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- Ελληνικά
26 November 2023, Holy Church of Saint Nicholas, Pano Lakatameia
"The hero, a true lighthouse. He proceeded relentlessly in the light, like Jesus Christ. Genuine salt of the earth."
The pen of Ulysses Elytis leaves with its ink the imprint of Kyriakos Matsis. Synonymous with his bright spirit and his radiant personality. But even words are poor to capture his greatness. What can one say about the patriot who was born a visionary. For the revolutionary. For the hero... Who lived with the desire for the liberation of our country.
Who willingly paid the price of defending our country.
Who was a role model for all of us.
It is with feelings of awe, emotion and national pride that we commemorate today one of the most important lads of Cyprus, the Stavraetos of Pentadaktylos, the archangel of the Cypriot uprising, the section leader of Kyrenia and indomitable fighter of EOKA Kyriakos Matsis.
Son of Christofi and Kyriakous, brother of Georgios and Giannakis. Born in January 1926 in Paleochori, he attended the primary school of his village until he was thirteen, when he enrolled at the Famagusta Gymnasium. As a worker in Famagusta in 1945 he became involved in the ethnic and social life of the town of Evagoras and in 1946 he went on a scholarship to the Department of Agriculture in Thessaloniki, a city he had loved and which in turn initiated him more deeply into the values of Hellenism and Orthodoxy. And who was not inspired by his words... and who was not fascinated by his personality... by his views on society, justice, freedom... No one was left unmoved by his principles, values and ideals.
In 1952 he returned to Cyprus to work at the Kouklion farm in Famagusta. His rich social and political activity soon led to the starting point for the great struggle of EOKA. Insightful, mature and with a thirst to honour the mission assigned to him, he initially undertook the organisation of strike groups in the Famagusta and Mitserou areas and subsequently the very important and dangerous responsibility of the pan-Cypriot central liaison and the regulator of the transport of arms and supplies throughout Cyprus.
In September 1954, having since then joined the ranks of the Cypriot fighters, he visits the Thessaloniki International Fair "for the fulfilment of other purposes", especially for the collection of arms, as he himself writes in a letter dated 5 January 1955.
On 9 January 1956 he is arrested and taken to the horrible interrogation rooms of Omorphita, to be subjected to merciless torture. It was then that he was visited by the English Governor Harting and offered the fabulous sum of half a million pounds to reveal information about the EOKA leadership and the struggle. The hero's words echo the voice of all Greeks who through the centuries fought and fell for their country: "We do not fight for money, but for virtue", replied Matsis, slamming his hand fiercely on the table.
Then he was transferred to the Kokkinotrimithia detention centre and on 13 September 1956 he escaped along with other fellow fighters, initially taking refuge in Pitsilia, in the sector of Grigoris Afxentios, to later move to the Morphou-Zodia area. In November 1956 he was appointed section chief of the Kyrenia area and two years later, on 19 November 1958, the moment came when he fell heroically in the village of Kato Dikomo, after a betrayal.
The British soldiers surrounded his hideout and in his refusal to surrender they blew it up. Fearing popular demonstrations at his funeral, they refused to hand over his body to his relatives and secretly buried him in the "cemetery of heroes", today's Prisoner's Memorial, next to his fellow fighters Gregory Afxentios, Marcos Draco, Stylianos Lena and the nine hanged lads.
Kyriakos Matsis was early on reconciled to the idea of death. As a teenager he still recorded the following thoughts in his diary: "True ideologues stand courageously, put their hand on their heart, listen to the voice of their conscience and say: I will throw myself into the struggle, I will fight honestly and valiantly, I will accept the arrows of the opponents with dignity, I will always go forward until I succeed. And I will succeed, because I have the right with me, because I hurt the people, I see them uneducated and I want to wake them up, I see them wronged and I want to justify them..."
Matsis made an oath to his country, which he kept. He shed his blood for a cause, never for a moment shying away from the torture of the English and their criminal brutality, culminating in his horrible death and adorning the pantheon of fighters. After all, isn't that the ultimate definition of a hero? When you put the common good and country above all else, courageous actions and death are the result of free will and a deep-rooted sense of justice. The hero is characterized by selflessness, self-sacrifice and bravery, and never expects nothing in return.
And we today need such heroes to be a source of inspiration. We have been appointed with the duty to rise to the occasion and with sympathy and unity to face unitedly the responsibility to our country and our nation in the face of Turkish intransigence and provocations. We have an outstanding debt to our heroes and heroines, but also to future generations: to deliver a united and complete Cyprus, as our forefathers delivered it to us, so that we can live in peace and security and every legal resident can enjoy his or her rights and freedoms. Our heroes, including Kyriakos Matsis, fought for democracy, a democracy that today is tainted by extreme politics, populism and misinformation.
The heroic death of Matsis, a milestone on the bloody path that all heroines and heroes of Hellenism follow, is a beacon of honour and duty that illuminates the path of the present and the future and proclaims the ideals, values and moral resources we need to survive in a very complex and complicated geopolitical setting.
Honouring his memory today, sixty-five years later, we share in the mystery of his sacrifice and draw valuable lessons from his patriotism and militancy.
I conclude with the lyrics of his competitor Rina Katsellis, which capture the character of the hero, the man Kyriakos Matsis:
"While he was alive he spoke to us about bread,
about man and what is beyond:
about ideals, freedom, immortality.
At the critical crossroads he proceeded to sacrifice,
[...]
And all this not because he believed
that he would remain forever in the memory of the living
-of the living! ,
but that what he did is precisely immortal
beyond bread, beyond man."
I would like to thank the National Association "Kyriakos Matsis" of Lakatameia for the invitation to attend the memorial service of the hero and to congratulate them for keeping his memory unquenched in our Cyprus for thirty years and more. The message of your sacrifice is indisputable.
(The text as sent by the House of Representatives)
Contents of this article including associated images are belongs PIO
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or PIO
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