Unknown Prisoners, the result of research Cem Kar has conducted since 2009, recounts the rescue story of 75 mujahideen taken from Lefke and nearby villages after Lefke fell on 22 July 1974. It also tells the experiences of Turkish journalists who came to the island to report on the second military operation, were captured, and met the mujahideen while in captivity.
Journalists Ertürk Yöndem, Ziya Ergun, Mete Akyol, Yücel Hacaloğlu, Hüdai Bayık, Ahmet Kahraman, Teoman Fehim, Hami Sami Coşar, Sermet İpekçioğlu and Eyüp Sabri Kapıdağ were captured on 17 August 1974 and taken to Limassol Police Headquarters, like the mujahideen who had been captured earlier. The journalists, who met the mujahideen in captivity, obtained their name lists and, after their release, publicised the names around the world, helping secure their freedom.
The book also has a special chapter on Adem Yavuz, who was captured during the Cyprus Peace Operation, blindfolded and killed. He was the first and only Turkish press worker to be killed in the Cyprus war.
Speaking at the press conference, Cem Kar, producer and director of the Unknown Prisoners documentary, said he had reached the journalists and mujahideen involved, interviewed those who were still alive and obtained many historical documents for the film and book.
Kar said he had also reached Takis Çakaris, a commander in the Greek Cypriot National Guard and Makarios’s personal bodyguard at the time, who took the journalists to Limassol and helped save their lives. He said Çakaris might attend the premiere the following evening.
Kar said he had interviewed 57 people for the documentary, which included reenactments performed by a cast of 40, and that filming had taken place in various locations in Türkiye and Cyprus.
Kar described the work as “not a documentary about death, but about survival and being known,” and said it was a beginning, with more to come. He said the documentary’s premiere would take place at Near East University at 19:00 the following evening, where some details would come to light.
Ertürk Yöndem and Hüdai Bayık, two of the Turkish journalists captured 37 years earlier, were also present at the press conference.
Yöndem
Journalist Ertürk Yöndem congratulated Cem Kar for his courage and said, “I understand the message you have given to a country and a society by naming us as sources.”
Yöndem said that, because of his captivity, he still felt a great tremor and excitement whenever a plane landed on the island, and that he always remembered the cruelty they had endured. He also asked state officials to seek accountability for their inhumane capture and the abuse they suffered.
Bayık
Hüdai Bayık said those days had been very difficult for both them and Cyprus, and that Turkish Cypriots would not have escaped the Greek Cypriot army’s oppression if the Turkish army had not landed on the island. He added that everyone needed to understand that Greek Cypriots still held deep hostility toward Turkish people.
TAK