Faithful to our duty, we are here today to commemorate the two national anniversaries of March 25, 1821 and April 1, 1955. While congratulating the Community Council of Achna for organizing this event, I would like to first point out that the celebration of national anniversaries is, for every people, an opportunity for creative reflection and self-criticism. The honour due to the top milestones of our historical past is an imperative of the present and a basic demand of the future.
The reference to both anniversaries is neither coincidental nor is it due to their proximity to the calendar. On the contrary, both struggles are characterised by many similarities. Both in the facts, their operational action and their results, and in the international context and the role played by the great powers in both historical eras.
March 25 was for the nation of the Greeks the starting point of its new life and course. April 1 for the Cypriot Hellenism was the beginning of a new historical period for our particular homeland.
The revolution of 1821, as a great historical event, is directly linked to the international political climate of the time. Both the international conditions and the internal processes that took place in Greece played an essential role in its beginning and subsequent development.
The Greek Revolution was not a sudden outburst of a few patriotic fighters. It was the final stage of a process of awakening of the race, through which the conditions for the claim to freedom matured. It coincided with a period when, in Europe, bourgeois/democratic movements were overthrowing authoritarian institutions and laying the foundations of bourgeois democracy.
Thus, based on the ideas of the French Revolution, the Enlightenment and the wind of change that was blowing in Europe, the Friends sowed the seeds of national awakening, defined and shaped the ideological background of the revolution.
The struggle of 1821 recorded unparalleled moments of heroism that moved the world at the time. The exodus of Messolonghi, the struggle of the Souliotes, the heroism of Athanasios Diakos clearly demonstrated faith in the struggle and the desire for freedom.
These stories of heroism and self-denial spontaneously created the Philhellenes' movement, which acted as a catalyst, on the one hand, in securing financial aid for the revolution and, on the other, as a lever of pressure on the decision-making centres of the great powers of the time.
There were, of course, setbacks in the struggle due mainly to internal rivalries. However, despite all the problems and adversities, the revolution of 1821 remains the most decisive point in the history of the Greek nation. It is the culmination and triumph of the mental endurance of Hellenism through 400 years of slavery. The fighters of 1821 managed, for the first time, to create an independent Greek state with an entity of space, institutions and economy. A thousand or so Cypriots joined the chieftains in various parts of Greece fighting against the Turkish yoke. In Cyprus itself, the Ottoman conquerors drowned in blood every thought and plan for an uprising of the Greeks of Cyprus. In July 1821 the great drama took place with the execution of Archbishop Kyprianos and three Metropolitans, as well as abbots of monasteries and other clergymen along with demagogues and other provosts. Executions accompanied by confiscation of property, looting of churches, monasteries and houses.
1821 is always relevant because it teaches us that "greatness in nations is not measured by the acre, but by the fire of the heart and measured by blood."
1821 is always relevant because it teaches us that "greatness in nations is not measured by the acre, but by the fire of the heart and measured by blood". It is timely because it demonstrates the value of faith in an idea, even if its realisation is difficult and carries risks, such as the idea of independence and freedom after 400 years of darkness and slavery. The same principles and values of the Greek Revolution inspired our own liberation struggle. Common were the motives that drove the fighters to acts of heroism and self-sacrifice, the love for freedom and the preservation of the dignity of the Greek. What is also common is the realization that Freedom is not offered by foreigners, but is conquered by the will and struggles of the people. Our small people dared to take on a powerful empire. Freedom, self-determination and union with Greece is their dream and their secret desire. When Cypriot Hellenism understood that it had no choice but to stand up and claim its rights, it threw itself decisively into the armed struggle to throw off the English yoke.
To the call of the fatherland, with the blessings of the political leader of the Struggle, Archbishop Makarios, and the proclamations of the military leader Digenes, young and old, girls in their school uniforms and women who knew only their homes or worked the land with their husbands, ran enthusiastically and declared themselves present.
They took the EOKA oath and fought in the mountains, villages and towns, were imprisoned, confined in detention without trial, were holocausted, hanged, singing the hymn to freedom.
The English conquerors used violence and horrible torture to break the spirit of the fighters and the Cypriot people, but they did not succeed. They offered large monetary rewards and put bounties on fighters, but even these measures proved ineffective in suppressing the Struggle.
Kyriakos Matsis' reply to Governor Harting "we do not fight for money, but for virtue", when he offered him a large sum of money to give information about EOKA, expresses exactly how the freedom fighters saw the Struggle.
We remember them all and we honour them.
We honour Gregory Afxentiou, who fought alone from his hideout for ten hours against the English and, although he knew he would die, he did not surrender. He became a holocaust and taught the fighters not only how to fight, but also how to die.
We honour Kyriakos Matsis, who also became a holocaust; we honour the four heroes of Liopetri, who turned a humble barn into a pilgrimage of freedom. We honour the nine heroes who were led to the gallows, singing the hymn to freedom, and whose sacrifice sanctified it, while their imprisoned tombs became an altar of freedom and the holy of holies of the liberation struggle.
We do not forget and honour the countless known and unknown freedom fighters, clergy and laity, students and schoolgirls, teachers, women, farmers and in general all the ordinary people, who supported the Struggle for four years, knowing that life is glorified only in conditions of freedom.
Heroes such as Pallicarides, Afxentios, Matsis and so many others became models of struggle and self-sacrifice. Examples of courage and valour. Transcending human phobic syndromes and limits, they wrote one of the most brilliant pages of modern Cypriot history.
The anti-colonial struggle of our people, unfortunately, would not have the desired result. Instead of union, we were led to independence with a treacherous and dysfunctional constitution that placed the newly established state under the tutelage of the three guarantor powers.
It is important to point out that, from the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 until the end of World War II, Turkey had no involvement in the Cyprus problem. It re-entered the scene at the initiative of the United Kingdom when the question of union was urgently raised. The only guiding principle of the British actions was to create such conditions that would allow them to maintain absolute control over Cyprus.
As a result of British planning, the struggle did not have the outcome that the Cypriot people wanted when they started it in 1955. But this can in no way overshadow the greatness and sacrifice of those who fought for freedom. In the end, independence was not granted to the Cypriots. Independence was won by the Cypriots.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As we celebrate our national anniversaries in a new international environment, we must remain firm in our principles in resolving the problem of the ongoing invasion and occupation of a large part of our island by Turkey.
Proclamations in favour of the basic principles of international law and respect for the independence and sovereignty of peoples must not be made selectively and at will. Perhaps more than ever before, we proclaim our adherence and commitment to international law and to a solution that ends the invasion and occupation, and restores and safeguards the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all our people.
Let the example of the heroes of the Greek Revolution and our liberation struggle guide our path to the vindication of our visions. For the freedom and reunification of Cyprus.
Our struggle is the struggle of all Hellenism, of the whole nation. In this struggle, the message of 1821 and the spirit of 1955 determine our attitude and resistance. We believe in the vindication of our struggle. We believe in the vindication of Cyprus. And with this faith unshaken we continue our struggle.
(PM/MB)
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