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- Ελληνικά
" Men are the city and not the walls, nor the victories of men are empty," said Thucydides.
The strength of the city is the men, not the walls nor the empty ships. The strength of the homeland is its people, their ethos, their philanthropy, their heroism. And the Chandra Community is rightly proud because it has offered the homeland many such men. Those we are here today to honour, those who defied death, who stood on the front lines in defence of freedom, faithful to what their historical duty dictated.
We are here today to humbly offer, as "offerings" to the supreme good of freedom, the busts of our heroes, as a sign of honour and pride for their sacrifice, but also as a reference point in memory and history for all of us today, and for the generations that will follow in this land.
And here we are, in the birthplace of Stylianos Lena, the hero of the national liberation struggle of EOKA, the embodiment of what ancient classical philosophy defined as heroism.
And this is the History of our land, a history of heroes and saints who loved peace so much that they did not hesitate for its sake to arm themselves and throw themselves like lions into battle.
This is the History of our land, this is the History of Chandria.
The community of Chandrias will rightfully be called a heroine forever, because it generously offered to the struggles of Hellenism its children, its guts, the best it had.
Today we pay tribute to the lads of Chandrias, of Cyprus.
Today we pay tribute to the lads of Chandrias, of Cyprus. We pay tribute to those who, with their supreme sacrifice, are the example, the cradle of heroism that will forever bubble up in our hearts, to remind us that we have one and only one obligation, to do everything possible to liberate and reunite our homeland, to raise a mound to internal conflicts and futile divisions.
Today we honour the Heroes of the Community of Chandria who fell fighting in the national struggles "for freedom" in the fields of Macedonia in 1913 and in the fields of resistance in Cyprus during the Turkish invasion of 1974.
Ioannis Savva Vorokliniotis was sacrificed on the altar of freedom in 1913, during the Balkan Wars in Greece. When the First Balkan War was declared on October 9, 1912, for the liberation of the Christian peoples of the region from the Turks, hundreds of Cypriot Greeks rushed to join the Greek army to fight alongside their Greek brothers. Among them was Ioannis, then only 19 years old, who was promoted to the Macedonian front and was killed in action in 1913.
During the period of the Turkish invasion of 1974, the Chandriots once again made their presence felt as militia, as conscripts and as volunteers. Among them were the heroic lads Konstantinos Hadjitheodoulou, Spyros Christofidis and Andreas Christofidis.
Konstantinos Hadjitheodoulou was born in Chandria on 13 April 1955. His parents were George and Antigone Michael Hatzithiodoulou. His father was one of the most active and active members of EOKA in the region.
The "black" July of '74 found Konstantinos serving his military service from the ranks of the heroic 33rd Commando Squadron.
The Squadron, after the operations of St. Hilarion, was assigned the mission of halting the advance of the Turkish tanks, which had landed from the ships, at St. George of Kyrenia.
During the fighting, Constantine was reportedly seriously wounded and has since been among the 40 killed and missing of the 33rd Commando Squadron.
Andreas Christofides was born in Nicosia on 27 August 1942.
Andreas Christofides was born in Nicosia on 27 August 1942. His father was Prokopis Ioannou Christofis, cousin of the hero Stylianos Lena and his mother was Morfo Christofidou.
From the dawn of July 20, Andreas joined the 3rd Company of the 211 TP, under the command of Captain Haralambos Lottas and was sent with his comrades to the front of Trachona. The fight was unequal, but the 3rd Company resisted with vigour. During those terrible battles, Andreas was wounded.
Spyros Christofides was born in Nicosia on 12 December 1937 and is the brother of Andreas Christofides. Since his school days he was distinguished for his physical and mental gifts. The struggle of EOKA, for the throwing off of the British yoke and the freedom of our country, did not leave him indifferent. He was arrested by the English and taken into custody. During the 1963 Turkish invasion, their family home in Agios Pavlos was converted into a training ground for volunteers and a place for the forwarding of arms. During July 1974 he served as a volunteer on the fronts where the homeland was in the greatest danger. One such front was the area of Agios Pavlos where his family home is located. It was there that the fiercest battles were fought in the second phase of the Turkish invasion. This front was the only area of our homeland in which the Turks were unable to carry out their unnamed plans.
Among the heroic dead, who defended the area, was the late Spyros Christofidis. His brother, then a reserve lieutenant, Christakis Christofides, was also wounded in the same battles.
Fighting heroically, he fell on the field of honour and duty, in the area of Kythrea, the heroic soldier of 398 TP Savvas George Christoforou, whose remains were found in 2012 in a mass grave in the area and buried in Nicosia, where his family resides.
Along with the above heroic fallen and missing, we also commemorate 16-year-old young Zacharias Nikolaou Konstantinou, whose remains were interred in his birthplace, Chandria, in the summer of 2014. He was arrested and executed by Turkish extremists. In December 1963, the Turkandarsia and the secession of the Turkish Cypriots from the Republic of Cyprus had occurred. According to some unsubstantiated information, he was kidnapped and handed over to the Turks. Since then his fate has been unknown.
To pay the minimum due tribute to our heroes is an incumbent duty of the State, but also of the entire people.
The existence of a free Cyprus, free from foreign troops and dividing walls, with a commitment to stable and indissoluble values, is the only thing that will justify the sacrifices of our heroes and will be the best memorial for them.
The existence of a free Cyprus, free from foreign troops and dividing walls, with a commitment to stable and indissoluble values, is the only thing that will justify the sacrifices of our heroes and will be the best memorial for them.
In this context, our overriding priority is the solution, liberation, reunification, security and prosperity of all Cypriots and those legally residing on our island, and for all this we must all together, with seriousness, continue our efforts. Anything other than reunification does not ensure the interests and peaceful future of the Cypriot Hellenism in our homeland. We cannot discount this truth, we must provide our children with the future they deserve and we envision for them. And it is precisely for this reason that from the very first moment we launched a major diplomatic effort aimed at mutual benefit for all parties involved through important developments on the Cyprus problem. We have sought and are in full consultation and coordination with our partners in the EU and of course with the Greek Government. The recent unacceptable events in Pyla are the most indicative example of recognition of our sincere will to end the occupation and reunite our homeland. For us there is no other choice.
I have said it many times. We cannot change the geography. Neither can we change the power factors of third parties. But we must not stop trying, we must not be complacent, we must strengthen our state, we must make use of all the tools at our disposal in order to make the ground fertile again for hope and real peace. To make our country, our Cyprus, in its entirety, a place of peace, stability and security once again.
With this promise we remember today our heroic lads, who sacrificed themselves defending our own Hotspots, and we beseech and bind ourselves from the depths of our souls, that the most merciful God may place their souls in the Kingdom of Heaven, and make them co-participants of His own blessedness.
Their eternal memory.
(PM/MB)
Contents of this article including associated images are belongs to PIO
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or PIO
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