Plenary Session - 31 March 2022
Dear colleagues,
Sixty-seven years ago, at dawn on April 1, armed with their ideals and values, the fighters of EOKA fought heroically for self-determination and union with Greece. The people of the breadbasket, young people, students were initiated into the ranks of EOKA and took on the overwhelming forces of the British occupiers in a fierce struggle, sacrificing their own lives for freedom.
The four years that the struggle lasted were years of imprisonment, torture, exile, hangings without warrants, without trial. At the call of the English to surrender, nine legends, as many as the letters of the word "freedom," marched bravely to the gallows scaffold singing the National Anthem. They were not afraid of death, because, as the hero Andreas Demetriou said, "life is unnecessary in slavery". The Cypriot fighters watered the tree of freedom with their blood, writing the most glorious pages of modern Cypriot history. The crowning glory of their struggle and sacrifice was the birth of the Republic of Cyprus one year later.
The unparalleled bravery of the heroes of EOKA shocked the world and was a source of inspiration for intellectuals such as Albert Camus, George Seferis, Yannis Ritsos, Nikos Kranidiotis and others. A source of inspiration for us today in the difficult circumstances we are living under the constant Turkish threat, provocations and violations in our region. Having a sacred duty to those who gave their lives for the Greater Island, we must fight with unity for a free and reunited Cyprus, for a truly independent state with full application of European and International Law.
I call upon you to observe a one-minute silence in memory of our heroes.
(NG)
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