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this story which begins with the disappearance of a woman is actually a bloody secret hidden in the memory of a
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village everyone talks no one knows and the truth is still breathing under the
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ground the year is 1989 there was a village in the west of
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Turkey surrounded by forests covered with snow in winter and in summer the smell of thyme and pine mixed together
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the name of this village was Gulepe but the villagers had given it another name over the years the Queen's
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village because a woman who once lived here was much stronger than anyone else he was much richer than everyone else
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and now there was her tragic story on everyone's tongue her name was
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Sarier in her youth her beauty was epic to languages with his blonde hair green
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eyes and hotty gate every man who saw him in the village would have to swallow and every woman would be jealous and
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want to remain friends with him with hundreds of acres of land forests olive groves vineyards and gardens left over
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from his father he became the landlord not only of the village but even of neighboring districts the villagers used
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to call her Sara Hanim some of them would whisper "Earth Queen!" quietly
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behind her back her allah has given everything to this woman but he has not
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given her peace said old Mahmoot sitting in a coffee shop one day as he slowly
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turned the rosary in his hand what are you going to do brother Mahmoot a snake
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will come out on all this stuff and a besides the woman could not choose
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a poor wife for herself said Barbara Ramadan mahmoot shook his head her first
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husband was a decent man but he left suddenly they said it was a heart attack
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but who knows there was something else in that sia's first husband MeT was a
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well-liked hardworking man in the village their wedding was a language epic they even went to Capidoshia on
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their honeymoon which at that time such things only happened in big cities after
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their marriage the plots had grown even more the farm had been established tractors harvesters had been bought but
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the happiness was short-lived one morning MeT's body was
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found at the bottom of the stream at the edge of the olive groves there wasn't even a scratch on his face the doctor
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said heart attack but some said they heard screams coming from the night no
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one could figure out exactly what happened that night sar did not appear around for a long
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time after the death of her husband she was locked in her house crying for days
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then one day he reappeared this time it was stronger
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colder when he passed through the village square with a coffee cup in his hand black writing on his head standing
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upright everyone was silent two years later to his surprise
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he remarried the man she had chosen this time was not a peasant but a stranger
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from the town his name was Halit he was a tall charismatic man who knew how to
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talk who always walked around with his shirt sleeves rolled up he seemed to share the pain that Sara was going
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through but some villagers had never liked the spark in his eyes there is a
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lying gleam in that man said the old Hatish woman when you look at it his eyes are shining but his insides are
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like pitch there is a darkness in him after Halit got married changes began in
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the village first the workers on the farm changed then some land started to
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be sold but the title deed of every place that was sold was still on Sar at
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least it was thought so hallet said to some of the villagers the title deed
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will be given later the contract is enough for now and started selling the place with a promisory note if you are
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selling this where is the title deed hassan Aphendi the imam of the village
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had asked those who wanted to buy a plot of land from Hald halit smiled he's on
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his way there is intensity in the deed these things cannot be solved immediately he had said it's been 3
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years Deck the light in Sar's eyes was gone he was talking less smiling less
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there were people who saw him walking through the village streets at night some claimed that he was walking around
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with a saddle bag while others claimed that he was talking to himself one morning Beir the village
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grocery store had stopped him on the way mrs sar no where are you going at this
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hour sier raised her head her lips trembling where are my children waiting
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they kidnapped my children," he said bcker had retreated in
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surprise sarier has never had a child after this incident there were
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people who often saw Sara outside the village on the mountain road walking with a saddle bag on her shoulder
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sometimes he goes into the olive groves sometimes he looks at a point in the middle of empty fields for a long time
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halite on the other hand was living a completely different life new cars new
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friends even according to some rumors he also had an affair with a woman in town
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eventually the sarier disappeared completely hallet had said to the peasant "The woman went crazy so I put
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her to bed in Bakoy." "How do you mean according to your mind he's being admitted to the
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hospital?" He said Imam Hassani halite shrugged his shoulders we
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received a report of insanity the doctors looked they said okay it will stay there now he said after that day no
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one saw Sar again halit did not stay in the village he sold everything put the
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money in his pocket and moved to Istanbul what is left behind is a series
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of rumors anger and an unfinished woman's story but the real stranges came
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at the hospital where Halit said mahmood a journalist friend visited Bakr mental
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and nervous diseases hospital when he went to Istanbul many years later while doing research for an old record he also
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asked for the name of Sarah Hanum but the hospital attendant had nodded
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"someone of that name has never slept here," he said and after that moment another whisper started in Gulipe
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villages bury their secrets in the ground but the earth also sometimes vomits up what's
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inside the year is 2008 the village of Gulipe seemed to have accepted the
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silence of the past now but under the windshaken malberry tree behind the
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village coffee shop the past was still being talked about the new rumor was that Halit's children were returning to
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the village ali and Moses halit's two sons born from his marriage in
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Istanbul two tall gray suited glasseswearing urban guys they did not
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know the soil of the village nor did they recognize the smell of trees but they had come down to the village with
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documents in their hands we are after the lands left over from our father Ali
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said when they first came to the Mktar mktar Salami frowned what land they had
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been sold moreover there is no title deed in the middle moses smiled but his
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smile was just like his father's there was not warmth in it but calculation we have bills of exchange
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our father sold these lands but when the deeds were not given the buyers still do
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not appear to be registered so legally it's still ours there is a commotion in
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the village the children of the elderly people who bought their olive groves from Halit years ago but died while
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waiting for the title deed were in a panic dozens of families working on the farm cultivating their fields were
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alarmed by the fear of the courts "these children are following in the footsteps of their fathers," Mahmud said in a
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village coffee shop "the pair falls to the bottom doesn't it?" said Ramadan
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while stirring his tea halit and now he has come to swallow the children
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too but the real shock happened in the headman's room ally opened a file there
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were a lot of documents photocopies and letters in it there was even a photo of Sar's teenage years decked out between
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them a white dress olive groves behind it he was laughing "was our mother this
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woman?" Moses said at once the headman looked up in surprise "how so?" Ally
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replied "Our father never talked about our mother he always used to say merciful but when he died last year
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these documents came out of his safe." "Look," he said and held out an old yellowed letter the headman read the
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letter it was handwritten "its title is from Saria to Hale if one day you read
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these lines know that I have not forgiven you but I loved you if I'm
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crazy it's because of you but in my heart I still think about my land my
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house my tree this curse will not end until I am buried in my land and if this
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village recognizes you one day they will all curse you the headman cleared his throat your mother is still missing and
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if this letter is real if your mother is that woman you are her children
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ally and Musa looked at each other silence fell we want to do a DNA test
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Ally said but first we must find the place where he is buried the headman
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shook his head from side to side look boys saria doesn't have a grave it
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wasn't even officially registered that he was dead his name is not even in the hospital some people say that they were
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made prostitutes in Istanbul some of them were killed and thrown into the sea nobody knows but everyone talks as if
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they know something moses stood up then we'll investigate we'll go to Istanbul
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the land registry office the hospital the municipality we'll look everywhere
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alli pulled another file out of his pocket by the way there are 28 plots of
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land that our father sold but we still have the title deed on deck we have started an enforcement process for these
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the headman was startled are you going to take people's property through the court is this your mother's trust alli
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grimaced we are after what we inherited conscience is not our business let him
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stay in your village the news spread quickly in the village those who went down to the field
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in the morning came for coffee at noon the sons of Sar Hanim have come it was
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said but they don't know what their mother is they wanted a DNA test they're
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going to confiscate our land but one person was more affected by these rumors
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the elderly Cadia he was Sardier's youth friend and that night he wrote a secret
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in his diary that he didn't tell anyone i saw him that night sardier wanted to
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escape he had a sack in his hand it was full but Holllet stopped him she
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screamed at him then he put the woman in a vehicle he didn't come back i didn't tell anyone because I was scared but now
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that these children have arrived it means that the truth will come out from under the
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ground istanbul Bakoy the same week Ali and Musa stopped in front of Bakcoy
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Mental and Nervous Diseases Hospital they came in with the files in their hands
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we are looking for a patient record who decamped between 1980 and 1990 alli said
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her name is Sara Deirash according to some rumors he slept here the attendant
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looked at the computer for a long time then went down to the archive he returned half an hour later
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someone of that name has never slept here he said neither in the past years nor today maybe he was registered under
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another name but we don't have such a record musa closed the file
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harshly "so our father lied," he said "ali on the other hand was silent." Or
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"The woman has never been here." In the village an old open top
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grave was found in the corner of the cemetery it was not known who had opened it without excavation permission but the
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interior of the tomb was muffled a woman's bracelet appeared in the soil the name was written on it
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sar some sounds only come out at night because people are silent in the daylight but conscience is not
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silent the clouds over the village of Gulipe were denser that morning it
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wasn't raining but the sky seemed to whisper that it knew the secret of the earth
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the bracelet with Sar's name engraved on it had brought the village face to face with the ghosts of the past again the
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women were praying the men on the other hand had become quiet in the coffee but
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one of them could no longer hold the words that had been knotted in his throat for years that person was the old
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Jamal he used to be Halit's closest friend in his youth he used to go
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hunting with him drink roll tobacco but they had drifted away in time the reason
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was something he hadn't told anyone for years now his conscience was no longer silent simal entered the coffee shop
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with his cane his eyes were misty his voice shaky he tapped his cane on the
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table headman listen to me said everyone's dizzy at the coffee mktar
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Salami got up from his seat what is it brother Simal jamal took a deep breath
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that's enough i know what happened to Sar a hum spread jamal continued halit
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came to me that night it was midnight he had a sack in his hand it was heavy come with me he said we got into
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his old truck we went to the hill where the grave is he told me to dig in the ground i couldn't ask anything out of
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fear he put the sack in the grave i saw it with my own eyes then he covered the
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ground "if you say a word I will bury you with him," he said so I kept quiet
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until today a woman's voice rose from the coffee "so he killed
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Sara?" Jamal shook his head from side to side no the sack was moving the woman
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was alive he had either been knocked out or silenced i heard the person in that sack breathing screams broke out from
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the crowd did he bury the woman alive
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mktar approached Jamal so why are you telling me now jamal wiped away his
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tears because my death is approaching i want my conscience to be at ease besides
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I had a dream last night sorry I said to me simal give me a voice now i'm not
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even comfortable on the ground on the same day Istanbul Ali and Musa had applied to the forensic
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medicine institution the bracelet on their hands contained a DNA trace bone
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fragments found in the old tomb were also examined the results were due 3 days later but waiting was not easy for
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Moses if that woman is our mother then this country has ignored a murder he said angrily our duty is to disclose
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this ally on the other hand thought differently what if Moses is still alive
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what if he was never buried how can that be moses said ali pulled an old
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newspaper clipping out of his pocket look at this news in 1992 an unidentified female body
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was found on the Bakoy beach his age is about 50 there's no ID on it he's
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miserable all over there is a suspicion of murder but the case has been closed
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no autopsy was performed his face is deformed unrecognizable grave number
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178-34 he was buried in the cemetery of the orphans moses looked at the yellowed
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lines of the newspaper are you saying that she is this woman ali did not answer he just
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looked away perhaps in Gulipe however things were getting even more
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complicated after Jamal's confession the prosecutor's permission was obtained for the excavation the grave was opened
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there was no body in it no sack it's just an old women's cardigan and a few
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pieces of string so he was taken out of here mktar said "Whoever pulled it out
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either saved the woman or destroyed the body," the Jearm sergeant said
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fear prevailed in the village the whispers grew saria was walking at night in the
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cemetery some people saw him in the forest the demons are protecting him an
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old woman was crying by the brook at night the same night while the moon was
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standing right overhead in the sky a light came on from the abandoned hut at
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the entrance of the village a woman was sitting inside his back was turned she
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was wearing an old torn cardigan his hair had turned gray the inscription on
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the bracelet in her hand shown in the candle light sara the woman murmured
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softly i am not buried under the ground but everyone has forgotten about me it's
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about time truth does not rot the truth speaks even though years
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have passed as long as you have the courage to listen to him ali and Musa were holding the
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results from the Forensic Medicine Institute the edges of the envelope were crumpled decently between his sweaty
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hands when that moment came everything would change the truth would either sharpen the pain or hopefully clarify
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the blurred past moses opened the envelope his eyes
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slipped decently between the lines then silence
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"ally these bones do not belong to our mother," he said his voice had forked
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ali's face was expressionless "so he might be alive." Moses whispered "or he
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was buried somewhere else before." At the same time in Gulipe an old shepherd
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was walking towards the hut at the entrance of the village he knew that as winter approached animals retreated to
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their layers in the forest but a growl he had heard the other nights had disturbed him as he approached the hut
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he heard a noise don't go back there the past didn't stay there waiting the
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shepherd shuddered the boards in front of the hut creaked a shadowy silhouette
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appeared behind the window profile of an elderly hunched woman
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the next morning the shepherd took his breath at the headman's house by God
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there is someone in that cabin woman old he talks to himself at night it's like
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he's delirious there's a bracelet on your wrist it says sier on it this news
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spread like lightning the headman informed the Jearmarie ali and Musa quickly returned to the village all the
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village people had surrounded the hut but there wasn't a single sound coming from inside the door of the hut was
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opened it was dim inside the woman sitting in the candle light did not
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raise her head her hair was white his nails had grown long his hands were
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cracked eyes it was as if it had been switched off years ago but the pain
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inside was still visible moses could not resist and was thrown forward
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mother Sar is that you the woman raised her head slowly his eyes met the eyes of
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Moses then he quietly muttered "They have forgotten me but I remembered it
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every night." Ali knelt down "you have been left alone but you're not alone
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anymore." Tears flowed from Sara's eyes her lips trembled
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howlet me he didn't bury it there and he couldn't sell it because I said to him
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"If you bury me I will watch you from under every inch of the ground I am buried in." He scared one night he took
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me to Istanbul but he thought my heart stopped on the way he threw me into the
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sea but I didn't die a boat washed me ashore a man found me i was anonymous
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now i didn't have any headpaper my memory was gone i couldn't remember who
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I was for years i lived on the street until one day until I found my bracelet
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moses whispered through tears our mother you're alive we've been looking for you
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all the time sarya smiled but you are Hollit's children it's not mine you have
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grown up with his evil that's why you came you're after the plots aren't you
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ali shook his head from side to side no now we're just chasing the past to be
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able to look into our mother's eyes sarier stood up he stood like a judge
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with his body bowed with the stoop of years i was under not only the soil but
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also the memories now there's one more thing halit is dead but he had another
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secret find the box he buried under the stone behind the cemetery that's where the truth lies and that's when you'll
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find out who you are that night Ally and Musa stayed in
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the hut and waited with their mother but when they arrived in the morning there was no Sar the door was open the bed was
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empty her bracelet had been left on the pillow when the headman arrived they
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found only one sentence under the pillow written on an old notebook
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page i am a woman of the land now but you still don't know the truth that you
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need to seek not only memories are hidden in the dusty boxes of the past
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but sometimes destinies when Ally and Musa arrived at
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the bottom of the old plain tree behind the cemetery night had already set in
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they were digging and shoveling in their hands searching for the bottom of the stone that their mother Sarier was
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talking about the moonlight was casting a timid light on the ground the heart of
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Moses felt as if it would burst out of the tomb and run away over there Ally
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said pointing to the tip of an old tombstone this place is different from the others they pulled the stone aside
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with difficulty there was a rusted tin can underneath the top of the box was
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marked with an inscription engraved with shaky fingers don't trust him when they
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opened the box what came out of it didn't just smell of earth the smell of betrayal tears and blood accumulated
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over the years had also risen to the surface with them a wad of old titled deeds a few yellowed photos ID copies
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and at the bottom the pages of an old diary alli opened the diary the first sentence
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today when Halee touched me once more I felt sick to my stomach but I have to put up with it because I have children
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moses could not hold back his tears our mother has been silenced for
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years as the pages progressed Sar's ordeal was revealed
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hallet's psychological torture of the woman the plots he sold the fake sales
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contracts he made even how some people were threatened and most striking of all
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the documents of Halit's secret marriage to another woman ali's hand
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trembled this woman who moses took the document away he looked at the photo
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could this could this woman be our real mother the ichumai lines in the diary
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were slowly beginning to weave a truth when Hale took me to Istanbul he wanted
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to get rid of me because he was married he did not want to leave an inheritance to his two children from that woman he
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transferred my children to his own population and those children are trying
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to take the land that is mine now by suing against me the ligature of Ali and
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Musa's legs was untied we aren't we Sara's children whispered Moses no Ali
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said his eyes staring into the void maybe we are just the children of
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Halit's lies the next morning he and the headman went to the village court they
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reopened the case file with the documents they had but before the trial even started a rumor spread in the
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village the Sar woman has disappeared again but this time a sound was heard
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from inside the cemetery he said "I will buy my land." Alli turned to Moses even
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if she is not our mother her pain is our responsibility the curse of Hallet is on
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our backs now moses made his way to the cemetery with the diary in his hand but
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before we can bury his soul in the ground we must first tell his story because this village has always hushed
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up his story it's about time now when night came a light rose again from the
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hut but no one came close because everyone believed that not only the past
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was now on guard in that cabin but also justice sar's bracelet was still there
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but a letter written on it had changed instead of sier it now says secret UTI
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so such a secret woman some people are buried not in the ground
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but in silence months had passed alli and Musa opened the case with the documents they
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had but what they were confronted with was not only the papers but a wall of
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lies as the court process dragged on the rumors in the village multiplied some
27:56
people said that Sar had never actually been admitted to a mental hospital others said that she was still living in
28:02
the village with another identity but the most striking rumor had come out of
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the mouth of an old woman who had just arrived in town the woman came to the headman in a distraught state and said
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only that the Sar is mine but I'm not the Saria that any of you know anymore i
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don't want my land i don't want my name just shut up upon this remark a silence
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prevailed in the village the woman has disappeared no one dared to go after him
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but a spark had burned inside Ali and Musa if that woman is really sorry they
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had to document what happened to her ali went to the city with the diary in his hand he met with a journalist the
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woman's experiences land registry tricks Halit's fraud the process of being
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deposited in Bakaroy it was all documented one of the largest newspapers in Turkey
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appeared the following week with the following headline the woman buried in
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the ground the story of a life that is not in the records the post exploded like a bomb
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hundreds of thousands of people questioned the fate of the woman with the hashtag sorry on social media the
29:21
Interior Ministry has launched an investigation the Ministry of Justice went over the incident the archives of
29:28
Baker Kai Mental and Nervous Diseases Hospital dating back to the 1990s have been opened and there inside the rotten
29:35
folders the following sentence was found on a handwritten paper his name is
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unknown her husband brought it his mental health is broken temporary
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hospitalization he had no last name no date of birth nor an identification
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number just sier it was written together with the question mark when this
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document was thought to the media the apocalypse struck halit's children tried
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to escape but they were caught false title deeds threats false statements
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were poured out one by one most of the lands were expropriated the remaining ones were
30:16
returned to the real rightful owners but it was not possible to reach Sara one night when Ali returned to his
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house he found an envelope on his doorstep there was only one sentence on it i take my name
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back inside the envelope there was an old headpaper the woman's name was
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clearly written Sar Karlan place of birth
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Karakala village date of birth 1942 father's name hockey mother's name mun
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Ali couldn't hold back the tears while holding the envelope in his hands she wasn't just our mother she was
30:57
a symbol of a history whose name was stolen that night he and Moses went to
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the cemetery they placed a stone at the head of the symbolic grave made in Sar's name they wrote the following words on
31:12
it whoever has no one is one of us your name lives on in us Sar the people of
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the village bowed respectfully to a woman for the first time in many years prayers were said lamentations were
31:26
burned months later a small museum was opened in the town his name is the
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silence of a woman inside there was a copy of Sar's diary old deeds documents
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of Halit's lies newspaper headlines and a chest no one touched the inside of the
31:45
chest it only had this inscription on it do not open this box because it is not what
31:52
is in them but the face of those who open is black and everyone knew that this story
31:58
didn't end there maybe the real Sarier was still somewhere but no one was looking for him
32:06
anymore because she had become the symbol of all the lost women of this country justice had been found but peace
32:14
of mind he was still waiting quietly in the shade of a plain tree don't forget
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