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- Ελληνικά
With feelings of emotion and national pride we commemorate today the heroes, fallen and missing, of the Community of Agios Ioannis Pitsilia. We bow with reverence to their valor and the greatness of their souls who stood firm in the face of the conqueror, upholding with ethos the timeless values and ideals of our people.
It is an honor to be with you today, representing the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Mr.
Only by remembering their glorious sacrifice and the magnitude of the crime committed against Cyprus by Turkey can we feel our national debt intact.
Only by remembering their glorious sacrifice and the magnitude of the crime committed against Cyprus by Turkey can we feel our national debt intact.
Only by remembering their glorious sacrifice and the magnitude of the crime committed against Cyprus by Turkey can we feel our national debt intact. The debt for the continuation of a struggle that has not yet been justified.
It is an honour and a sacred obligation for me to refer to each of them individually.
Sergeant Anastasis Pittas, the third of the nine children of Andreas and Anna, in January 1974 answered the call of his country and joined the Commando Forces. With the rank of Sergeant, he was assigned to the 33rd Commando Squadron at Belapais Kyrenia. In those tragic days of the invasion he took part in the night operation to capture the Agios Hilarion, which was successful. However, the hill was subsequently abandoned, due to insufficient support from other sections with heavier weaponry, and the group was ordered to hold the defensive line at Agios Georgios Kyrenia.
According to personal testimonies of his comrades, Anastasis' group was surrounded by the Turkish invaders. Efforts to extricate him proved futile. Faced with the risk of capture, the commandos chose to retreat. During that heroic exodus, Anastasi's group, those heroic commandos, eventually lost their lives. Anastasis Pittas was killed by machine gun fire while trying to save his wounded comrade-in-arms. It was 22 July 1974. For forty years his family was denied the right to say goodbye to him. Until 2014, when his remains were discovered in a mass grave in the Templos area of Agios Georgios Kyrenia and the hero was laid to rest in his final resting place. Here, on the native land that raised him, with the appropriate honours in the Holy Church of Archangel Michael.
Anastasis Pittas stood out for his courage, determination and hard work. From an early age he tirelessly helped his father in the moulds and building work, and his mother in the orchards. He loved nature and hunting in the rugged mountains of the village.
Ranger Savvas Malekkidis, the second of Nikolas and Elli's five children, joined the National Guard in 1974. He served with the 21st Company of the 32nd Commando Squadron based in Agios Chrysostomos. In the tragic days of the invasion, his unit occupied the "White Moutti", but abandoned it due to inadequate support from other National Guard units with heavier weaponry, to establish a defensive line on 22 July at Alonagra Hill in the northern foothills of the Pentadaktylos. It remained there until 27 July, when it was relieved by infantry units and subsequently moved to Tympos airfield, where it remained until 10 August. In the next mission of Savvas Malekkidis' unit, the cruisers successfully held the "Pachyammou" defence line east of Kyrenia until 14 August. When the defense line "Mias Milia" was broken, the unit was ordered to withdraw due to a circular movement of the Turks. The cruisers were divided into small groups and moved towards the reconstruction point, which unfortunately Savvas Malekkidis' group did not manage to reach.
According to the testimonies of his comrades, Lieutenant Kittanis Sotiris and the commando Panikos Neokleous, Savvas Malekkidis together with Pillatzis Lefkos and two reservists from Zodia, who are missing, moved towards Agios Ambrosios, aiming for the Famagusta area and from there to the free areas. They wandered for two 24 hours without food and water. The last point of reference was the evening of 16 August 1974, when, exhausted, they finally found water and stopped for a short rest, which was to be fatal. According to the testimony of commando Panikos Neocleous, at this point, Savvas Malekkidis, Pillacii Lefkos and the two reservists from Zodia were cut off from the rest of the group and their traces were lost. His remains were found forty-one years later in a mass grave between the villages of Kiados and Kornokipou, identified and buried as befitting, on October 28, 2015, here, in the Holy Church of Archangel Michael.
Savvas was the hope and refuge of his parents. Since he was a child he had been helping his father in the carpenter's shop. Always smiling, he stood out for his Greek-Christian principles and his devotion to family.
In 1974 he found the retired teacher and writer Kostas Moiranthi living with his beloved wife Olga Dimitri Hatzigiorgis in Kyrenia. He had published a few short stories in the magazines Paphos and Cyprus Letters and wrote several novels, which he postponed publishing, mainly because their subjects were considered too daring for his time. When he retired as a teacher he completed nine and was ready to publish them. He did not have time. He served in Civil Defence and was murdered by the invading troops as they advanced towards Kyrenia, while carrying food to the soldiers fighting.
Most of Kostas Morianthi's work was lost when the invaders ransacked his house. His wife died a refugee in England. As the poet's nephew Yannis Papadopoulos wrote, the Turkish invaders ransacked his house "...and his papers melted in the lemon trees with the first rain, first and last edition from Attila's press...."
Reserve Corporal Christoforos Yatrou, the fifth of six children in the family of Savvas and Anthousa, had been discharged from the National Guard in January 1974. However, the tragic July of 1974 found him running to catch the village's commando bus to meet his younger brother Kostas, who was serving in the commandos, and his older brother Chrysanthos, who was also present in the reserves, at the front. From there he went to Syrianochori with other villagers, Savvas Pissides, Petros Ellinas and Kyriakos Loizidis. A platoon of reservists under the command of the 316 Infantry Battalion (TP) was briefly organized, which in a commandeered bus went directly to the front line, to "Pente Mili", the point of landing of the Turkish invader.
Savvas Pissides remembers that at dusk outside the hotel "Klearchos" in "Six Mili" soldiers stopped a bus. The platoon leader got off the bus, realized that they were Turks and fired. A fierce exchange of fire ensued and the reservists left the bus one by one, taking shelter in adjacent fields. In the evening, Christoforos Yatrou was dragged, wounded, to find shelter in the village of Elia, Kyrenia, in a shelter in the house of Harita Mantoles. In a gripping account, Harita Mantoles said that they took care of Christoforos, gave him civilian clothes and led him to a semi-basement shelter that was used as a stable for animals. In the same place 40 people, most of them women and children, had found shelter. On Sunday, after the place was overrun by Turkish invaders, they raised a white cloth. The aftermath was chilling. The prisoners were taken to a field of olive trees, where they were tortured mercilessly. Through the intervention of an invader with humanity, 28 of the 40 prisoners were able to escape, who found shelter in a stable and were then rescued by two commandos. Of the remaining 12, none returned. Christoforos Yatrou breathed his last on 21 July 1974. His remains were found in a mass grave in the village of Elia and their burial took place with glory and honour on 2 August 2008, here, in the Archangel Michael Church.
Christoforos Yatrou was a kind and sensitive man, ready to help anyone in need. With his meager living he supported his family in difficult times. He was a friend to everyone. With the old man he became an old man, with children he became a child.
I could not fail to mention Corporal Kostas Palamas, who fought with vigour for his country when he was called up for service, under the orders of Charalambos Lottas in Trachona. Kostas was badly wounded by mortar fire that burst next to him on the very first day of the invasion when his unit was hammered. This severe injury to Kostas left him with severe disabilities, which managed to recede with many operations and medical assistance as a result of which he was able to get back on his feet. In 1984, however, he breathed his last in a car accident, having fought hard for his country.
Finally, Private Demos Demosthenous, still missing, was the last of seven children of Christoforos, a World War II veteran, and Helen. Following in the footsteps of his father, as well as his brother Kostas, who fought during the 1955-59 epic, Demos enlisted as a reservist as soon as the invasion broke out. With his fellow commandos he reported for duty at his unit's camp in Belapais. While on a mission, his group was ambushed and the fate of all its members has been unknown ever since.
According to the testimony of Isidoros Isidoros from Ormideia, Dimos together with a group of commandos on a scout patrol mission proceeded to the site of the Turkish bridgehead in Kyrenia. Isidoros, who was following with other cruisers, reports that the leading group must have fallen into a Turkish ambush after his own group, which was following, was involved in an exchange of fire incident. None of the leading team of Demosthenes Municipality returned.
Demosthenes was characterised by his good humour and love of football and sport. In Varossi he worked at the shipping company Orphanides and Murat, played football for AEK Famagusta, and on the days he visited the village he was the flag of the football team of the National Religious Association.
The name of Municipality Demosthenous is on the painfully long list of missing persons of 1974. And it conspicuously denotes the ongoing flagrant violation of basic human rights by the Turkish side. Until each and every one of them is removed from this list and added in gold letters to history, this wound of the Cypriot tragedy will remain open. A tragedy that we have been experiencing for half a century with the ongoing occupation of our homeland.
That is why the best memorial for our fallen will be held on the day when the longed-for catharsis will come. For us, the Government of Nikos Christodoulides, there is no other choice than the liberation and reunification of our homeland. We stubbornly refuse to compromise with the current unacceptable state of affairs. Through a meaningful dialogue that we wish to resume from where it was interrupted in the summer of 2017, we are working with conviction, but also with realism, in order to hand over to future generations a homeland without occupation troops, without foreign guarantees, modern and European.
We owe it to all those who fought and fell defending our homeland. We owe it to Anastasis, Savvas, Kostas, Christoforos and Demos.
Eternal be their memory.
(MS)
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