The efforts to determine the fate of our last missing person is for everyone a duty and a national imperative towards our heroes and the relatives of our missing persons, said Commissioner for the Presidency, Fotis Fotiou, during the unveiling ceremony of the monument to the missing persons of the Turkish invasion, at the park of the same name in the Limassol Municipality.
In his address during the unveiling ceremony by the President of the Republic, in the presence of the Greek Ambassador, Mr.Fotiou said that today's unveiling of the monument[/B], a long-standing wish of the relatives of the missing persons of the city and district of Limassol and of the Pancyprian Organization of Relatives of Undeclared POWs and Missing Persons, "which becomes a reality today with your personal support, Mr. President".
Behind each case of a missing person there is a great story of unparalleled courage and supreme contribution to our special homeland, which was so severely tested in the bitter and betrayed summer of 1974, Fotiou said, noting that great honor is due to all the heroes of our struggles to defend our freedom.
He noted that all the names, both of the missing and those who have been identified, are inscribed on the back of the monument, which "in addition to our great appreciation and deep gratitude to each of them, symbolizes our sacred duty to them and their families, not to prove ourselves inferior and trespassers of their sacrifice."
At the same time, he continued, this memorial "defines our pledge that we will exert every bit of our strength and capabilities to do justice to their struggle and to shine the whole truth about each of our individual missing persons' cases."
"Here, at the venerable and sacred monument, our young people will be taught that a sacrifice is never in vain when it is made on the altar of the homeland and the high ideals it stands for. In this place, our national memory will be reborn every day, which will pass on its principles in perpetuity, to give courage to the younger generations and faith that this land can be liberated again and its people can live in peace and security," he added.
Saying that "we are not complacent or throwing up our hands, no matter what the problems are", Fotis Fotiou assured that efforts are continuing and intensifying until the fate of our last missing person is determined.
"This is for all of us a duty and a national imperative towards our heroes, towards all of you, the relatives of our missing persons," he said and expressed his thanks to the Mayor and the Municipal Council for the concession of the site, To the Jury for the evaluation of the works submitted, as well as to the creators of the project, sculptor George Tsaras and architect Sotiris Kostopoulos.
He also expressed his gratitude to the Pancyprian Organization of Relatives of Missing and Captured Persons, "for our constant and sincere cooperation, as an expression, precisely, of our respect and appreciation to every mother and father of missing persons, their spouses, brothers and sisters and their children".
For his part, the Mayor of Limassol, Nikos Nicolaides, said that it is a special honour for the Municipality to erect such a monument in the city "and that is why it is for this reason, that our City Council had no hesitation whatsoever in accepting the proposal of the Pancyprian Organization of Relatives of Captured and Missing Persons and the Commissioner of the Presidency to name and dedicate this park in memory of our missing persons and to support financially the construction of the monument of the same name".
The city of Limassol, he continued, which hosted and received in its heart thousands of refugees since the invasion of 1974, feels a national and moral obligation and duty to express its immense respect for all the missing of our people, and at the same time its love and support for the relatives of our missing for what they have experienced and are experiencing for half a century. Nicolaides, will be a reminder to all who see it, of the most tragic aspect of our national tragedy, "the unhealed wound that is still bleeding" and will "relentlessly raise questions about the fate of our missing".
At the same time, he added, the monument will testify in the most intense and vivid way, the demand of our people for the discovery of the fate of our last missing person and will be a reminder to present and future generations of how incompatible and contrary to human civilization are wars of aggression.
Moreover, the President of the Pancyprian Organization of Relatives of Undeclared Prisoners and Missing Persons, Nikos Sergides, said in his address that the monument, which has been a vision for a decade, is now a reality.
The memorial is a project initiated by relatives of missing persons in Limassol and the problem of finding a suitable site "commensurate with the problem of our missing persons" was overcome "with the congratulatory, nationalistic and human-centred decision of the Mayor of Limassol and the Municipal Council".
He said that the Commissioner of the Presidency enthusiastically embraced the decision to erect the monument and informed the President of the Republic, "who, with his well-known sensitivity to the issue of our missing persons, instructed that the request be examined with all the sympathy it deserves and that all possible assistance, financial and technical, be given for its implementation. Therefore, he noted, the Council of Ministers approved the allocation of a sum of 70 thousand euros for the implementation of the project.
Sergides expressed his sincere thanks to the President of the Republic, the Commissioner of the Presidency, the Mayor of Limassol, the Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Youth and the jury for the announcement of the competition and the evaluation of the nine projects submitted.
"The Limassol Missing Persons Monument is not just a work of art that will adorn the city of Limassol from today, but will primarily give the message that 48 years may have passed since that black summer of 74, but the memory, the pain and the anguish for the suffering we experienced have not subsided," he added.
The wound for our missing persons will not be healed until Turkey is obliged "and must be obliged" to provide all the evidence in its possession to determine the fate of each missing person, he said, stressing that "this is a national duty and a sacred duty to the missing persons and their families."
The artist of the work, George Tsaras, also addressed the audience, saying that he experienced extreme emotions when he was informed of his choice to create the monument, "feelings of joy, sadness, gratitude and responsibility."
He also thanked everyone who contributed to the completion of the monument.
Source: CNA
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