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"Isn't it the plains?"
Isn't it the white high mountains?"
Isn't it the sun that shines golden?"
In his first collection of poems, published in 1883, the Greek poet and playwright Ioannis Polemis, who was awarded the Prize of Letters, expressed in his poem of the same name the question "what is the homeland".
To answer, subsequently, himself.
"All our homeland! And this and that, and something we have in our hearts that shines innocently like a ray of sunshine and cries out within us: Forward, children!"
This unchanging inner cry, this exhortation and the inexhaustible need for freedom and justice led the heroes we commemorate today to defend to the end our martyred homeland.
With feelings of national pride we gathered today at the Holy Church of St. Nektarios, in Potamia, to pay, as required by our indispensable national duty, the due tribute and eternal gratitude to the heroic fallen of the 398th Infantry Battalion.
With the power of memory, we mentally return back in time and kneel before the heroic figures of the fighters of the battalion who perished unjustly, fighting an unequal battle with the obviously superior forces of the Turkish invader.
Those who, with a fiery soul and with commitment to the duty and ideals with which they were nurtured, remained there, steadfast, and defended to the end the territorial integrity of the homeland.
"As if long prepared, as if courageous," they experienced the bitter reality and saw their dreams and all those for which they had fought all their lives evaporate.
But they remained cool and unyielding in the face of betrayal and destruction.
Instead of reckoning with their lives, they put above the highest ideals that were being violated, justice, democracy and the freedom of their country.
Therefore, the commemoration of our heroes, in addition to allowing us to keep alive the memory of our people's struggles, also helps to stimulate our national consciousness and our mental strength and reminds us of our debt to them.
From the history and the struggles of our people we draw strength and valuable lessons.
From history and the struggles of our people we draw strength and valuable lessons. And the lessons of the past are the compass and beacon of the future.
"Freedom needs virtue and courage" Calvos submits to us.
And the officers and privates of the 398 Infantry Battalion in the call to defend the homeland were quick to answer the call. The brave fighters who dared to stand against the overwhelming hordes of the conqueror come back to our memory. Their glittering forms and the grandeur of their sacrifice roam to the ends of the universe.
Courageous as few, they were present in the most difficult hours of Cypriot history, standing up to the forces of Attila the Invader.
In July 1974, the 398 Infantry Battalion, based in Kythrea, on the first day of the Turkish invasion, launched an attack on the village of Epicho, which it occupied until the evening. Subsequently, on the following day, and after making contact with the 305 Recruiting Battalion, it received orders to eliminate the enclave of Tziyaus. The fighters of the Battalion fought fierce battles, during which they met stiff resistance, until the moment a cease-fire order was given.
During the cease-fire sporadic exchanges of fire continued during the truce. The Battalion remained firmly in its positions until the day the second phase of the invasion began.
Throughout the intervening period the Turks, violating the terms of the truce, managed to reinforce themselves by landing large numbers of personnel, tanks and equipment and, with the support of the air force, on 14 August, launched an all-out attack on the National Guard positions.
The comparative difference was enormous, so that in a short time the entire defensive line collapsed and the Turks advanced rapidly into the plain of Mesaoria from the east, and towards Morphou and Lefka from the west.
Despite the Commander's efforts to concentrate the Battalion in the area of Styles, west of Famagusta, the lack of timely information about the collapse of the defence line at Mia Milia and the rapid advance of the Turks made the mission extremely difficult. Very soon the fighters of the unit found themselves facing the Turkish tanks, trapped in Tziaos, desperately seeking a safe escape route.
The soldiers of the 398th Infantry Battalion fought heroically, hand to hand, against more than double the Turkish forces. Unfortunately, the price was tragic. The unit mourned and counted heavy losses in personnel.
28 dead. People who with a free conscience, without any drift from their central objective, defended with vigour the sacred and sacred of our people and sacrificed themselves for a smoother homeland.
The names of eight more soldiers of the Order are included in the list of the missing. Eight families were condemned to experience, perhaps the most tragic aspect of the Turkish atrocity, and to carry in their souls, ever since, the burden of the loss of their own man, but also the devastation and destruction of the war.
They were condemned to experience a permanent and prolonged state of mourning, which is passed on from generation to generation, from family to family.
We recall today the photograph as a symbol of the struggle to determine the fate of our missing persons. The one with the five lads of 398, kneeling with their hands raised behind their heads and surrendering to the Turkish invaders, whose remains were found in the exhumations carried out by the Missing Persons' Committee in a well in the village of Tziaos.
To recall that two families of Potamia are also anxiously awaiting the determination of the fate of two of their own children.
Andreas Kourounas, Varnavas, and Panagiotis Loizou (Karagiorgis), whose traces have been missing since the black summer of 1974.
The men we commemorate today chose the heroic death and painted with their blood the silky canvas of Cyprus' freedom.
They allowed all of us to feel proud, at the same time burdening us with a heavy debt and duty towards our homeland and our history.
They fought their own fight to the end, unyielding, romantic champions of the homeland. They remained true to the ancient Greek traditions and fell heroically in battle, delivering lessons of valor and self-denial.
Today, we also honor the surviving soldiers of the 398th Infantry Battalion, who also selflessly put themselves at the disposal of their country. Those who equally experienced the horrors of war, watching their friends and fellow soldiers perish, but did not desert and did not give up the battlefields.
The 398 Infantry Battalion was written in gold letters in the deltas of our history. And this is due to those who fought, performing to the fullest their duty to the homeland, experiencing all the tragic events of black July 1974. The betrayal, the coup and the Turkish invasion.
The aftermath of the Turkish invasion still haunts our souls. The barbed wire of shame still divides our homeland, the unremitting grief of the relatives of our fallen and missing is excruciatingly present, and the thousands of displaced persons are forced for almost half a century to be far from their ancestral homes.
The resumption of the Cyprus settlement talks and the resolution of the drama of the missing persons remain the top priorities of President Christodoulides.
All efforts are converging on the need for a new approach to the issue, characterised by the enhanced involvement and enhanced role of the European Union in efforts both to break the deadlock and to resume the talks.
Clearly, the enhanced role of the European Union will not replace the role of the United Nations, nor will it affect the framework of the solution, which derives from the relevant UN Security Council resolutions. On the contrary, the role of the European Union will be subsidiary and will be used as an agent of unification, consensus and consolidation of peace and cooperation.
Today, bowing to the greatness of the soul of our immortal heroes, we pledge to be worthy of their unparalleled sacrifice in order to continue the struggle until final vindication.
Until the moment when the wind of freedom blows again on the island, the displaced return to their homes and the fate of all our missing persons is clarified.
Their sacred example, as a preacher of the gospel, calls us and strengthens our will for return, freedom and redemption.
Glory and honor to the heroes of 398. Everlasting will be our gratitude to the fallen and missing of the Unit and all the heroes of our homeland.
Eternal be the memory and glory that accompanies them and may our prayers for a determination of the fate of all our missing brethren be answered by the Most High.
Thank you.
(ΕΠ)
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