Today the celebration is double: Panagia celebrates and Hellenism celebrates.
Today we celebrate the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, where the Archangel Gabriel announced to the Virgin that the fruit of her womb is blessed, carrying the message of the imminent birth of the God-Man.
Today we celebrate the beginning of the Greek Revolution, where Ypsilantis, the leader of the Society of Friends, designated this day "as evangelizing the political redemption of the Greek nation" for the birth of the modern Greek state.
As described by General Theodoros Kolokotronis in his speech at the Pnyx:
"When we decided to make the Revolution, we did not consider either how many we were, or that we had no chariots, or that the Turks were capturing the castles and cities. But the desire for our freedom fell like rain on all of us: And our clergy and our chiefs and our captains and our learned and our merchants, young and old, we all agreed to this cause and made the Revolution."
Today we, considering the facts of each era, must acknowledge with awe the greatness of the Greeks who dared to rise up and stand against an empire, to fight and defeat it.
And as they did again during the EOKA struggle.
Because empires are powerful until they meet peoples determined to fight united for their freedom.
I continue by quoting the speech of Theodore Kolokotronis:
"In the first year of the Revolution we had great unanimity and we all agreed.If this unanimity had lasted two more years, we would have conquered Thessaly and Macedonia, and perhaps even reached Constantinople. So much did we frighten the Turks, where they heard a Greek and fled a thousand miles away. One hundred Greeks put five thousand forward, and a ship one armada."
But, as the Old Man of Moria next describes. Perhaps we all wanted the good, but each in his own opinion. Because of the discord, Turkey fell upon us and we almost perished."
Ladies and gentlemen, friends.
The greatest enemy is our evil self, it is the rottenness of the race, it is the cursed division.
And Cyprus has historically paid dearly for the discord.
It is the responsibility of all of us to preserve the unity that is the capital prerequisite for victory, for creation and greatness.
Today is the first national anniversary that we celebrate since the election of the new President of the Republic of Cyprus.
The President received the popular mandate by proposing that national unity is a historical necessity, for the building of which he is working methodically and resolutely, and which we must all support.
We are heading towards the future united, distinguishing the big from the small, the insignificant from the important, and facing together the great challenges of the country.
We are working together for the cohesion of society and for the development of the economy, in the interest of the Republic of Cyprus.
We continue smoothly and steadily to achieve more, responding to the hopes and aspirations of our citizens for progress and renewal, in conditions of security and prosperity.
Ladies and gentlemen, friends.
From Alamana to Gorgopotamos, from Gravia to Machairas, from the siege of Messolonghi to the battle of Nicosia Airport, the line has been the same throughout time."
So, I conclude by slightly paraphrasing the poet:
From Cyprus to Moria we passed from the darkness of Ottoman rule to the freedom of independence.
The festival lasts 200 years on the marble threshing floors where Charonas fought with Digenes.
The judge and master is God and his dragoon is our people.
We are here, we glorify God in Christianity, we teach our children Greek, and we move forward free, united and strong, in the heart of the Western world and in the core of Europe.
Long live the Greek Revolution.
Long live the National Regression.
Long live Hellenism everywhere.
Long live Hellenism everywhere.
(MP/MX)
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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