ORAL HISTORY ARCHIVE

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Name (Ονοματεπώνυμο): Kontou-Rabbat Maria / Κοντού-Ραμπάτ Μαρία
Sex (Φύλο): Female (Γυναίκα)
Year of Birth (Έτος Γέννησης): Before (Πριν το) 1960
Place of Birth (Τόπος Γέννησης): Kyrenia (Κερύνεια)
Nationality (Ιθαγένεια): Cypriot (Κυπριακή)
Community (Κοινότητα): Other (Άλλη)
Occupation (Επάγγελμα): Public Employee (Δημόσιος Υπάλληλος)
Refugee (Πρόσφυγας): Yes (Ναι)
Language (Γλώσσα Καταγραφής): English (Αγγλική)
Related to Killed or Enclaved or Missing persons (Σχετίζεται με Σκοτωμένους ή Εγκλωβισμένους ή Αγνοούμενους): No (Όχι)
Serving the army in some capacity at the time (Υπηρετούσε στο στρατό με κάποια ιδιότητα κατά την περίοδο εκείνη): No (Όχι)
Lived in Refugee Camp (Έζησε σε Προσφυγικό Καταυλισμό): No (Όχι)

Maria Rabbat: The coup took place on the 15th of July. As usual, I left my village with my sister and my brother-in-law. They left me at my shop, at my work, in the office and they continued. Around 10 o clock…or maybe before that? Yes before that, it was before. My office was on the road going to the presidential palace. We saw tanks, soldiers, and everybody running towards the presidential palace. I heard my colleagues say there was a coup. I assure you, I didn’t know what that meant. At first I was pleased. I thought something good had happened. But when they explained to me what had happened, I was so afraid. I didn’t know how to act. Because I saw Greek soldiers run through to the presidential palace. So the director said we should close the office, everybody had to leave obviously. Everybody left. Everybody left home. Me, as well as a colleague of mine, who lived at Mitsero, stayed underground. There was a garage. It was a garage I think. And then we knew some people, some mechanics, young boys, so we asked them what was going on. They explained to us that everything would be closed and we couldn’t move. We had to stay right there. We stayed for a moment there, and then she decided to leave and go home with one of those boys. And she asked me, “what are you going to do Maria?” I said “nothing,” I was going to wait for my brother-in-law. He would pass by to pick me up. He didn’t know that I was waiting. I was waiting. But nothing. I was waiting on the road. And the big soldier passed by, and I asked somebody – “what is going on, what are we going to do?” And you know what he said? “Do you want us to send you a notice that a coup is going on?” I said, “what am I going to do?” I walked from there until the bus station, where I used to take the bus. I arrived there to see that there was nothing. Nobody was there. And by chance, a bus to Kyrenia passed by. So, I said, “I am going to Asomatos, I am not going to Kyrenia.” They said, “come in, come in, we’ll take you. We will go round to Kyrenia, and we will take you to your village.” The driver tried to continue his road but they stopped him. And they made us go, to continue the road to Kaimakli. Arriving at Kaimakli, everything stopped. And they told us I had to spend the night in the bus. With nothing.  No water, nothing to eat, nothing! Everybody was there. We saw by chance, or they came on purpose, I don’t know, a coffee shop, you know the small….kafeneio. We opened, and they offered some hot milk and they had some hot sandwiches, I think. We went there, and the people of EOKA were there. That coffee shop belonged to AKEL. They were the Greek soldiers shooting at us.
Antoinette Pelekanos (sister): Yes, because you were against …
MR: And I was so frightened -
Researcher: They were shooting at you?
MR: Yes, because at that road …
Antoinette Pelekanos: At that time, my sister didn’t know things very well. EOKA was the opposite of AKEL.
MR: AKEL, yes, I know.
Antoinette Pelekanos: And they wouldn’t accept a member of AKEL in the rivalry of EOKA, because EOKA was the extreme right and AKEL the extreme left. So at that time, the coup was against them as well. That’s why the soldiers were shooting…over at AKEL …
MR: They didn’t intend to kill us, but I think they wanted to frighten us. And I remember I hid myself under a table. I thought wherever they shot, the table would still protect us. Then I moved; at that time I had a cousin who lived there. And so I tried to call him, to tell him that I wasn’t far away from his house and if he could come and pick me up. And he told me, “I can’t get out. Stay where you are with the other people, I can’t get out.” And I think around 12 or 1, the people living around asked each one to take 1 or 2 people to his house. I went with a girl. They sent us to a house and we passed the night. The day after we went back to the bus. He came. They said we could go – the road was open. And we could go back to our villages. So he came from Kaimakli to the gate of Pafos. There they had to have permission, I think. The drivers needed permission. And they were obliged to record the number of passengers they had in their own bus. And we were waiting for the driver to get that permission. And we were in the bus waiting. While we were waiting, I saw Mike pass by with 2 people in the car. So somebody was sitting next to me. I didn’t even know that people were sitting next to me. I walked and shouted, “Mike! Mike! I’m here.” When I came out of the bus, he told me – “you know, come in the car because we have to register you” – even private cars had to have permission, and all the passengers they had in their own car.
Ema Sofia Amaral Leitao (Researcher): He had to go to a police station to register?
MR: He had already registered his car number and the passengers…. “what am I going to do now?” I went in the car, he wrote my name on the paper, and we went to the village.  When I arrived, I saw my mother. She was walking on the road, shouting and crying that I was lost. And everybody I can remember, all the villagers said, “Maria is back. She is not dead, she’s back.” Everybody in the village – nobody saw me; nobody knew where I was and I saw nobody. There were all those people in the car unknown to me. I knew nobody. I remember a mass of people coming up to the house saying, “Maria is alive. Maria is back.” This is how I passed the invasion, the Turkish invasion. But I will never forget those days. Because at night I thought I was in a nightmare. It was not reality for me.
ESAL: So what day did this happen?
MR: It was close to the day of the coup. Some days later. It was in 1974.
ESAL: Oh! The coup you mean….
MR: Yes, the same year, eh?
AP: Yes.
MR: It was the same year as the invasion.
Researcher: 15 of July, and 5 days later it was the invasion.
MR: 5 days after?
Researcher: Yes, 20th of July.
MR: Ah, yes, the second round was on the 15th of August.
Researcher: Ah, yes, the invasion, the coup was 15th of July, and the invasion was 20th of July.
MR: The second round was on the 15th of August. It was an experience in my life I will never forget. Because everybody thought I was lost or I was dead. Everybody. And I had…I had the…I don’t know, the courage to ask a Greek soldier, you know, they were running after Makarios. And I was on the roof waiting for my brother-in-law, the roads were closed and nobody was passing. And the soldier told me, “what do you want, Miss, you needed a notification that the coup was going to take place?”
ESAL: Did you spend the night at someone’s else house? You didn’t know the family?
MR: No, I didn’t know them– okay, that night they presented the family, but I was so shocked and so frightened I forgot. And that girl, the girl who passed the night with me, I met her years later. Years later. I went in a government office for some paperwork, and I found her there. I met her there. We recognized each other because we spent the night crying. And she told me that she used to live in Kyrenia. She told me that she lost her parents and that she was alone. As soon as she arrived in Nicosia, they gave her a job. The government was …
Researcher: She lost her parents in the invasion?
MR: Yeah. She got a job in the government office. Her name was Eleni.
Researcher: Thank you very much.