From my notebook: I know I will never walk through that door again

Opinion 1974Cyprus problemwar From my notebook: I know I will never walk through that door again 1974 Turkish Invasion Relevant News From my notebook: I know I will never walk through that door again 17 August 2026 Republic of Cyprus: An anniversary and a lament 17 August 2026 Cardiac surgeons in the morning, economists at noon, football coaches by night 17 August 2026 Andreas Bimbishis 17 August 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber The morning of 15 August 1974 found us in the basin around a lemon tree just outside Ormideia. We had been driven from our home since the previous afternoon, when we fled in haste. It was the last time I ever set foot in my family home. My mother and I went inside for ten minutes so she could grab a few things. We had to leave. We had to save ourselves. I looked at one or two toys lying on the floor where I had left them the night before. For a moment, I thought of taking one with me. In the battle between reason — leave it, you will find it when you come back — and instinct — take it, so at least you will have it — reason, apparently, won. Today, 52 years later, anything said about those moments is inevitably said with hindsight, across an enormous distance from the events themselves. Back then, gripped by fear and anguish, we stepped outside, my mother locked the front door and we left for the unknown. That was where my life in my childhood home ended — though I did not know it then. I never went inside again. That unique feeling every person knows, whether from growing up in their childhood home or, even more powerfully, from returning to it years later and finding every corner stirring some memory of childhood, disappeared along with the house. We later built another home in Dromolaxia, a refugee house in a self-housing estate, and later still I built a home of my own. But in all the 52 years I have lived in those homes, I have never felt anything quite like that again. I know that I will never again live in the house where I spent the first seven years of my life. I will never even step inside it again. After spending so many days writing about the Cyprus problem, an unholy alliance of reason, instinct and an understanding of reality leads me to the same conclusion. Days became weeks. Weeks became months. Months became years. The return never came. That message everyone waited to hear on the radio — that they could go back to their homes — was never broadcast. The old went first. Then the middle-aged. Then the younger ones. I watched grandfathers, grandmothers, relatives, acquaintances and strangers die with the bitterness of displacement eating away at their insides, tearing their souls apart. With the “safe distance” of five decades and the knowledge that comes from being on the front line of the Cyprus problem, one’s perspective can become different. Colder. Harsher. But who, even today, could deny anyone the right to hope for something better? After all, whether poor or rich, people spend their entire lives hoping for something better. For the refugee of 1974, the worst has already happened. There is nothing worse left. They hope to return. I, on the other hand, stubbornly look ahead and see a road that does not lead back. I know that whatever the outcome may be — if there can truly be one at all — there will be no return for those of us who are still alive by then. Whatever we eventually arrive at will be no more than a political settlement, one that improves peaceful coexistence on the island. But I do not see the division on the ground changing, whichever form of settlement is ultimately adopted. And yet who am I, simply because my own reason and instinct tell me this, to tell anyone not to hope? All I know is that the door I walked out of on 14 August 1974 is a door I will never walk through again. Subscribe to our Newsletter Latest News Republic of Cyprus: An anniversary and a lament Cardiac surgeons in the morning, economists at noon, football coaches by night Motorists warned as heavy rain hits Nicosia-Limassol highway Car fire breaks out in Aglantzia at midday Court of Appeal orders extradition over Russian space funds theft Police await Law Office opinion on Drousiotis fundraiser Four summer drownings put Cyprus’s unstaffed lifeguard towers in the spotlight Follow en.philenews on Google News and be the first to know all the news about Cyprus and the world.