Remembrance Day | Lest We Forget | Mike Watkins-Jones

Lest we forget.

It is the 11th day of the 11th month Remembrance day. Today it falls on a Sunday; traditionally we remember the fallen on Remembrance Sunday.

I have no personal recollection of the Second World War, being born in June 1945. My uncles fought for their country and God spared them to return to their family. My grandfather fought at the front in the First World War and also lived to tell the tale. So many familes were not so fortunate. Although it is 67 years since the end of the war, and the numbers who survived fighting in the conflict become fewer and fewer each year, there are still some still living.

One such survivor is Mike Watkins-Jones who served with distinction as a pilot in the Royal Air Force. I mention Mike because in his 90th year, and having fought to keep the World free, he now lives in constant fear of losing his home in Karsiyaka. His enemy, as before, being greed. Germany’s greed for power, the Bank’s greed for money.

I will not repeat the saga that is the battle Mike and all the Kulaksiz 5 fight. It will enter the annals of North Cyprus history when people look back to the events of 2008-20??. Historians may try to airbrush over this shameful time in the history of North Cyprus. Let us hope that by applying Mortgage Law 11/78 section 21, there will be a redeeming paragraph.

My own birth came as a direct result of the conflict. My father, an American GI, was stationed in the Midlands which is how he came to meet my mother. They married in March 1945 and I was born in June 1945, just the right side of the blanket (an old fashioned saying).

Let us never forget the fallen in all the conflicts, for the families of the victims of the First and Second world wars, memories may have faded, but for the families of the more recent conflicts let there be peace in their hearts and hope for the future.

God Bless all the families of those who died so that we might be free.

Never forget.

Pauline Ann Read