Fifty years later, what remains of the cemeteries? Broken crosses, discarded marble, overgrown areas with no markings… Yet we must remain optimistic. We’ve agreed to maintain them. How exactly? It’s rather impossible (and pointless) to rebuild each grave individually with details and photographs of those buried (which may no longer exist).
Perhaps we’ll create a single memorial for everyone buried there before 1974 and plant some trees, transforming them into places of rest for the living. That is, those that haven’t been converted into plots of land and built upon. And in 3-4 years, they’ll once again be bricks and tiles. Because those who will live around them will have no connection to those buried there. Nevertheless, it’s a measure we must cling to.
Four new crossing points will also open. We rejoiced greatly in 2003 when Denktas unexpectedly opened the first door to and from the occupied territories. Thousands gathered at Ledra Palace waiting to cross to the other side.
Most were refugees who wanted to see their homeland, to visit their houses. Optimistic that something was about to happen. This was followed by the opening of five other crossing points. And we’re still here, trying to share in our leadership’s joy that four more passage routes will open (if they open).
We’ll also install solar panels in the zone that divides us, which we call dead, but is actually one of the few habitats that remain untouched by development. We’ll generate energy and share it, if we can agree on the distribution.
We’ll establish a youth committee as well, even though just a few days ago the Education Minister’s resignation was demanded because students were visiting the occupied territories as part of a programme unrelated to the official educational curriculum. Now there’s great joy, hope has been kept alive.
Maria Ángela Holguín Cuéllar will return again. The Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General, who in her previous contacts with both sides invoked neuroscience to understand and explain the situation.
“Beliefs formed, inherited and reinforced during childhood are deeply rooted in the brain, which loses the ability to assimilate new information. As a result, when a painful past is repeatedly taught, it becomes impossible for people to be open to change and believe in a hopeful alternative for a better future,” she noted last year in a letter urging us to leave behind the history of pain and look towards the future.
Could this be achieved through the restoration of cemeteries?