’t migrate, as “locals”…
We could still be divided into two on this same piece of land inhabited entirely by Turkish Cypriots as “locals” and “those who migrated from the south”.
If we were to come back to the issue of spoils again; I had a thought about this at a young age and I still have when it comes to mind: people could live in a house that used to belong to someone else, that they didn’t pay for or ask the owner for permission… A person could sleep on someone else’s bed, wear their clothes, take a bath in their bathroom…
“Do you have the right to do this?” you question yourself… Then, you find solace and ease your conscience by thinking that you also left a house, belongings, and possessions in the south…
However, there was another much-debated issue: some owned far more than what they had left in the south, while others had less after leaving more behind…
There was something my father used to say a lot which I will never forget, “Those without wealth became rich, while those with wealth lost everything”…
Yes, the spoils had created such an injustice. Among the migrants, those who had left a significant amount of property behind and couldn’t get their fair share became poorer, while those who had little, or nothing became wealthier… Moreover, some locals, meaning those who didn’t migrate and lived in the Turkish villages in the north, gained additional wealth.
By the way, some cunning individuals managed to find a way to sell their property in the south, even after acquiring equivalent property in the north. So, there were those who did that as well…
If you ask, “When did the injustices begin in this country?” I can tell you from the days I can remember; it started with the distribution, making available and plundering of properties after 1974…
It was from those days onwards, that the issue of “a person who handles honey licks his finger” emerged… [Translator’s note: An idiom meaning someone in charge of possessions gets to enjoy some personal benefits]. And to this day, those who handle honey lick their fingers… The spoils spoiled and blew many people’s minds. Spoils-rich individuals emerged and they devoured the spoils, but their appetite was insatiable. They consumed and consumed never to be satisfied.
For instance, there have been individuals who gained wealth from Varosha by smuggling out property despite its closed-off status. This is not just me; everyone knows it.
Moreover, those who were settled in Greek Cypriot-owned properties were told, “This property is yours,” but they were deceived. Eventually, it became clear that the situation wasn’t as it seemed…
Years have passed since the war, the distribution of properties, and often the looting, but unfortunately, the culture of spoils has become deeply ingrained in the majority of this society. There is an unending fascination and habit of spoils, with methods changing but the culture persisting…
These days they may not refer to it as spoils, but it is an evolving culture of spoils with a different methodology… It is a culture that exhausts us and continues to prevent us from reaching stability in any way. Some may struggle to accept it, but sadly, it is nothing else but the truth…
Source: THE SPOILS BECAME PART OF THE CULTURE, DEEPLY INGRAINED IN SOCIETY…
