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First of all, allow me to welcome and thank His Excellency the President of the Republic Mr.Nikos Christodoulides for honouring us with his presence and for putting this event under his auspices, as well as for his practical support in promoting the humanitarian issues of our stranded and missing persons. For this I must publicly express our thanks.
Fifty years since the Turkish invasion. Half a century since the sirens sounded. Since the Turks spread havoc, since they split our country in two. Parents lost their children, children lost their parents. Mothers and wives waiting patiently for their own people, mothers who left in sorrow and did not learn of the fate of their loved ones. Children who remained children forever, but also children who were forced to grow up with a missing father in the aftermath of the war. Teenage girls and women who were tortured, abused, suffering, carrying forever within them the horrors and torture they lived through and the consequences they have since experienced for half a century.
The Turkish invasion violated their human rights, dismembered families and forced them to be illegally away from the homes where they were born, away from the land where they grew up, without the presence of their father, brother, sister, mother, grandmother, grandfather. There will always be one or more empty chairs at the table without their loved ones on our long list of the missing.
Women and children are an unknown, unseen, shocking aspect of our country's history. Women who put their lives on hold and sacrificed for their country. Women who were destined to live a different kind of death at the hands of the Turks that executed their souls. They lived torturous moments, the wounds of which will forever remain unhealed. Children who saw their parents killed before their eyes. They were forced to grow up and what they needed was support and love in the difficult years after the invasion. It was no different. They just had different experiences that made them different, but they were unique, just like all of us.
Tonight we are here to honour those women who managed through their action, struggle and self-denial to contribute to the struggle for justice and freedom. Those women for whom time may have been frozen in 1974, half a century ago, but who managed, through their stubbornness, courage and strength of soul, to make even the most powerful bend before them. Those women who looked into the eyes of the conquerors, who were not afraid, who did not bend. Even if time has passed, even if their hair has turned white, their hearts do not grow old. It remains as militant.
For these reasons, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Turkish invasion and on the occasion of International Women's Day, we are organizing tonight's event in cooperation with the Municipality of Strovolos.
An event that aims to give the minimum "thanks" of the state to the women symbols of Cyprus.
An event that aims to give the minimum "thanks" of the state to the women symbols of Cyprus.
An event that aims to give the minimum "thanks" of the state to the women symbols of Cyprus. The 15 women honoured at tonight's event, some known and some unknown to the general public, have a story to tell. Special stories that are full of pain, indignation and perseverance, but at the same time give birth to hope. Their stories are the strongest guarantee that this people has a present and a future. They are here to remind us of the whirlwind of war and its tragic consequences. Consequences that are not always visible to the many, but a daily experience of the many. Consequences that remain invisible to us, behind the closed doors of refugee settlements.
Our event tonight is entitled "Every Woman and a Story - Women Symbols of Cyprus" and is part of the strategic plan drawn up by the Office of Humanitarian Affairs of Missing and Trapped Persons, based on the Governance Programme of the President of the Republic Mr. Nikos Christodoulides' Government Programme for the highlighting of unseen aspects of the drama of the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
Today's event is our commitment, the springboard for the next actions of our Office, on the one hand to shed light on unseen aspects of the Cypriot tragedy and on the other hand to put the struggling Cypriot woman in her rightful place.
For this reason we have compiled a list of the missing children of the Turkish invasion. A list of women who offered or sacrificed for the homeland, women who suffered rape, torture and unimaginable atrocities at the hands of the Turks.
It is our obligation, and a minimum recognition on the part of the state, to register all, but all our people, including the women who offered in the struggle and were victims of the Turkish invasion of 1974.
The aim of tonight's event is, through the honours owed by the state to these women-symbols, to trace a shocking aspect of the Cypriot drama, which the victims and the relatives of the victims of the invasion experienced and continue to experience.
They are the unknown heroines and at the same time the unknown victims of the war. Those who bravely and courageously participated in their own way in the fight against the Turkish invader. The women who hid soldiers in their homes, who cared for soldiers hiding in caves, who provided nursing services, endangering their own lives. They are the women who remained in their villages, protecting their minor children, waiting for their husbands and children to return from the war.
Some of these women were killed by the Turkish invaders or suffered atrocities. Some are still missing, while the remains of others have been found and identified.
They are the unsung heroes who have been fighting with their souls for half a century, who have not bended and have not tired for a moment to declare their presence at barricades and events, using only the photo of their loved one as a weapon, demanding the obvious, the truth.
They are the unsung heroes who have been fighting with their souls for half a century, who have not bended and have not tired for a moment to declare their presence at barricades and events, using only the photo of their loved one as a weapon, demanding the obvious, the truth.
The 15 women we honour tonight reflect all the women who have suffered in silence for half a century, putting their own traumas in the background and who are an example for every human being, regardless of age and gender, and who inspire awe and admiration. Women who have witnessed crimes, atrocities, traumatic incidents and experiences, living their own personal martyrdom for 50 years. They are those who learned by force to live without the presence of their loved ones, putting aside their own emotional needs.
Tonight we are honoured to have with us, to sing pro bono, a man who has linked his name and his musical career to the struggle of our people more than any other artist. With us is Giorgos Dalaras, who is an honorary citizen of Strovolos and will sing in Cyprus for Cyprus. George Dallaras will be accompanied by the vocal ensemble Diastasis, while the actress Zoe Kyprianou, who is always on the side of vulnerable people, will participate in the event for free.
I would like to address special thanks to the sponsors of the event, OPAP Cyprus and FREEDOM FINANCE EUROPE, as well as RIK as the communication sponsor. Also, thanks to the REPORTER journalistic team who volunteered to help with the interviews and video with the honoured women.
I close this brief greeting with a wish for the vindication of our fallen and missing, as well as the unsung heroes of the Cyprus tragedy who for half a century have suffered silently, but courageously continue to struggle and be on the front line keeping alive "I do not forget" as a part of our history and our soul.
(RM/GS/NG)
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