-
.
- Русский
It was with feelings of great emotion and national pride that we gathered today at the Agonos Museum to perform a commendable act. The voluntary offering of an object of historical importance, where it should be, to be exhibited to the public.
In this historical place where for 61 years, with reverence, consistency and care, the great Struggle of the EOKA of 55 - 59 has been revived in the most vivid and vivid way.
The relics and photographs exhibited in the Museum, together with the texts listed, the pamphlets, the Organization's leaflets and orders, are an irrefutable witness to the historical events and the valuable contribution of all the fighters and fallen, who responded to the sacred call of the homeland for liberation and the restoration of justice.
They contribute, at the same time, in a decisive way to the rescue, preservation and dissemination of historical memory, being a reminder of the duty and responsibility of the present and future generations of Cyprus.
However humble an object may seem, the historical weight it carries and the valuable information that can be extracted from it, make it a legacy for historians and researchers of the present and the future.
Thanks to the donors, every museum becomes richer. All the more so the Museum of the Struggle, which houses objects from a period of time that determined the development of the modern history of Cyprus. A time when the revolution of a small enslaved people overturned entrenched global perceptions and policies. At a time when the humanity and psyche of every Greek Cypriot was measured by his love for his country and his fellow man, his selfless contribution to the struggle, his bravery and self-sacrifice for the achievement of the sacred cause.
It is for this reason that the kind decision to hand over the typewriter of EOKA hero Makis Yiorgallas, on behalf of Mrs Kyriaki Paboridou, is an irrevocably moving and highly commendable act.
The typewriter in question changes its owner today and from the category of personal heirlooms it becomes part of the collective historical heritage.
It will now be on display at the Museum together with the other personal objects of the fighter Makis Yiorgallas.
The hero who was born, brought up and became a man together with the wonderful generation of the Struggle, with love for Christ and Greece.
The hero who was born, brought up and became a man together with the wonderful generation of the Struggle, with love for Christ and Greece.
The member of the executive Nicosia, team leader, prisoner, convict, escapee, guerrilla, intelligence officer of the sector Agros - Pitsilia, and finally the heroically fallen "Liakos" of EOKA, who was initiated in 1954.
From today, therefore, alongside his fake identity card with the name Panagiotis Ioannou from Kontea, his correspondence notebook, his three Sunday school booklets, his personal diary and his two books - the Platonic dialogue "Protagoras" and Euripides' tragedy "Iphigenia in Taurus" - will be this typewriter.
It will be preserved in the Museum and everyone will have the opportunity to see for themselves the instrument with which the young alchemist Kiriakiaki Paboridou typed notes and messages of the Organization.
Dear Kyriaki,
Through your kind offer we recall today the EOKA Struggle and the values and ideals that prompted Cypriot Hellenism to stand up against an all-powerful imperial force, something unthinkable in the face of logic, but possible in the face of the thirst and desire of the tested people who dared.
The fighters of EOKA, although they had the choice of avoiding the mortal danger inherent in their involvement in the Organization, nevertheless chose the difficult path of offer, duty and sacrifice.
Rejecting the transients of everyday life, they chose the difficult and risky life of the fighter, the partisan, the warrior.
A life in which dreams had no expiration date. And freedom, the foundation of which was national survival and dignity, was acquired through noble death.
I confess that I feel a special emotion as I am connected to Makis Yiorgallas by blood ties.
I personally express my sincere thanks and the thanks of the State for the kind donation of the typewriter to the Museum of the Struggle.
I express, personally, my sincere thanks and the thanks of the State for the kind donation of the typewriter to the Museum of the Struggle.
I express, personally, my sincere thanks and the thanks of the State for the kind donation of the typewriter to the Museum of the Struggle.
I am sure that his wish, when on December 30, '56, he was dying, chanting "I am dying...long live Greece" - without being able to finish his last word - would have been that this typewriter would end up here, as a perpetual reminder of the patriotism and determination of the Greeks of Cyprus at that time.
Of the characteristics of those who remind us today and who call us to be worthy successors of their struggle, following the model of cheerfulness and fighting spirit that they handed down to us with their sacrifice.
Contents of this article including associated images are owned by PIO
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or PIO
Source
