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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. The presence and the respect shown expresses the ethos of our state to the defenders of our homeland, wrote the ancient orator Isocrates.
That is why recently, just a few months ago, we visited the homes of Greek fallen and missing persons, in order to inform - face to face - the families of the ELDYKarios who gave their lives in Cyprus about the fate of their loved ones, their own people.
During one of these visits, the sister of the hero Konstantinos Tsitiridis explained to us that for fifty years their mother had been asking her family not to change the phone number, no matter how many years passed, because one day she said she would call them from Cyprus and they would have news of her son. That phone call from our service was made. And it was made after half a century, yet she was not there to answer it. She left with the same grief that hundreds of Cypriot and Greek mothers passed away. To learn news of their lads, to find out their fate. The hero's family, however, is here with us, as are other families of our heroes from Greece.
This is the tragedy of Cyprus, these are the glorious braves of ELDYK, this is the Greek mother, but also every mother who lost her child that black summer of 1974. And that is why we are here today. On the one hand, to honour the heroes of the Greek Cyprus Force and, on the other hand, to remind everyone and to remember that Greece and the Greek people in those tragic days of the summer of 1974 were here with us in the struggle for freedom.
It is with feelings of special emotion that I welcome you to this event of remembrance and honour, which we are organising for the first time with the OELMEK and under the auspices of the President of the Republic, entitled "No one forgets, No one is forgotten", and aims to honour from the Cypriot State the fifteen Greek identified missing persons and martyrs of 1974 and of the period 1963-1964, as well as the teachers missing and martyrs of the Cypriot tragedy. It is with great appreciation that we welcome the families of the heroes of the ELDYK to Cyprus. In them we will commemorate the sacrifice of their own people and honour their families, who for half a century have experienced and are experiencing the pain of loss. At the same time, the event will honour the sacrifice of eight heroes of the missing teachers, three of whom have been identified, whose relatives are also with us.
The emotion is twofold when you are called upon to speak about the heroes of ELDYK. They hold a special place in the pantheon of the heroes of Hellenism, they are among the heroes who consciously sacrificed their lives. For these few, the special ones, it does not matter where their grave will be. It is enough for us as a State, but also as citizens, to ensure that their memory remains unquenched. This, after all, is what our history commands us to do, what our ancestors taught us. "For these heroes, for half a century, the bloody Cypriot land became a grave. Eleven of the 15 honoured heroes fell for their faith and country during the Turkish invasion, defending their native land in the honoured camp of the ELDYK in July and August 1974. The camp turned into an altar of heroic martyrs. With the burial of the remains of our 15 heroes, we are closing open wounds of an unfinished business that was delayed for half a century. In consultation with the General Staff of the Hellenic Army, we consider it our duty towards the heroes and their relatives to proceed with the identification, the information of the relatives and the burial of the remains, which have been in the Anthropological Laboratory of the Republic of Cyprus for years, so that they can be buried with the appropriate honours.
Of the identifications of remains made in the last year, six involve Greek soldiers of the ELDYK. As part of the implementation of the human-centred approach to the issue of our missing persons, in accordance with the Governance Programme of the President of the Republic Mr. Nikos Christodoulides and in cooperation with the General Staff of the Army of Greece, I visited with an official of my Office the homes of our fallen and missing persons in Greece and personally informed their relatives about the identification of their remains and the procedures for their burial. A very difficult moment for each of us, but a human act of responsibility towards their relatives, who are justifiably seeking any information related to their own people and the circumstances of their death.
The ELDYK camp in the area of Gerolakkos attracted the attention of the Turkish invaders and especially the war bombers from the very first moment. An alarm was sounded inside the camp and the Greek soldiers, after being formed into companies, went to the predetermined firing sites. A firing force remained in the camp to defend it in case of Turkish attacks.
The Turkish attacks were unprecedented, both in frequency and ferocity. The heroic lads of ELDYK with self-denial did not take a single step back. They maintained their position and despite the thunderous fire, they defended their home. In this first battle, which lasted from 20 to 22 July, they emerged victorious, refusing to surrender to the invaders, but counting losses.
Among the dead in the epic battles of the ELDYK in the first phase of the Turkish invasion were Colonel (PZ) Binakis Georgios, Reserve Lieutenant (PZ) Christopoulos Alexios and Reserve Lieutenant (TX) Xanthopoulos Athanasios.
The second phase of the invasion, in August 1974, was the culmination of the invaders' attempt to take over the ELDYK camp. This was the reason why they gathered a huge firepower around the camp. Mortars, tanks, airplanes, artillery, thousands of infantrymen, all made it their mission to take over the camp.
The testimonies from the camp are terrible. The ELDYK camp was transformed into the new Thermopylae. In the Thermopylae of Nicosia they fought their last battle, knowing that death was inevitable. They did not cower, they did not retreat, they stood with bravery, responding to the primordial imperative: "It was either this or that." On the day of Panagia and while the Turks managed to break through the National Guard lines, they surrounded the ELDYK camp and began the attack. But an attack that ended in the biggest defeat of the invaders during the invasion with huge losses.
The heroic battles of the ELDYKarians have been written in gold letters in our history to remind us, firstly, that Greece and the Greek soul was and is here and, secondly, they confirmed what Winston Churchill described very graphically during the Greek-Italian war, that from now on we will not say that Greeks fight like heroes, but that heroes fight like Greeks.
The next day found the heroes of the ELDYK camp with little ammunition waiting, in the difficult conditions of war, for the new Turkish attack. The resistance of the ELDYKarians also attracted the attention of the Turkish staff, who gave instructions for a new, even more widespread attack.
The men of ELDYK, despite the attacks with rockets and bombs from Turkish war planes, mortars and shots from other heavy weapons, with unprecedented vigour and confidence took up battle positions in and around their camp, true to their sacred oath and ready to defend all national ideals and the freedom of the Republic of Cyprus and the greatness of the Greek Nation.
The epic battle of ELDYK, tearfully crowned, continued until all possibility of supplying the men of ELDYK was cut off.
On August 16, the cut-off heroes of ELDYK felt the breath of the Turkish soldiers, who celebrated as porters of ELDYK's castle by entering the camp. That is why they did not avoid the well-known barbarities, which they made sure to record in photographs, which remind us of the Fall of Constantinople on May 29, 1453.
During these epic battles, the traces of the Reserve Lieutenants Kratimenos Anastasios of Constantine, Analytis George of Basil, Tsitiridis Constantine of Ioannis and Panagiotis Iliopoulos of Angelis were lost. Small remains of the four heroes were recently identified and that is why we went to Greece to inform their families.
In the same battles, the Reserve Lieutenants Martzaklis Georgios of Apostolos and Iliopoulos Ioannis of Stavros also died heroically, as well as, as it became clear from later identifications, the Reserve Lieutenants Koukoularis Christos of Konstantinos and Bourekas Asimakis of Menelaus.
After the end of the combat operations, after consultation with the United Nations, the National Guard proceeded to collect the fallen from Agios Dometios to the heroic camp of ELDYK. Under the grim stares and barrels of the invaders, the collection process was not carried out in the appropriate manner and was followed by their disorderly burial in Lakatameia. A few years later, following exhumations carried out between 1979 and 1981, mistakes were made in the receipt of remains. Those of them that were not received were transferred to the Tomb of Makedonitissa and were unfortunately contaminated with chemical substances.
In 1999, when the exhumations in the Cemetery of Lakatameia began, identification tests were carried out and the remains of the heroes Christos Koukoularis and Asimakis Bourekas were identified there. In 2009, the bones of Georgios Martzaklis were identified, which have since remained in the Anthropological Laboratory.
Tomorrow, the remains of the heroes Anastasios Kratimenos, Georgios Analytis, Konstantinos Tsitiridis, Panagiotis Iliopoulos and Georgios Martzaklis will be repatriated to Greece to be buried with proper honours, as well as additional identified remains of Ioannis Iliopoulos and Alexios Christopoulos, while the remains of Athanasios Xanthopoulos, Christos Koukoularis, Georgios Binakis and Asimakis Bourekas were buried today with the appropriate honours at the Tomb of Makedonitissa.
On another level, the Office of Humanitarian Affairs for Missing and Trapped Persons of the Presidency closes today some other wounds that have remained open for decades. Along with the heroes of the ELDYK, the remains of the hero Elias Toulis, who participated in one of the most risky missions of the Greek Commandos during the Turkish invasion, are being repatriated to Greece to be buried with due honours. Lieutenant Commando Ilias Toulis was aboard one of the Noratlas transport aircraft of Operation Victory, which was hit by friendly fire on 22 July.
His name was placed among the heroes, who with self-denial and unprecedented heroism participated in a mission with enormous risks. His remains were identified in 2005 and 2009 and have since remained at the Anthropological Laboratory of the Republic of Cyprus.
The remains of Lieutenant Colonel Konstantinos Tsagalidis, who was mortally wounded in April 1965 in the ELDYK camp, will be repatriated to Greece to be buried in his native land. Tsaggalidis was buried in the cemetery of Saints Constantine and Helen and was identified in April 2017 after an excavation. The skeleton is complete and has since remained in the Anthropological Laboratory of the Republic of Cyprus. Today the funeral service was held and tomorrow it will be repatriated to Greece.
In addition, by decision of the Presidency, the remains of Private Charalambos Sarlian, who was killed by a bacalor torpedo explosion at Agios Nikolaos of Kakopetria in July 1964, were buried today with the proper honours at the Military Cemetery of the Tomb of Makedonitissa under the responsibility of the Presidency of the Republic, since, despite the efforts of the Greek authorities, we have been informed by the General Staff of the Army of Greece that no living relative has been found.
In addition, this morning the funeral service was held and we carried out the burial of the hero Fragos Chios at the Tomb of Makedonitissa, who died in 1965 in a camp in Prodromos.
At this point I feel it is my duty to express our gratitude to the families of the heroes for their patience and strength of soul for half a century. I would like to assure them that Cyprus knows first-hand what the loss of their own people means, what pain and suffering means. I would also like to give them the message that, from now on, the only emotion that should overwhelm them when they remember their people lost in the Cypriot tragedy is that of pride. Let the gratitude of all of us to your people be at least a small balm to your own souls. And let me add that to these glorious men, whose tomb is every land, all honours are due.
The least that our State can offer to these men, who turned their camp in Cyprus into an altar of heroes, is not to forget their sacrifice. Cyprus today honours the heroes of Hellenism, who participated in the bloodiest and most glorious days of the Greek army.
Let their sacrifice be the greatest guarantee for the continuous, uninterrupted support of Greece in Cyprus, which their successors continue to this day with the same zeal, honouring Cyprus, Greece and our heroes.
Dear relatives of our Greek heroes, welcome to the homeland of our heroes, welcome to your homeland.
In conclusion, I would like to thank Eurydice, who we are honoured to have with us tonight to sing for free. A great artist who makes our country and all of us abroad proud, but above all a wonderful person with ethics and admirable authenticity, who from the first moment I invited her to the event, without a second thought, declared her presence to sing for our heroes, for our country. Eurydice, thank you.
In closing, I would like to address special thanks to the sponsors of the event, Kritonas Tornaritis Law Firm and FREEDOM FINANCE EUROPE.
(PM/GC/EP)
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