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It is with great pleasure that I participate in tonight's event of the Photography Club of Strovolos Municipality to inaugurate the photography exhibition of the fine photographer Adonis Christoforou "In Occupied Cyprus before 1974". These are photographs from the period 1970 to 1973.
I, friends, gladly and dutifully accepted the invitation for many reasons. Both the organisers, the content and the recipient of the photographs have, I believe, a common point that boils down to Cyprus and its history. The Photography Club of Strovolos Municipality, with twenty years of intense activity and presence in our country, with events, with exhibitions, with excursions and educational activities, has managed to cultivate one of the most valuable assets for man: the love for his place and, by extension, the respect and promotion of its beauty and historical specificity. At the same time, the Photography Club has managed to bring together people of all ages in common activities, thus promoting healthy sociability and fostering cooperation and cohesion among its members.
Especially, friends, the theme and content of tonight's exhibition - photographs of our occupied homeland before 1974 - create a nostalgic and moving atmosphere this year, 50 years after the tragic Turkish invasion. Photographs, as we will see, from our various occupied places, shrines, monuments, sights and natural landscapes, reveal and bring to life the world of Cyprus as our elders lived and enjoyed it, moving freely and freely from Larnaca to Kyrenia and from Paphos to Apostolos Andreas, without barbed wire, without forced deviations along the way, without fear, without anxiety and insecurity. The photographs tonight will transform the Strovolos Cultural Centre, locally and tropically, into a miniature of the Cyprus of our dreams, desires and visions. This limited space will be transformed, for as many hours as each visitor chooses, into a time machine without limits to memories, to reflections, to meditations, to the beautiful and desired places of Cyprus.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
If I have left last in this brief greeting the man whose eye, hand and heart are behind every snapshot and shot, Adonis Christoforou, it is because, Ladies and Gentlemen, his face encapsulates to the greatest extent the love for Cyprus, his professional seriousness, his artistic excellence, his enthusiasm, his genuine and sincere philanthropy, his spontaneous volunteerism and his contribution. The words Adonis, photography and Cyprus are a three-dimensional entity, indivisible and inseparable. Trained in the profession of photography in London, he worked for almost 35 years in RIK television from many positions, as an editor, as a cinematographer and as a director. He left and leaves behind a wealth of valuable material, which is priceless and unique. Award-winning director and photographer, Adonis Christoforou became, without any exaggeration, the Cyprus of the screen, he became its world, its history, its landscapes, its soils, but also its people. In this context, we are grateful to Adonis Christoforou for the Cyprus that he gave us and continues to give us, and we bow to his spirit of volunteerism and contribution, because even today he still provides his services to RIK for the preservation of archival material.
Friends,
As President of the Republic of Cyprus, I repeat, I am honoured to inaugurate tonight's photography exhibition by Mr. Adonis Christoforou, an exhibition which, as I mentioned before, is organised by the Photography Club of the Municipality of Strovolos. If a place's most precious asset is the preservation of its memory, actions and events like tonight's are of the utmost importance. And the people who serve - because it is a service - day and night and unselfishly serve this purpose are real timeless benefactors of their place. And Adonis Christoforou is a true and substantial benefactor of Cyprus forever. So thank you, Mr Adonis, for keeping the memory of our homeland unquenched and for helping us, especially the young generation of our country that has not had the opportunity to live in our occupied areas, to get to know it, to love it more and more, thus strengthening our struggle for the liberation and reunification of our homeland.
Thank you very much.
(PM/AF/GS)
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Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or PIO
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