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- Ελληνικά
With immense respect, with feelings of honour, pride and deep emotion, and fully aware of our duty towards you, we are here today to honour the memory of the fallen and missing of the community of Saint Andronicus of Karpasia. Our fallen and missing, from one of the dozens of villages of our occupied land, who are waiting patiently for the day of return of their rightful inhabitants.
Our duty to these people, our heroes, our brave fighters, but also to you, the relatives of our missing and fallen, is never to forget their sacrifice, but above all to honour and remember those for whom we are gathered here today. To honour them with respect, as they deserve, promising that their memory will remain eternal, and keeping the flame of the desire to return unquenched, continuing the struggle that we as a state owe to the families of our missing and fallen.
We are here to serve the profound and always timely message of "I do not forget" as part of our history and our soul, and to express feelings of everlasting gratitude to those who sacrificed, defending the Republic of Cyprus, and to those who taught us a lesson that will be relevant as long as our occupied communities remain under the control of the Turkish army. A lesson in what it means to live free.
Today we are here to honour the fallen and the missing who served to the fullest extent Thucydides' dictum in Pericles' Epitaph, "the free the free, the free the free the free". These people may have left us, but they offered us and will continue to offer to future generations, in the times we live in, the definition of the free and the brave.
St. Andronicus, like the other communities of our occupied land, paid a heavy toll of blood in the black summer of 1974. Among the missing and martyrs of the Turkish invasion are eight persons who had their origin or residence in Agios Andronikos.
Michalakis Koumi, Michalis Paraschou (Siaourta), Nikos Kyriakou, Odysseas Ilias, Panagiotis Kiotti, Panagiotis Zachariou and the sisters Athena Chrysostomou and Katerina Christofi.
Young people, who sacrificed themselves for altars and hearths, defending freedom, who were on the front line of the war. Free people, who did not step back, who did not abandon their village and their fellow countrymen. People who, after taking care of the safety of their families, returned to their homeland to defend the land and its people.
Mihalakis Koumi,[/B] only 19 years old, was doing his military service in the 398th Infantry Battalion based in Kythrea. Under the instructions of the legendary Major of the National Guard, Tasos Markos, on July 22, a ten-man team was ordered to undertake a mission in the area of Dikomo.
The battle of the ten-man team, led by Tasos Markos, which included Michalakis, was confronted by the outnumbered units of the Turks. The unequal battle leads to a disengagement, during which Michalakis, according to the testimonies, does not have time to join the others. In a short time Dikomo is occupied by Turkish troops and since then his fate is unknown.
A heroic sacrifice was also that of Nikos Kyriakou, who married in Agios Andronikos and had a child with his wife. Nikos, on hearing of the start of the Turkish invasion, enlisted as a reservist in the 181st Field Artillery Squadron (FP), which received instructions and moved towards Synchari, where he was ordered to stand.
On the day of 20 July, Turkish bomber planes attacked the 181st MP's positions, causing the squadron to move to a new position towards Pella Pais, where it was also hit, while Turkish troops began to surround it. A disengagement was then ordered with Nick taking over as driver of the first vehicle in the convoy of about 30 vehicles. During their movement, they were attacked again by the Turkish troops, who had approached them, so that the disengagement process was interrupted.
A fierce exchange of fire followed, with the men of the squadron putting up a fierce resistance. Nick's vehicle was the first to be hit by mortar fire and all the occupants were wounded, some slightly and some more seriously. After a heroic battle by the men of the 181st, those men of the squadron who did not fall were forced to surrender, as they were now out of ammunition. The captured men of the squadron were taken to a prisoner assembly area and then to prison in Turkey, to be later released in a prisoner exchange.
However, Nikos, after the end of the battle, gave no signs of life and his fate was unknown until his remains were found in a mass grave after exhumations carried out in the area.
A father of two children, Panagiotis Kiotti, originally from Yialousa, was also found in Famagusta in the summer of 1974. At the beginning of the invasion, like all National Guard reservists, he rushed to defend our ancestral homes. He joined the 201st Infantry Battalion and together with other soldiers manned the outposts west of Famagusta harbour.
During the second phase of the invasion, when the Turkish tanks arrived outside the city of Famagusta, Panagiotis and the other soldiers were ordered to disengage. Panagiotis along with two other soldiers move towards the Karolou camp, however, on the way they are attacked by Turkish tanks. Since then his fate was unknown until his remains were found in a mass grave in the area of Klapsides.
Among the youth of Saint Andronicus who sacrificed their lives in the Turkish invasion was Michalis Paraschou Siaourta, whose remains were recently identified. Michalis Paraschou was married and the father of a child and resided with his family in Yalousa.
During the second phase of the invasion, Yalousa was cut off from the free areas. On 19 August, Turkish soldiers in full control of the village ordered Michalakis and eight other men to board a bus and drove them out of the village towards Famagusta. Since then, the fate of the nine was unknown until their remains were found in a mass grave in Galatia.
Among this group, with Michalakis, was Odysseus Elias. Married to Mahi Ilias, they had two minor children, Ilias and Andreas, while his third child, Elena, did not have time to meet her, since she was born in October 1974, a few months after he sacrificed himself for the freedom of our country.
The list of brave braves, the missing and fallen of Saint Andronicus is completed by Panagiotis Zachariou. Only 19 years old, Panagiotis in July 1974 was serving his military service in the 31st Commando Squadron. After the fierce battles in which he was called upon to participate, the undefeated LOKatzis Squadron moved to Karavas on 28 July.
On the same day, the Squadron received orders to move to Agios Pavlos Vasileia.
On the same day, the Squadron received orders to move to Agios Pavlos Vasileia. Panagiotis was in the reconnaissance group that preceded the rest of the squadron. The group fell into a Turkish ambush and since then their traces have been lost.
Today we also commemorate two women missing from the Turkish invasion. The sisters Athena Chrysostomou and Katerina Christofi. Both of them, originally from Agios Andronikos, lived in Famagusta. After the city was captured by the Turks on August 14, Athena and Katerina gave no signs of life.
These are the people of Agios Andronicus of Karpasia. They are an example and a beacon for younger generations. They are the people from whom we draw strength. People from whom we are called upon to learn lessons, to learn and above all not to forget. People of toil, who chose the difficult path. People who, from the moment the homeland was in need, without a second thought, rushed to give battle on the front line, with self-denial they put forth the courage of their souls, with fortitude, strength of soul and determination, did not faint in the face of imminent danger and stood up with virtue and daring against the enemy, offering what is most precious, their very lives, selflessly, on the altar of freedom and democracy, sending eternal and universal messages of love of country, freedom and independence of our homeland.
Words cannot soothe the pain and reduce the tragedy and bitterness that all the families of our missing and fallen and the victims of the Turkish invasion are rightly experiencing.
Our responsibility towards our fallen and missing of the Turkish invasion is to keep the flame of return unquenched, to preserve in collective memory the people and places we lost and to demand a just and viable solution to the Cyprus problem and, above all, to ensure that their sacrifice is vindicated. Ceremonies such as today's, on the one hand, help to strengthen relations between our compatriots and, on the other hand, renew our own promise that we will continue to struggle and work tirelessly and consistently, with all our strength, to determine the fate of our last missing person of the atrocity of 1974 and the liberation of our homeland.
And on this occasion we are called upon to renew with them the sacred oath, to preserve the legacy they left us and to keep their memory unquenched. A legacy of militancy, fighting spirit, dignity, pride, courage and bravery. We are here to make them a promise. A promise that will be fulfilled only when the fate of the last missing person of the Turkish invasion and brutality of 1974 is determined: that we will continue the struggle until the final vindication. We will fight for a Cyprus free, united and free from the Turkish occupation troops. Because the homeland, which is the supreme good for man, is worth every sacrifice. And here, every year, we will honour and commemorate them, so that the older generations may remember and the new generations may learn, who are called upon to keep the memory of their community unquenched until the day of their return.
Dear relatives of our fallen and missing persons, it is a true heroism and greatness of soul to endure patiently for almost half a century to locate and determine the fate of your loved ones.
We draw strength from your example and assure you that it is our duty to continue the struggle with the same determination and perseverance, because duty is first and foremost a matter of the soul. The President of the Republic, Mr. Nikos Christodoulides, is making every possible effort to better manage the issue of our missing persons and, regardless of the difficulties and problems, we continue the struggle to determine the fate of our last missing person and to locate our fallen. It is our commitment, obligation and duty to our heroes and to you, the relatives of our heroes. Andrew and Milia, who for half a century have kept Thermopylae in St. Andronicus. They never left. They never gave up for a moment, despite difficulties, threats and dangers. They remained in the place where they were born, in the place where they grew up and made their dreams come true, in their roots. Two people who to this day keep alive the name of an entire village. Two people who are a true beacon of hope and faith for the return, on the Carpathian peninsula. Two people to whom, as a State, the least we could say is a big thank you.
We wish them good health and that they continue to be a source of inspiration and an endless source of commitment to our struggle and to the future.
(PM/EATH)
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