Sixty-eight years from the glorious starting point of the heroic epic of the legendary EOKA and forty-nine years from the nightmarish prologue of our great national tragedy, we count the dreams that were killed, we count the wounds that were heaped, we count the sacrifices that were unjustly made, we count the Greek centuries that have passed from our bitter homeland.
And we find the total sum so great and so heavy that it does not allow us to deviate from our one and only way, from our one and only struggle. The way and the struggle for the freedom, salvation and vindication of Cypriot Hellenism.
On April 1 every year, the values of our people and the longing for freedom are again highlighted to mark our path in this blessed land.
On this day, the first explosions were heard in the major cities of the island as a reminder that the supreme good of Freedom requires sacrifices and struggles for its conquest.
On this day, the first explosions were heard in the major cities of the island as a reminder that the supreme good of Freedom requires sacrifices and struggles for its conquest. It was a blatant protest against colonialism and a reminder that there are peoples who do not faint and do not flinch even in the face of death. The city of Larnaca in particular is justly proud of its own children, who fought and sacrificed on the altar of freedom.
Despite the fierce reaction of the colonialists, the house arrests, torture and executions of EOKA fighters, the fighting spirit of the people was not weakened even for a moment. The political leader of EOKA, Archbishop Makarios III and the military leader Georgios Grivas Digenis, led with determination the struggle of the Cypriot people to free themselves from the shackles of colonialism.
EOKA had put emphasis on the involvement of the student youth, who with frequent demonstrations and the "battle of the flag", kept the English soldiers away from the mountains where EOKA rebels were hiding. Grivas even ordered the creation of the ANE (Alkimos Youth EOKA), which operated in schools in Cyprus in order to organise the actions of the local youth. PEKA, at the same time, was the political organization of EOKA, active mainly after Makarios' exile in early March 1956 in Seychelles.
The years of the Cypriot struggle created the epic of EOKA, which moves and exemplifies the younger generations. The Cypriot people as a whole wrote pages of incredible heroism and self-sacrifice. In Machairas, with the sacrifice of EOKA's Deputy Leader Grigoris Afxentiou, one of the most brilliant pages of modern history was written, not only of Cyprus, but of the entire nation.
Also, in Dikomo with Kyriakos Matsis, in Ahtiron Liopetriou with Andreas Karyos, Ilias Papakyriakou, Fotis Pittas and Christos Samaras, in Mersinaki with Charalambos Mouskos and Markos Drakos, in Zopigi with Michalis Giorgallas, in the militant youth demonstrations with Petros Gialluros, in the battle of the General Hospital with Kyriakos Kolokasis and Ionas Nikolaou.
Honor and gratitude to the other fighters who offered their lives on the altar of Cypriot freedom, Christos Tsiartas, Savvas Rottsidis, Charalambos Michael, Pantelis Katelaris, Stavros Stylianidis, Andreas Zakos, Kostas Loizou, Panagiotis Toumazis, Nikos Theofanous, Georgios Nikou, Panagiotis Kaspi, Michalis Nikolaou.
Eleven months before his passage to immortality, in a letter to his parents, Kyriakos Matsis reveals how he would face the last call of his homeland: "We believe that all our sacrifice does not go in vain and you should be proud of us. If the good God grants us the glorious fortune to lay down our lives for our country, then your joy must be immense. I don't know if a man can dream of a better fortune than this. And I cannot think of parents who are prouder than their children who fell for the fatherland."
This reflects, I believe, all the EOKA fighters who strongly opposed all forms of totalitarianism and oppression. Their belief in freedom and human dignity was their everlasting companion and with their heroic sacrifice they served the struggle for the freedom of the homeland and its national restoration to the end. The armed struggle lasted four years until Great Britain was forced to grant Cyprus its independence.
Recently, I was at the General State Archives of Greece, in the context of a thorough research concerning the period of the EOKA Struggle, in order to obtain valid articles from various periodicals of the time, as well as newspaper articles and audio documents from ERT.
One example worth mentioning is "Radioprogram", the only official magazine of the Greek Radio, which, surprisingly enough, in the week from 3 to 9 April 1955, was published with a Cypriot woman watering her hydrangeas on the cover. One might well wonder if this is an indication that Greece might have known about the beginning of the Cyprus Struggle, as the pagination and printing of the magazines at that time took some days. However, this curious coincidence does not cease to go unnoticed. The next cover of the Radio Programme relating to Cyprus was in the week of 8 to 14 January 1956 with a Cypriot girl from Limassol. Another edition, in the week 24 to 30 August 1958 was entitled "The Calvary of Cyprus". The impact of the reports on Cyprus in the magazine "Radioprogram" published by the National Radio Foundation (NRF) at that time was enormous.
Of course, the first radio station of Greece, "RADIO STATION ATHENS", which does not forget the thousands of Greeks living scattered all over the world, cannot be excluded nor can it be ignored. With hundreds of weekly broadcasts via the transmitter of the Short Waves, it is also in contact with the Cypriots during the period of the EOKA Struggle, through the broadcast "Voice of the Fatherland", which was broadcast daily from two thirty until three in the afternoon.
Indicatively, one month after the EOKA Struggle began, the anonymous column of the radio program "From the Antenna", writes:
"To the complaints and protests that our English friends continue to make about the broadcasts of the Athens Radio Station concerning the Cyprus issue, we honestly find no answer. We are only puzzled by their claims. What do the British wish us to say to our enslaved brothers? Is it not enough that the Athens Radio Station has studiously avoided - there is no example - to incite the Cypriots to a stand, or that it has never turned against the British nation? The broadcasts of our station are a conscientious journalistic work of an informative character, but moreover they do not cease to emphasize that the people of free Greece are following with sympathy and anxiety the struggle of their enslaved brothers and sisters. What is there in this line that is objectionable enough to provoke the wrath of the British? But let us be serious. The cause for which we are fighting within the framework of the Charter of the United Nations and international laws is very sacred to us. So sacred that we cannot be allowed to dismiss it in the face of the protests that have been made and those that will follow...'.
At the end of July 1955, the magazine returns with new statements as follows. Makarios, gave a truly astonishing answer to the British allegations of alleged propaganda for a revolt by the Athens Radio Station against the Cypriots. The Ethnarch categorically stated: "The Radio Station merely comments on a situation and interprets the feelings of the Greek people. But I can say that perhaps it is the struggle of the Cypriots that inspires the Athens Radio Station and not it that inspires the struggle of the Cypriots...". A more correct statement of this matter, which for months has been drawing all sorts of British protests, could not be made. We have written before that the Athens Radio Station can only be described by people deliberately confusing reality as an instrument for the entertainment of the people. Its antennae are so high and sensitive as to catch the national pulses and vibrate vividly from the effect of the emotion diffused into the atmosphere for the self-determination of 42,000 enslaved Greeks."
Thus, ladies and gentlemen, the Cypriot people managed to maintain their unbreakable ties with Greece, as they watched the broadcast incessantly.
I could not fail to mention the magazine "The Voice of Cyprus", which was also published in Greece throughout the EOKA Struggle, recording the events in its own way, informing Hellenes everywhere about what was happening on the mainland. It is worth noting that its circulation was banned by the British in Cyprus.
Today, apart from paying due tribute, we draw lessons for the continuation and glorification of a struggle with the purest ideals. We recall the figures of the fighters who, with their soul and blood, fought and gave our people the supreme good of freedom.
To proclaim once again our commitment to the values and ideals, to the principles and collective visions that have been our precious legacy over time. The essence of our civilisation.
The top priority of the President of the Republic Mr. Nicos Christodoulides is the resolution of the Cyprus problem within the agreed framework so that our country can finally become a reunited, free, modern, European state, a common homeland of prosperity and security for all its legitimate citizens, without any discrimination.
President Christodoulides also repeatedly stated that "there is a concrete approach to breaking the deadlock and resuming the Cyprus talks through a leading role of the European Union.
This is the time for diplomacy, which has started to work towards the implementation of what was discussed in Brussels, with the Turkish elections in the horizon.
As President Christodoulides has declared before the House of Representatives, with the solution of the Cyprus problem, the Republic of Cyprus will be transformed to become our common home within the great European family. This is the solution we envision.
We address our refugees, our stranded, our victims, the relatives of our missing persons, all those suffering from the traumas of the invasion and the ongoing occupation, assuring them that they remain at the forefront of our efforts to end the occupation and reunite our homeland.
With unity and unanimity, let us stand tall and unbowed until the blessed hour of the liberation of our enslaved lands.
Guided by the light of the sacred memory of the heroes of the EOKA Struggle, we look back today to the epic four-year period that revealed the true Greek face of Cyprus, the fighting face, and established our Freedom.
Guided by the light of the sacred memory of the heroes of the EOKA Struggle, we look back today to the epic four-year period that revealed the true Greek face of Cyprus, the fighting face, and established our Freedom.
To the heroic martyrs who were tested at the most critical moment, choosing a dignified death, we owe our respect and admiration, because they honour history and are a shining example for those who wish to live freely.
Their memory remains alive in the soul of every Greek in Cyprus and the best memorial to our heroes is the continuation of the struggle until the final vindication of our long-suffering land.
Eternal memory to our heroes.
(PM/MB)
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