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- Ελληνικά
"Everyone is thirsty. For years now.
They all chew a mouthful of sky panu from their bitterness.
Their eyes are red from wrath,
a deep gash wedged between their brows
like a cypress between two mountains the lion's breath."
Their eyes are red from wrath,
a deep gash wedged between their brows
like a cypress between two mountains the lion's breath.
Recalling the verses of Yannis Ritsos' Romiosyne and with feelings of deep emotion and immense respect, we are gathered here today to pay our due tribute to the members of the Cypriot Army, fallen and deceased, and to say a prayer for the search for the missing Major General Tasos Markos, as well as for all our missing compatriots.
This thirst for freedom and contribution to the homeland, to which our great poet refers, was felt by the men we commemorate today. They had sealed deep within them the desire to win freedom and independence. They had faith in high ideals. The faith that strengthens and empowers the people in every difficult and critical moment of history. They too had been thirsting for years and were in the same "wakefulness". In the necessary vigilance imposed by the anxiety and concern for the preservation of the universal human ideal of the freedom of the homeland. This vigilance that we as a people must maintain in the perpetuity of time in order to meet the national challenges that fate has assigned to us.
I thank the President and the Board of Directors of the Association of Retired Officers of the Cyprus Army for the honourable invitation to be present with you today and to deliver the commemorative speech for those who, as the poet suggests, pulled all the way to the dawn, in the unremitting struggle for freedom, democracy and justice.
Today we honour the members of the Cypriot Army who consciously stood up in the service of their homeland and put their flags under their defence, with loyalty and devotion, to the last drop of their blood. Those who were nurtured with the Greek-Christian ideals, the ideals, principles and values of the homeland, and walked the path of duty and obligation, offering themselves as a sacrifice for altars and hearths.
If you want to be called human,
you may have to leave your mother, your beloved
or your child.
You will not hesitate.
You will forsake your lamp and your bread,
You will forsake your evening rest on the home doorstep
for the rough road that leads to tomorrow.
In the face of nothing, you will neither flinch nor be afraid."
This is what Tasos Livaditis reminds us.
This is what Tasos Livaditis reminds us. This is what the men we commemorate today did.
By choosing the struggle and heroic death, they sealed with their active participation the most crucial moments in the modern history of Cyprus. They did not hesitate, they did not falter. They came out of the shell of comfort and security. They led by example. They were a source of inspiration for their subordinates. They led their staff on the path of honour, responsibility and duty. They showed all of us that when required, there are the few, the chosen few who fight like heroes in defence of freedom.
Tasos Markou has always been thunderously present in the critical moments of our country. He was one of the few, the chosen ones. A signpost for the rest, a leader in every historical event and struggle of our country.
Despite the bitterness and disappointment from the repeatedly wrong handling of the leadership of the period, with infinite determination and enviable fortitude, having at his side a few soldiers in Mia Milia, he projected his imposing stature, fought heroically with admirable courage, attempting to repel Turkish aggression.
At his side there, on 14 August '74, reborn from the depths of history, the Spartan Leonidas was found whole. Together, once again they wrote history and highlighted the manhood of the Greek, even though they knew that the young "Medes will cross at last". In his own Thermopylae. Even after the defences were broken and surrounded by the obviously superior forces of the Turkish invader. Committed to the end. Shouting the "Molon Lave" that still echoes to this day.
He acted just as heroically in the EOKA struggle when as "Gouras" he took command of the Kythraia sector on the eve of Christmas 1958. The same in the intercommunal conflicts when he found himself fighting in the front line of the struggle for the defence and defence of Nicosia.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Today we recall from memory the black memories of the multifaceted history of our country. We mentally turn our gaze to the burnt and bloody land of Tillyria and what painfully followed in the following years until the treacherous coup of 15 July 1974 and the brutal Turkish invasion.
We stroll along the beloved sea of Kyrenia, the hidden hillsides of the "Achaean Coast", the golden sandy beach of Famagusta, the vast wheat field of Mesaoria, the lush green Morphou and the castles of Pentadaktylos.
Historical memory, unrelenting and inexorable, touches our still unhealed wounds and confirms that in the darkest and most turbulent times there will always be those who will carry the responsibility of all on their shoulders. To those who did not remain idle, entrenched in fear, apathy and bitterness for what came before. To those who, demolishing the walls of their personal and family security, set sail for the unknown seas of challenges. Their courageous attitude and inexhaustible mental fortitude merged with prudence and were crowned by their heroic deaths.
Ladies and gentlemen,
After the establishment of the Republic of Cyprus in 1960, the intense confrontations between the two communities, due to the Turkish plan to undermine the state and partition Cyprus, combined with our own serious mistakes, led to the inter-communal riots and incidents which, starting in December 1963, initially in Nicosia, rapidly developed into armed conflicts that spread throughout the island.
Four years later, in August 1964, the National Guard, formed just two months earlier, assisted by volunteer forces, made superhuman efforts to avert the danger of an expansion of the Kokkinia enclave that would have brought the State to paralysis. Turkey responded with aerial bombardment of martyred Tillyria, indiscriminately spreading death and destruction.
Until 1974, a turbulent decade followed with continued conflict, but also with the emergence of internal internecine plots to undermine the Cypriot State, with the tragic consequence of the treacherous coup of 15 July and the brutal Turkish invasion that followed.
Cypriot officers and non-commissioned officers faced the devastation of war. Despite considerable hardships, despite shattered morale and glaring shortages of equipment, materials and resources, in the vast majority of cases they honoured the oath they had taken and made every effort to repel the Turkish aggression. Betrayed and helpless, they wrote pages of bravery against the clearly superior forces of the Turkish invader. In this effort, to this day, many have died in the line of duty, leaving their dreams and aspirations unfulfilled. Their names, alongside those of our fallen heroes, adorn the golden deltas of service to our country.
Respected loved ones of those we commemorate,
Friends and friends,
From this sacred place where we honour the memory of those who stood up to defend the homeland, we are called upon to reflect on our own responsibility.
It is our duty and obligation to continue to walk the path our heroes have blazed. On the path carved by the sacrifice of Andreas Arrestis, Christos Fotis and many others, who crossed the gate of immortality by falling heroically fighting, honoring the oath they took to defend the sacred and holy ones of the homeland.
Echoing the message of their sacrifice, we bow to their indestructible, ageless forms and declare unequivocally that with the same faith and the same will we will continue to fight until the achievement of our supreme national goals. The lifting of the occupation. The withdrawal of Turkish troops. The liberation and reunification of our homeland.
The President of the Republic Mr. Nicos Christodoulides is working methodically to achieve these goals.
To achieve these goals we must not repeat the mistakes of the past. With unity and unity, we must face the current challenges in order to break the deadlock and, through a process of honest dialogue, create the conditions that will lead to a solution to the Cyprus problem.
The present distorted state of affairs is not the future we wish to offer our country and our people.
The liberation and reunification of our country is the unfulfilled debt and duty we have towards the heroes we commemorate today and all those who perished in our national struggles for freedom.
Honor and glory to the members of the Cypriot Army whom we commemorate today.
Eternal is the memory of your deceased and fallen in the line of duty fellow men and women and may your prayers be answered to the Most High for the determination of the fate of all your missing persons.
Thank you.
(GG/NZ)
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