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- Ελληνικά
It is with feelings of emotion, respect and pride that we are here today to pay our last respects to the worthy, brave son of our country. Charalambos Prodromos from Agios Ambrosio, who watered the soil of our homeland with his blood, sacrificing himself for altars and hearths.
Charalambos Prodromos was born on October 18, 1952 in Agios Ambrosio, where he lived with his family until the Turkish invasion of 1974. In 1970 he joined the National Guard to serve his military service and subsequently worked as a farmer.
Charalambos of Sergios and Despina answered the call of his country. On hearing of general conscription, on the day of July 20 he reported to the 361 Infantry Battalion and was thrown into battle with the reservists and conscripts.
The first phase of the invasion found the 361 Infantry Battalion heroically resisting on the heights of Pentadaktylos outside Dikomo. Battles were fierce and savage. Young boys with few supplies against an army with artillery cover and air support.
Between the first and second phases of the invasion, the Battalion moves to the Kythrea area and there Charalambos receives a visit. His father Sergius visits him, giving him joy and strength, but at the same time he learns that instructions were received the next day to move to Klepini.
A few days before the second phase of the Turkish invasion, the 361 T.P. moves to the area of Pachyammos Kyrenia and prepares to face a possible new invasion attack by the invaders. At dawn on 14 August, the Turkish troops did indeed launch a coordinated attack against the National Guard positions. Despite the self-sacrifice of the men of the 361 T.P., the battle is unequal. Due to the superiority of the Turks and the visible danger of entrapment of the men of the 361 T.P., an order is given to disengage.
The men of the 361 T.P. receive instructions to regroup in the area of Kythrea, via Klepini. Another difficult mission, as Turkish planes lurk and bomb any movement they spot. It was a process carried out under enormous precautions, with the movement being slow and taking hours. In the evening several soldiers stayed overnight in the mountains of the Pentadaktylus to rest and continued the next morning.
The last time his fellow soldiers saw Charalambos was that morning. Charalambos Prodromou and another soldier of the 361 T.P. are riding in a tractor driven by Charalambos. At some point they spot a group of soldiers and offer to carry two other soldiers with them who were wounded. Testimonies speak of their departure from the spot, heading towards the village of Tripimeni.
On their way along the main road from Lefkoniko to Akantho, between the Turkish Cypriot villages of Artemi and Platani, they see the tractor stop. It continues for a while and then stops again. Then it disappears, while the same tractor the next day, according to the same testimonies, is driven by Turkish soldiers.
Since then, on that black August 15th, Charalambos Prodromou, his compatriot and also a reserve soldier of the 361 T.P., Nikos Vlachos and George Charalambous and Christofi George were missing until their recent identification.
In vain did the late Sergius and the late Despina, who were fortunate to have eight children, seek news of their only son.
His mother Despina passed away on 21.11.1992 at 12 noon and his father Sergius passed away exactly seven years later, on the same day and in the same month as his wife, on 21.11.1999 at midnight. The last moment of joy for Haralambos and his father Sergius was the day she visited him and saw him for the last time before instructions were received to move them to Klepini. His sister Maroula immediately after the invasion was married in a chantry and subsequently went to Greece. He passed away on 11.1.2021. His sister Androulla a few years after the invasion went to America and his sister Eleni to Greece. Both are facing health problems. His sisters Angela, Chrystalla, Anna and Prodromoula are here with us along with Maroula's husband, Dimitris, and the hero's niece, Aphrodite.
The bones of the hero we are burying today were found in the exhumations that took place in the area of Lefkoniko in 2022 and then anthropological and DNA tests were carried out, based on which the identity of his bones has been established.
With us today are relatives of our heroes, Nikos Vlachos, Georgios Christofi, Michael Kyprianou and Minas Papavasileiou, whose remains were found in the same mass grave together with Charalambos Prodromou.
Today, for the hero's family, for his comrades-in-arms, for all of us, is a day of pride.
Today, for the hero's family, for his comrades-in-arms, for all of us, is a day of pride. Today the state reverently bows its wing to a worthy son of the homeland and pays him the honours befitting a freedom fighter who defended our homeland to the end. To a true hero who, at a time when the homeland was in need, declared himself 'present', and with self-denial offered the courage of his soul in defence of altars and hearths, in defence of our democracy and freedom. He loved freedom more than life itself.
Half a century of agony is unbearably unbearable. We are exemplified by the lofty visions of the brave man we are burying today, destined for national vindication and dignity.
The legacies of Charalambos and the other heroically fallen of 1974 require a promise from all of us. That their own sacrifice, and the pain of half a century of their families will not be wasted. We are called upon to keep their memory unquenched and to pass on to future generations the enormity of their sacrifice. We as a state must continue to strive to determine the fate of the last of our missing persons. We have a duty to fight for the liberation and reunification of our homeland.
To these glorious men of daring and virtue all honours and the rendering of infinite gratitude for their sacrifice are due. Charalambos Prodromos embraced and put into practice the ancient saying: "Nothing is better than another patrice". Nothing is more beloved than the homeland, selflessly offering what is most precious, his own life on the altar of freedom and democracy, sending eternal and universal messages of love for the homeland. Our respect, admiration, appreciation and pride will accompany you forever.
Eternal and honored is the memory of our Haralabe, Sergio and Despina, and light the soil that will cover you.
(PM/EP/NZ)
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