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With feelings of deepest respect we came today to the Holy Church of St. John the Baptist to express our gratitude and to honour with due respect the heroically fallen fighters of the 251 Infantry Battalion during the Turkish invasion of 1974.
To the brave and spirited officers, non-commissioned officers, privates and reservists of the Unit who, despite the adversity, despite the shortage of personnel and resources, despite the disappointment, the shattered psychology and the depressed morale caused by the betrayal of the coup, and despite the negligence shown by the military authorities, without considering for a moment the danger, they voluntarily put themselves at the service of their homeland and resisted with unprecedented courage and determination at the "Hotspots of Cyprus", Kyrenia, during the first, critical hours of the Turkish landing operation at Pente Mili.
They bravely defied the Turkish invader and fought to defend the freedom and independence of our homeland in the unequal, as it turned out, and dramatic battles with Attila's superior forces.
Every July, a tangle of bitter emotions unravel and return to remind us of the nightmarish, disastrous coup of 15 July 1974 and the Turkish invasion that followed five days later and wreaked havoc, death and destruction.
At this time of commemoration, our thoughts also turn to our heroes. Those heroic fighters who, suddenly one morning, were called upon to confront history and put into practice and experience the interconnected triad of words of the saying of Pericles, which encapsulates the entire greatness of the ancient Greek spirit.
To be happy you must be free, to be free you must be brave.
And the heroes we commemorate today were indeed free in soul and brave in battle.
That is why they voluntarily stood up and put the common good of their country above all personal desires.
They were at the same time as spirited as few others. And spiritedness is distinguished by the courage that drives you to throw yourself into the battle to defend justice and freedom. It is distinguished by bravery and steadfastness in the face of every adversity, in the face of every threat.
Such spirited warriors were the fighters of the 251st Infantry Battalion, who stood unbowed in the critical hours. Spirited patriots, free Greeks.
Some of them, whose fate kept them alive from the furnace of war, are here today to honour their comrades-in-arms. They are here with us, a living testimony and proof of the fortitude, fighting spirit and heroic sacrifice of those who fell on the field of battle and honour and were elevated to the pantheon of our country's heroes.
We thank them for their contribution.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The 251 Infantry Battalion was headquartered in Kyrenia, next to the Church of Our Lady of Glykiotissa and was organized into 5 Companies.
A Rifle Company was located at the headquarters of the Battalion along with the Support Company and the Command Company. The other two Rifle Companies manned outposts around the Templus enclave, up to the northern foothills of the White Mutt. The Battalion's anti-aircraft guns had been in the dispersal areas since 19 July '74, by order of their Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Pavlos Kouroupis.
On the same day, the Sub-Commander of the Battalion was transferred to the 31st Commando Squadron, without being replaced by another officer.
With the beginning of the Turkish landing at Pente Mili, the Unit Commander, with the personnel of the three companies located at the Unit headquarters, as well as with the members of the squad with four obsolete T-34 tanks, moved to the area of the enemy landing.
Shortly after 8 a.m. on 20 July, the positions of the National Guard units and the wider Kyrenia area were turned into a hell of fire by the relentless bombardment of Turkish warplanes and warships.
The order to implement the war plans never reached 251, until after the Turkish regiment's units had landed undisturbed at Pente Mili.
The Battalion with its meagre fighting equipment, but with soldiers with the soul of a lion, defended itself vigorously and engaged in fierce battles with the Turkish army, inflicting significant casualties on the invaders and keeping them pinned down for two days on the landing beach, preventing the bridgehead from merging with the Nicosia enclave and giving the National Guard time to organize and attempt to break it up.
3.500 Turkish soldiers of the "Chakmak" Brigade - three Infantry Battalions, one Artillery Battalion, two Marine Battalions - and a number of tanks were pinned down for two days by a few dozen hardy and spirited fighters, who fought a hard and critical fight for survival and anxiously awaited reinforcements, to continue the fight, from other units sent in time by the GEF.
Unfortunately, despite the brave battle fought by the men of the 251st in the area, the most critical moments for the defence of Cyprus to avert the disastrous fait accompli passed without the National Guard achieving any substantial results.
On 22 July 1974, the Turkish forces, having managed to land a large number of troops, moved towards Kyrenia. In addition to the men of the 251st, who were exhausted from the continuous two-day battle, they were confronted by conscripts of the 306th Recruiting Battalion and 2 companies of the 33rd Commando Squadron. However, the military and numerical superiority of the invaders broke the fighters' titanic resistance, the defence lines were broken and individually or in small groups the men retreated towards Kyrenia, trying to avoid the danger of being surrounded by the enemy units.
The retreating divisions, despite the slim chances of success, fought bravely to the last, honouring to the utmost the oath of honour they had sworn to their homeland.
There, on 22 July, Pavlos Kouroupis was seen fighting before he was lost. In the suffocatingly reinforced encirclement of Attila's Turkish forces. It was there that his soldiers saw him for the last time, together with his radio operator Sergeant Michalakis Konnaris, amidst the thunderous mowing blasts of the Turks.
He was not seen dead, he was not seen as a prisoner.
Barren and unbowed, like the rest of the heroically fallen soldiers of the 251 Infantry Battalion, he remained steadfast, "as long as he surrendered", at the Hot Gates of Cyprus. Rise up
And come back to us;
Your children shall see
How like you they are."
Dionysios Solomos wrote in the 78th stanza of the Hymn to Freedom.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The 251st Infantry Battalion paid a heavy price for their struggle. Those of the personnel who escaped during the merciless first phase of the Turkish invasion, regrouped and found the strength to stand against the enemy again in the second phase of the invasion, on the line of Mias Milia - Koutsoventi and later in the area of Idali - Potamia.
The Battalion during the battles of July and August 1974 counted tragic losses. More than a third of the unit's 320 men were among the dead and missing, while 75 others experienced captivity after being transferred to military prisons in Turkey.
The men of Commander Pavlos Kouroupis did not bow their heads in submission to the Turkish invader.
They fought for the sacred and sacred of the homeland.
They did not abandon the battlefield.
They resisted with great bravery.
They did not abandon their comrade-in-arms.
They did not abandon their comrade-in-arms.
They honoured the oath they took, answered the national call and turned to the defence of the homeland.
They remained on the ramparts until the end, giving every last bit of strength they had.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Just as the men we honour today were not rhapsodists, but following the glorious example of the heroes of Hellenism, chose to repeat Leonidas' "Molon Lave", so we, in our turn, must reflect on our own historical responsibilities and the sacred duty with which we have been charged.
We have a heavy historical debt and an unfulfilled promise to the heroic defenders of our homeland.
With the solution of the Cyprus problem as the ultimate goal, the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Mr. Nicos Christodoulides, upon assuming office, took the initiative to ensure that the European Union takes a more active role in the process of breaking the deadlock and resuming the dialogue.
We seek the resumption of those talks which, through sincere intent and mutual understanding, will lead us to the much-needed solution of the Cyprus problem.
We seek the resumption of those talks which, through sincere intent and mutual understanding, will lead us to the much-needed solution of the Cyprus problem.
A solution in which anachronistic guarantees will be a thing of the past.
A solution which will end the occupation and offer all the legitimate inhabitants of this land the possibility of coexistence under conditions of equality and equality of citizenship.
A solution that will free Cyprus from Turkish occupation troops, finally end the colonization of our occupied territories and remove the barbed wire of shame.
We owe a proper, workable and viable solution to the Cyprus problem to our history. To those who perished in the battles defending our homeland and to those who perished in the refugee marauding back home.
We owe this solution to our children, to our grandchildren, to the future generations of Cyprus.
We owe this solution to our children, to our grandchildren, to the future generations of Cyprus.
"Do you know what it means for a man to have borders drawn on his land, not to be able to visit the graves of his relatives on the other side?", George Seferis once asked himself.
The heroes of the 251st Infantry Battalion, as sacred luminaries on the rough road to the liberation and reunification of our homeland, illuminate the path we must follow.
May their memory be eternal and may the Most High answer our prayers and pleas for the determination of the fate of all our missing brothers and sisters.
May their memory be eternal and may the Most High answer our prayers and pleas for the determination of the fate of all our missing brothers and sisters.
Thank you.
(MB)
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