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- Ελληνικά
Giannakis Charalambous. Age 29. Murdered on 20 July 1974, the day the Turkish invasion of Cyprus began. The day Turkish warships approached the shores of Pente Mili Kyrenia, landing armoured troops, tanks and other military equipment. A day when Turkish warplanes were fiercely attacking National Guard positions and other areas in Kyrenia, as well as other areas of Cyprus. On that black day for our country, Turkish war planes, which were flying over Nicosia, attacked the Athalassa Hospital with bombs, without any hesitation.
This is the day when Attila showed his true barbaric face, bombing a hospital, spreading devastation, pain and destruction. One of these bombs hit a central inpatient ward. Thirty-three people died and were buried in craters created by the bombing, while others were injured and taken to Nicosia General Hospital.
Yiannakis Charalambous was one of the 33 who died. One of the 33 innocent victims of Turkish brutality, but at the same time a victim of the conditions of the time.
Today we bid farewell to a man whose personal story is shocking. In our final farewell we will share what marked his brief passing from life. Short, but meaningful and pure, like his soul.
Giannakis Charalambous was born in 1945 in Katydata. His parents were Charalambos Christoforou, who died five years after his birth, and Mirianthi Ioannou. He had two younger sisters, Androula and Charalabia.
Giannakis became ill at the age of three. The wrong medication he received caused him to lose his speech and affected his mental development. He never attended school and stayed at home with his grandparents while his mother worked to raise her three orphans. This was dictated by his pure and innocent soul.
He spent his hours in the churchyard playing with improvised toys. And he waited for the other children. His friends. He looked forward to meeting them after school to play. To do what all children of his age did, but excluded from the educational sphere.
His main care was taken by his grandmother Eurydice and his grandfather Giannis, who had also assumed the role of father for the three orphans.
This was the life of our Giannakis until the end of the 60s. Until his mother and his two sisters made the decision to emigrate to Australia. Life's difficulties led them to the distant continent to work and create a better life. There, his mother's sister was waiting for them, who offered them shelter and work.
Our Giannakis did not follow his family. His special needs held him back, as Australia banned immigration of people with our Yannakis' special needs. He was separated from his mother and sisters and remained at home with his grandparents. He remained in his village. He remained lonely, quiet and loved by all.
His life changed violently, forcing him to experience the feeling of separation for a second time when his "guardians", his grandfather and grandmother, developed health problems. The absence of state social care and assistance, as well as society's prejudice against people with disabilities, left little room for manoeuvre. The solution then for the vulnerable situation in which our Giannakis found himself was the Athalassa hospital. He was taken there in 1972, two years before the Turkish invasion.
On July 20, 1974, his life's epilogue was written. He died tragically during the bombing of the hospital by the Turkish air force. His grandfather could not bear the news of his death and died four days later. His mother consciously never returned to Cyprus and passed away in Australia at an old age.
The end of Yiannakis Charalambous' life was tragic, as was his own life. He was a victim of social prejudice and exclusion. He was a victim of the state's failure to create the necessary support structures for vulnerable people like our Yannakis. He was a victim of the indiscriminate bombing of a hospital that was considered a safe place because of the international protection afforded to hospital facilities in wartime. Attila did not respect the basics.
Yannakis and most of the inpatients who were killed were in the same ward. They were roughly buried in the craters created by the bombing, without ceremonies and the neo-nomadic procedures. Years passed, and the question of identifying the then inmates remained unresolved. A few years ago, their exact burial site was located, and after the decision to exhume them was made, it was determined by the DNA method that part of the remains of Giannakis Charalambous was among the bones found.
The fallen man we are burying today. The innocent victim of Turkish barbarism, the victim of social exclusion and stereotypes, the victim of a cruel society that fears diversity. Our Yannakis was wronged by society, marginalized by stigma, direct and indirect discrimination and prejudice and was destined, unfortunately, at the age of 29, to lose his life in the most tragic way, in the place where he was found to receive protection and care.
Almost half a century after the Turkish invasion, Yannakis Charalambous is buried in the bowels of the land that gave birth to him.
Almost half a century after the Turkish invasion, Yannakis Charalambous is buried in the bowels of the land that gave birth to him. His life and his loss demonstrate to the State the path of responsibility and duty on multiple levels. We, as a society, owe Giannakis a great apology for the injustices, marginalization and callousness of the state, which he experienced to the greatest extent possible from the early years of his life, from the age of 3 until his tragic end.
We have a duty to ensure that the loss of Giannakis is vindicated. It is our duty, as a State, to protect all members of our society, accepting the particularities that may characterize each member, safeguarding their self-evident individual and social rights. We have a duty not to forget, and an obligation to continue the struggle to locate all our missing persons. And that is what we are doing. Revealing the truth is the inalienable right of the relatives and the only consolation.
We bid you a modest and humble farewell today, our Giannakis, with emotion and respect.
Your eternal memory.
(NΓ)
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Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or PIO
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