"On the 6th of August from 3.00 in the morning the explosions began...
At 11.00 twelve children came into my house.
-Yaah, save us.
I said to them: where to put you, my son.
My heart was broken.
The trees were bursting, the Lapithos was scattering; you could feel that the mountains were falling, fires, explosions...
They were all eighteen years old."
It is with feelings of reverence and respect that we have come today to the Holy Church of Panagia Faneromeni, to pay due tribute to the revered woman and mother, the great Greek Cypriot heroine Euphrosini Proestou, known in history as the "Lady of Lapithos".
Euphrosyne Proestou has been identified with the bravery, self-denial and greatness of the Greek Cypriot woman with supreme acts of altruism in the most difficult moment of our modern history, highlighting the definition of human solidarity and self-denial. Because Mrs Euphrosyne belongs to that small category of rare people, where words prove to be poor to describe their stature and personality.
Euphrosyne Proestou was born in Lapithos in 1903. She married Ioannis Flourentzos and together they lived in Agios Hermolaos and had 4 children. She led a virtuous life and was deeply religious. She had early on embraced universal human values and Greek-Christian ideals. She was philanthropic and compassionate, generously offering her help to her fellow human beings. At an early age she attended midwifery courses at the Nicosia General Hospital and practised the profession of midwife for many years in the villages of the wider area of Lapithos - Agios Ermolaos, including the Turkish Cypriot villages. In 1959 she returned and settled permanently in her hometown.
Euphrosyne Proestou is known in history for her heroic actions and self-sacrifice during the Turkish invasion in 1974 and specifically during the dramatic moments that followed, after the occupation of the villages of Lapithos and Karavas on 6 August.
Against clearly superior forces that surrounded the two villages, the militiamen of two small companies of the 286 Mechanized Infantry Battalion and the 256 Infantry Battalion, assisted by a few men of the 70th Engineer Battalion, who, after epic resistance, were forced to retreat due to heavy losses.
Tragic moments followed with the invaders displaying criminal brutality against the inhabitants who were running for their lives. Mrs. Euphrosyne, had the opportunity to leave the village with others, but she did not do so, remaining at home. We suppose that with her knowledge of the Turkish language, as well as her connections with the Red Cross, she must have thought she could handle the situation.
Nine soldiers of 286 and three of 256 were cut off from the rest and remained trapped behind enemy lines. They sought help from the remaining inhabitants and in their efforts they met Euphrosyne Proestou, from whom they asked her to protect them, indicating a place to hide to avoid capture.
Mrs. Euphrosyne stood by their side, as another mother, taking care to indicate a safe place of shelter and providing them with the necessities of life for about a month. Thus she hid them in a burrow in an adjacent field and saw to it that they were provided with food on a daily basis, without considering the mortal danger they were in.
The Turks, who were carrying out daily clearance operations and searches with unprecedented ferocity, entered Mrs. Euphrosyne's house on August 8. She faced them without fear and spoke to them in Turkish: "I heard on the radio that the Turkish army is coming to bring peace. I will go wherever you want, my son, but I beg you to leave me at home and let my daughters come and take me away." She knew Turkish, since as a midwife she visited many Turkish Cypriot homes to help pregnant women give birth.
The Turks seem to have been persuaded and left. This was helped by the fact that one of the invaders was a Turkish Cypriot resident of the wider area who knew that Mrs. Euphrosyne had helped his mother give birth to him.
The days passed and Euphrosyne Proestou's unstinting support of the twelve soldiers continued unhindered until the return of large numbers of Turks on 4 September, who attempted more intensive searches of the surrounding houses. He then hastened to warn our soldiers to leave the place as soon as possible to avoid capture. They came out of the burrow and when they found that the whole surrounding area was blocked, they temporarily entered the house of Kostas Kaplanis. But they were noticed by the Turks, who rushed into the house firing.
The attempt to escape for nine of the twelve lads was impossible. Three of them managed to escape. The first, George Papanikolaou, was the luckiest, for after much effort and arduous wandering he reached the free areas in the Astromeritis district. The second, Polycarp Petrou managed to escape, but was later captured in the area of Vavila, in a boat he used to leave the area by sea. And the third, Antonis Filippou, managed to escape and remained hidden in the fields in the area until he was informed of the visit of the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Glafkos Clerides, to those trapped in Pella Pais. Without being noticed he managed to go to the place where the visit was taking place to surrender. The other nine - Andreas Grigoriou, Stelios Theodorou, Kostas Kastellanis, Kyriakos Kyriakou, Nikos Nikolaou, Nikos Papanastasiou, Panikos Paralimnitis, Panagiotis Pavlou and Georgios Christofi did not manage to escape and were arrested by the Turks.
As expected, Mrs. Efrosini was also arrested and was initially taken to the police station of St. Luke, where she was subjected to horrible torture, in order to confess where she hid the soldiers. She was beaten with unprecedented brutality, stripped and shamed while tied to a military jeep in the streets of the village. "They dragged me into a chamber where two old men had died at dawn. The chamber was full of blood. They beat me. I was knocked unconscious. Half of me was always black. They kicked me out, my shoes in the mud, my army shoes. They sewed my neck chain with the cross and made me spit on the cross," she later told us in a shocking confession.
The torture and humiliation continued until one of the interrogators identified her. He was also a Turkish Cypriot from the area whose mother had helped his mother give birth to him. Apparently he took pity on her and for this reason the interrogations, the inhuman torture and possibly the death of Mrs Euphrosyne were stopped. She was then taken to the prison of Kyrenia Castle, with her suffering continuing until she was released to return to Lapithos.
She was expelled from her village in May 1975, only to die in exile 18 years later, on April 17, 1993, at the age of 93, with the longing to return.
Friends and friends,
Euphrosyne Proestou proved by her actions that she was a fighter, with a national and historical conscience.
Euphrosyne Proestou proved by her actions that she was a fighter, with a national and historical conscience. She never fainted and never for a moment succumbed to the brutal violence inflicted on her by the Turks. She had the ability to transcend fear and to act in disregard of the mortal danger she was in. Our twelve National Guardsmen know that they owe their lives to the heroism and self-denial of Lady Euphrosyne.
In the midst of the immense calamity, during the most dramatic moments that our country experienced in the summer of 1974, when everyone was trying to escape death, the Lady of Lapithos demonstrated with her attitude the bravery and greatness of the Greek woman of Cyprus. With her actions she wrote her own glorious page in the annals of the modern history of our homeland and is rightfully an iconic figure of Cyprus.
She remained uncompromising, dignified and proud to the end and became a model of virtuous life and a symbol of struggle for all of us and for future generations.
With the same strength of soul and the same determination, we too must stand up to the national challenges we face, considering our own responsibilities and obligations. Especially today as we continue to face the tragic consequences of the invasion, the continuous provocations of occupying Turkey in our Exclusive Economic Zone and the enclosed city of Famagusta, and the consequences of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Occupying Turkey clearly seems to be seeking the de facto partition and incorporation of half of our homeland, undermining efforts for a just solution to the Cyprus problem.
In this unfavourable environment, we declare ourselves ready for political initiatives towards the resumption of talks for the resolution of the Cyprus problem by proposing Confidence Building Measures.
We remain firmly committed to a just solution, within the framework of the UN Security Council resolutions and the principles and values of the European Union. Determination, collective effort and unity are required to enable us all to overcome the difficult obstacles ahead.
In these difficult moments that our country is going through, let us wish that the fighting spirit, the unwavering faith and the courage of the legendary Euphrosyne Proestou, our "Lady of Lapithos and Cyprus", may guide us and illuminate our difficult path to justify the struggle we are waging, for survival in the land of our ancestors.
May her memory be eternal and her example a beacon of light.
Thank you.
(IK)
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Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or PIO
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