"Without the faith of Christ in hearts, without souls inflamed and regenerated by the sacramental life, struggles that need sacrifices cannot succeed. Do you want freedom and union with mother Greece? You must first make people."
The creation of cohesive people with spiritual foundations, the hollowing out of characters with principles and ideals, was the most basic preparation for the liberation struggle.
Undoubtedly, the most decisive role in the creation of such people was played by the Christian catechetical movement and its extension, the Orthodox Christian Youth and Young Women's Associations (OXEN), which aimed to sculpt people who were inspired by and experienced Greek ideals. It was the first seed for the tree of the great national resistance to sprout and flourish.
The oil beacons, Christ and Greece illuminated, encouraged and guided all members of the Christian Movement. Among the dialects, among the dialects. Iakovos Patatsos, Petros Eliades, Michael Giorgallas, Markos Drakos, Nikos Georgiou, Stylianos Lenas, Panagiotis Georgiades.
"We must hurry to make properly nurtured people" was the vision of the pillars of the Christian Movement of Cyprus, such as priest Stavros Papagathangelou in Nicosia.
1946 is an important year in the history of the Christian Movement on our island and of great importance for the subsequent action of the youth in the struggle. On 20 October, at a large Pancyprian gathering, which was marked by enthusiasm and religious fervour in Makedonitissa, the foundation of OXEN Youth and Young Women of Cyprus, the organisation that largely staffed EOKA, took place. Its members are buried in prison graves or watered with their blood the mountain tops of Pentadaktylou, Machairas, the barn of Liopetriou, the peaks of Madaris. Most of the members of Digeni's guerrilla group were members of OXEN.
In Nicosia, OXEN was founded in 1947, and was housed here in lodgings in the area of the Faneromeni church. Gradually OXEN spread on a nationwide scale.
Hundreds of young people gather under the eternal and immortal source of God's word to draw life lessons by finding models of virtue to emulate. These young people are mentally preparing themselves for the great hour of revolution. In the ranks of OCHEN they realize for the first time what is the deeper content of the concept of Hellenism. "Freedom needs virtue and daring", says Calvos, while Adamantios Korais writes: "It is vain to boast that he who has no virtue has freedom."
With this decision the partisans took to the mountains and wrote pages of honour and glory on the mountaintops of our homeland. Pioneers and ordinary men of the people humiliated death by climbing the gallows, or by turning their deaths into sources of inspiration, encouragement and patriotism.
Greeks,
It is with a sense of deep responsibility, honour and gratitude that we commemorate today the heroes of EOKA, members of the Nicosia OCHEN, who defied death and have been recognized by our history as models of morality, examples of self-sacrifice and heroism for the freedom of our ancient homeland. They were inspired and exemplified by the struggles, the ideals of the youth of the Holy Company and those who gave themselves for their country and the nation in the unceasing struggle of the race for survival.
Iakovos Patatsos[/B], a model Christian youth and national fighter, was hanged at the age of 21 on the charge of murdering a policeman and with full awareness of his historical responsibility. On his way to the gallows he bid farewell to his fellow fighters, saying: "I feel joy because I am going to God. From up there I will see you and I will pray for you, for our Cyprus, for our Greece. Don't be afraid. The English will take our body, but they will never be able to kill our soul and our Idea."
Peter Eliades,[/B] nurtured with the highest values, sacrificed himself on the altar of freedom and the highest ideals. From the roof of the central post office, next to the Nicosia Town Hall, an English soldier shot the 24-year-old EOKA fighter,[/B] a native of Agros,[/B] who was attempting a bomb attack against the Colonialists on Thursday, June 14, 1956.
Makis Yiorgallas[/B] was sworn into the EOKA in 1954, a year before his graduation from the Pancyprian Gymnasium at the OXEN building. He was the fellow fighter of Grigoris Afxentiou, who was bountyed for 5000 pounds and murdered after treason. "My mastre I am dying, long live Greece", he said to Afxentios, shortly before he died under British fire.
A pure and great figure, Markos Drakos, one of the elite members of EOKA, fell fighting with the Security Forces in January 1957. He proudly upheld the Greek-Christian ideals. He defied every danger, even death, and threw himself into the fire with passion for the idea of union with Greece. He was not deterred by imprisonment and torture; on the contrary, he lived hours of absolute freedom in the guerrilla army, setting up ambushes, mocking death until the day when treason was the occasion of his sacrifice.
With his great faith in God, Nikos Georgiou did not bend when his head was clamped until it creaked. He did not cower in the face of artificial suffocation. Not a word of betrayal came out of his mouth, neither for his collaboration with his fellow countryman Polycarp Yiorkatzis in the field of intelligence, nor for the Nicosia task forces he joined together with Iakovos Patatsos. He succumbed after 10 days of horrible torture in the interrogation room of Platres.
Stylianos Lenas,[/B] the "Krup" of EOKA, gave his life in the fight for his homeland. A conscious choice of a man who knew that freedom is not given away, but conquered with blood and sacrifice. A genuine Greek who believed in the sanctity of the great cause, who marched towards sacrifice, despising death, with his forehead held high and his spirit intact. On 17 February 1957 he was shot in an ambush by British soldiers outside his hideout near the village of Pelendri. He was captured badly wounded. For 40 days he fought a battle with death, with English interrogators trying in vain to extract information from him.
Nurtured in the sacred threads of our glorious race, Panagiotis Georgiadis emerged as long prepared for the great call. He was a member of the OCHEN, from which he joined the Struggle in 1954. He was killed by a landmine explosion he was building in the summer of 1958.
Hellenes, Greeks,
Determined to live on its sacred soil, when the fullness of time arrived, Cypriot Hellenism wrote its own history with its own blood, which flowed abundantly from the bodies of its children. The Greek of Cyprus, with an undaunted spirit, steeled his faith in freedom. He believed in victory, just as he believed that the ancient Greek would defeat the Persians, and the Greek of the Ottoman Empire would defeat the Turks.
And this faith brought the miracle. The young people of EOKA were not discouraged, did not bend, did not faint in the face of hardship and deprivation. With indomitable spirit they climbed the gallows, they were burned alive. With indomitable soul they fought on the mountains and in the cities, they lived through every difficult hour of the struggle. The imprisoned graves, the hiding places of struggle and sacrifice, the battlefields bear witness to this.
Their participation in the struggle was the result of an unadulterated, genuine love for freedom, an unfeigned love for their homeland, a consciousness of their duty to their national history and human dignity.
And the church was the emblem bearer. The teacher and preacher of the values for the uprising of freedom.
Hellenes,
It is an accident and perhaps the fate of the land, of this frontier stronghold and of the Greek nation, to struggle to stand as a depository of the universal human ideals of freedom, of democracy, of the defence of human rights.
Attila's shameful invasion continues to flagrantly violate the principles of international law for almost five decades.
Despite the efforts of the President of the Republic for progress on the Cyprus problem and a return to talks, Turkey persists in escalating its provocative and aggressive behaviour. It constantly violates international law and the law of the sea, with its illegal actions directed against the sovereignty and sovereign rights of the Republic of Cyprus.
Unfortunately, today the shameful actions of the occupying power are compounded by the instrumentalization of illegal immigrants who are being pushed by thousands from Turkey across the Green Line to the areas controlled by the Republic of Cyprus, with the danger of demographic alteration just around the corner.
The Government condemns in every direction the illegal actions, which are contrary to international law and Security Council resolutions, stressing the need to reverse the Turkish actions, including the fait accompli operating in the closed town of Varosha.
Unfortunately, Turkey's unacceptable attitude "puts on ice" any effort to return to the talks by our side, which has submitted, through the President of the Republic, our readiness to discuss confidence-building measures (CBMs). These measures are aimed, on the one hand, at creating a climate of confidence between the two sides and, on the other, at better preparing the ground for the resumption of the negotiating process on the basis of the agreed form of a bizonal bicommunal federation solution.
Greeks, Greeks,
Today is an expression of minimum tribute to the heroic martyrs of Cypriot Hellenism, but also a reminder that the church was and is an integral part of our Greek identity.
Today we bow to the memory of the 7 heroic members of the OCHEN Nicosia. Their glorious deeds will continue to command the unyielding struggle and continuous efforts for the longed-for freedom and the reunification of our homeland.
True to the meaning of their sacrifice, we promise that we will not lower the flag and will proudly continue their sacred struggle until that blessed moment. A people destined to live and grow in the land of their ancestors. Who has the right to hope for better days, having fought great struggles to preserve their freedom.
Eternal be their memory and the glory that will accompany them.
(Ephys/MB)
Contents of this article including associated images are owned by PIO
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or PIO
Source
