Hulusi Kilim, the secretary-general of bicommunal political party Volt, on Saturday returned photographs of his grandparents to the Paphos district village of Amargeti, the village in which they had lived until they were forced to flee amid intercommunal violence on the island in 1958.

The photographs of his grandparents, Dervish Abdullah and Havva Dervish, now take pride of place on the wall of their former home, which is now the village’s exhibition centre.

Kilim thanked the village’s mukhtar Alexandros Nikolaou for facilitating the photographs’ placement, and said, “we, who have been away from our homes for years and are waiting to return, and who have roots all around our island, will never accept the division of this island”.

“Today, we have remembered what is truly important. For us, the struggle is one and common. This island and its people are one and will remain one,” he added.

Havva Dervish, originally from the Paphos district village of Phoinikas
Dervish Abdullah
Hulusi Kilim [left] and Alexandros Nikolaou with the photographs