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It is with feelings of respect, awe, emotion and national pride that we pay due tribute today to the action and sacrifice of the heroic children of the community of Lagoudera, Phidias Simeonidis, Panagiotis Hadjipanagiotou and Tryphon Tryfonos.
The inhabitants of Lagoudera, nurtured with the principles and values of the Christian faith, as well as the ancestral ideals of our tribe, declared themselves present in any call of history for the defense of the homeland, its honor and integrity.
Recognizing freedom as the supreme good throughout time, they did not hesitate to fight, placing above their lives their duty to their country and the higher national ideals, universal human principles and values.
It was precisely this legacy that the heroes we commemorate today, who, remaining unyielding and faithful to ideals, defended their native land and the duty entrusted to them by the State. Just as you are rightly proud, and the State is proud, so today, with my presence here as President of the Republic of Cyprus, I want to send the message that we honour both the memory and the sacrifice of the heroes, but we also recognise the significant contribution of your community to the timeless struggles of Cypriot Hellenism.
Born in 1931, Phidias Simeonides stood out for the ethos, honesty and bravery that distinguished his character, his faith in Orthodox Christian ideals and his genuine philanthropy.
Philanthropy that led him to be one of the first to join the ranks of EOKA and to participate actively in the glorious national liberation struggle.
His active activity led to his arrest and imprisonment in the Kokkinotrimithia detention centre, from which he managed to escape on 13 September 1956, together with other fellow fighters.
Escape that allowed him to continue his rich activities, such as organizing an ambush against the British together with his fellow fighter Charalambos Batarias and his brother Yannis Simeonidis, in the morning of November 3. Later, with his fellow fighters Antonis Papadopoulos, Augustis Efstathiou and Andreas Stylianou, he met Grigoris Afxentiou, declaring his presence in the heroic Battle of Machairas on 3 March 1957.
Despite the horrible torture that followed his arrest and his failing health, in the period 1963-'64, he is again present and participates again in the resistance of the legitimate state against the Turkish occupation.
Until his death on May 1, 1975, he did not stop struggling and fighting for his country.
In the same context, Panagiotis Hadjipanagiotou, serving as a special constable at the Paleochori Police Station, on July 20, 1974, rushed to join the reserve at the Kykkos Gymnasium and defend his native land against the Turkish invader.
Together with his brother Kriton, they were stationed at the Omorphita hideout, taking over, together with other reservists, the defence of the Omorphita - Trachona - Neapolis - North Pole area, which was under the responsibility of the 211th Infantry Battalion.
In the battles that followed, in the first days of the invasion, in this sector, Panagiotis together with the rest of the men of the National Guard put up a heroic resistance until the decision for an armistice.
However, in the great surprise Turkish attack that followed, Panagiotis' traces disappeared and since then he was considered missing. With the discovery and identification of his remains in a mass grave in the area of Trachona, he was buried in Polystypis in December 2017.
Equally honored the oath he took to his country and society was the younger of the two, soldier Tryphon Troiphonos, who was murdered by the Turks in December 1983. A tragic development, 10 years after the Turkish invasion and a few years after the declaration of the pseudo-state.
Tryfonos, serving his military service in the area of Agios Kassianos adjacent to the buffer zone, while performing his duties as a day guard at a forward post, was cowardly shot and murdered by a Turkish soldier.
Tryfonos was the scion of a family of fighters with a great contribution to the EOKA struggle, with his grandfather, Papa Haralambos Kyriakou, maintaining a hideout in his house in Sarandi, hosting fighters as well as guerrilla groups.
The heroes we commemorate today, along with another heroic child of the community, Andreas Ioannou, who still remains missing since 1974, were worthy defenders of the homeland, when called upon to serve it.
Their own conscious attitude to life, their own stature and greatness, as well as that of all our compatriots who have been at the forefront of our country's struggles over time, is a sacred legacy for all of us.
While our national pending issues are an open wound, we must fulfil our duty to the present, but especially to the future of our country, to future generations, by exhausting every possibility for the liberation and reunification of our homeland.
While we are working for a more united Europe, an EU member state, our homeland remains divided for almost half a century. The continued occupation of European territory for more than 49 years is an anachronism that must end.
This cannot be our fate. It is not for such a homeland that the heroes we commemorate today were sacrificed. Our historical responsibility is nothing less than to restore historical continuity in our land and in this way ensure the future of Cypriot Hellenism in our homeland. In the critical period we are going through, we are focusing on the basis of a concrete plan in order to resume the talks and achieve the end of the occupation, the reunification of our homeland, in order to free our homeland from the occupying troops and to create conditions of peace and prospects for the future.
We are working to achieve developments that will transform the European citizens of Cyprus into first class citizens who are not deprived of basic human rights and basic freedoms.
We are working to achieve developments that will transform the European citizens of Cyprus into first class citizens who are not deprived of basic human rights and basic freedoms. And it is in this context that I believe that both the UN General Assembly in the second half of this month and the European Council in October are crucial for the prospect of resuming the talks.
In order to achieve everything we envision, to achieve the lifting of the deadlock and the resumption of the talks that will lead us to the resolution of the Cyprus problem, the existence of a strong internal front is an absolute prerequisite.
And I would like to express my absolute satisfaction with the discussion and the results of the recent National Council meeting, to welcome the positions and the responsibility shown by all the participants, which, among many other things, send important messages, both at home and abroad, and strengthen my own efforts.
The end of the occupation and the reunification of our homeland is the minimum debt we owe to those we remember today, to each of our compatriots who sacrificed for this land.
This goal, which will ensure the future of Cypriot Hellenism, is the guiding principle and priority of our efforts. For this goal you can be sure that we will continue to strive until the blessed day of redemption.
Their eternal memory.
(PM/NG)
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