The 20th annual memorial service of the late Chief of the National Guard Evangelos Florakis and the other four officers of the National Guard was held today in Kouklia.They were on board a helicopter of the National Guard, which crashed on the morning of July 10, 2002. Along with Chief Florakis were the Air Commander of the General Staff, Brigadier General Stylianos Demenegas, the helicopter pilot Captain Paris Athanasiadis, the co-pilot, Lieutenant Michael Syakallis and the Chief's aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Nicolas Georgiou.
The memorial service was held at the Apostle Luke Church in Kouklia. A memorial speech was delivered by the Commissioner for Development of Mountain Communities Costas Hambiaouris who said that it was the minimum tribute to the five fallen Officers "who in our conscience are all national heroes, our thoughts travel together to the timeless struggles of the nation during which the common sacrifice of Greeks and Cypriots was an unshakeable proof of the common destiny and the indissoluble bonds that unite Greeks everywhere." Our national identity is common, our struggles are common, and our destiny is common, he said, which is why we must continue steadfastly on the road to national vindication, the road along which generations and generations of Greeks and Cypriots have written glorious pages of glory, putting into practice the homohemos, homoglossos, homotrosco and homotropos of the race, as recorded by the father of our history, Herodotus. Our firm and non-negotiable position, he concluded, as repeatedly proclaimed by the President of the Republic Nicos Anastasiades, remains the achievement of a viable solution that ends the occupation and colonization and frees the homeland from the anachronistic system of guarantees, interventionist rights and the presence of foreign troops on the island. A solution fully compatible with our status as a member state of the European Union and on the basis of United Nations resolutions.
After the memorial service, a ceremony was held at the monument erected at the crash site of the fatal helicopter. Runners carried flames from the airbase while the community of Kouklia honoured the families of the victims and the runners.
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