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It is a great honor, deep emotion, national pride and honour to attend the commemoration of the 40 heroically dead warriors of the 286th Mechanized Infantry Battalion during the Turkish invasion of 1974.
The lads who were in the front line of fire with the barbarian invaders, at various points of the battles and in various phases of the Turkish invasion. Of the worthy sons of the homeland who fell heroically fighting in the battles of Kontemenos, Karavas, Lapithos, Agridaki, Agios Hermolaos, Skyloura, Filia, Agios Vasileios.
Today we honour the memory of the outstanding men of the 286 who did not faint in the face of imminent danger and stood up with virtue and courage against the enemy, sacrificing their lives for the freedom of their homeland.
Today we honour the fallen, the seriously wounded, those who experienced captivity. And, at the same time, we agonize for those who are still missing, for their loved ones who are experiencing the greater drama of loss and/or the unknown truth about the fate of their loved ones.
History and facts reveal the tragedy and the heavy blood toll paid by the 286th Mechanized Infantry Battalion on the black July of 1974.
History and facts reveal the tragedy and the heavy blood toll paid by the 286th Mechanized Infantry Battalion on the black July of 1974.
On 20 July, the 286 left its base at Kokkinotrimithia for Kyrenia to help repel the invaders, who at dawn that day began landing on the shores of Pente Mili Kyrenia.
Despite the village of Kontenos, the convoy was ruthlessly bombed by the Turkish air force.
The outcome was tragic for 286. Seven dead men and twenty-five wounded, among them the Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Georgios Boutos.
With the departure of the enemy planes, the Commander of Kontenos, with the help of his compatriots and an excavator, buried the fallen, while others were caught and transported to Nicosia.
Lieutenant Colonel Boutos was also transported to Nicosia, and then to Greece, where he later expired at the 401 Military Hospital of Athens. The fallen, Reserve Lieutenant Pantelis Hadjimarkou and Private Markos Markou were transferred to Nicosia where they were buried. The fallen: Corporal George Kyriakou Andreas and soldiers Andreas Ellinas, Sotiris Achilleos and Marios Fragiskou were buried in a mass grave in Kontenos.
It was the beginning of the hell that would follow in the following days.
On 21 July, a group of men of the 286 were transferred, on instructions, to the area of the "Aspres" hill of the village of Agios Vasilios to assist in the defence of the National Guard. During the battle, Private Andreas Aristotelous was mortally wounded. He was transported and buried as unknown in the Cemetery of Saints Constantine and Helen, pending the exhumation and identification of his remains.
On the same day, men of the 286th were fighting a battle with Turkish invaders in the area of "Fontana Amorosa" in the Karava region. During the fighting, Sergeant Antonios Demosthenous was seriously wounded and subsequently died.
On 6 August 1974, and despite a ceasefire, Turkish troops moved in and captured the towns of Lapithos and Karavas. The men of the National Guard who were defending the area put up a valiant resistance but due to the superiority of the invaders the two towns were occupied. In these fierce battles, the traces of six men of the 286th mechanized infantry battalion were lost. Sergeant Savvas Georgiou, and soldiers Takis Pyrgos and Theodore Zaou. Also Corporal Phoebus Christofi and the soldiers Konstantinos Kapsokarti and Kostas Konstantinos, whose remains were found and identified.
In the area of Airkotissa Lapithos the traces of the soldier Panikos Patounas were also lost.
On August 14, 1974, the platoon of the missing Lieutenant Joseph Sergidis, who is still missing today, gave its own struggle to defend the freedom of our homeland. They were in the area of Agios Hermolaos, fighting a battle to hold the area.
On the day of the 15th of August they moved backwards and took new battle positions on a hill between Skyloura and Agia Marina. New fierce fighting ensued. A tragic toll of 23 soldiers missing. The remains of 19 of them were found. The soldiers identified were Heracles Agathokleous, Georgios Demetriou, Theodolos Theodoulou, Marios Ioannou, Kostas Catalanos, Kyriakos Nearchou Christou, Panagiotis Panagios, Savas Stylianou, Charalambos Fantaros, Michael George Michael, Stavros Mousoulos, Michael Christodoulou, Markos Pitti, Paraschos Christou, Michael Kyprianou, Cadet Lieutenant Kostas Papadopoulos, Sergeant Antonis Papaioannou, Corporal Ioannis Tsangaridis and Sergeant Giannakis Psaltis.
The fate of four men of Infantry Battalion 286 is still unknown: Lieutenant Joseph Sergidis, Sergeant Kostas Gavriel, Private Marios Nikolaou and Corporal Socrates Sokratis Sokratous.
On the same day, men of the 286th who were in the area of the village of Filia, after the battles of Agios Vasilios, were attacked by Turkish war planes, resulting in the fatal injury of soldier Georgios Michael.
The recital of these events alone demonstrates that the heroes of the 286th that we honour today fought with vigour, strength of soul and determination, remaining faithful to their oath: "I will not storm the sacred weapons, nor forsake the protector, even if I am haunted, and I will defend both sacred and holy, alone and with many, and I will not surrender my country."
Their virtue and daring, their offer and sacrifice are an example and a beacon for all our efforts for reunification, and today's tribute reminds all of us, for 49 years now, of this debt to our martyred homeland.
The promise we make to their suffering relatives, and to all the relatives of our missing persons, is that our efforts will continue until all our missing persons are located and the truth about their fate is established. The President of the Republic supports these efforts in every way, and will continue to assist with all means to determine the fate of each and every one of our missing persons.
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