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- Ελληνικά
It is with feelings of pride and emotion that I am here today, among all of you Karavians, to commemorate together the great anniversaries of our nation's history, the anniversary of the beginning of the Revolution of March 25, 1821 and the anniversary of the beginning of the Liberation Struggle of 1955-1959. We thus pay our due debt to people who fought for our ideals, principles and values and determined the continuity of Hellenism, building the modern Greek state and leading to the creation of an independent Cypriot state.
We will be reminded of this duty every day by the monument to the Karaviots, the inauguration of which we celebrate today as the highest expression of respect and gratitude to all those who, with the sacrifice of their lives or their struggle, defended the dignity of this land and paved the way to Freedom.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The Greeks, united around the desire and vision of freedom and the acquisition of a common homeland, decided on their own National Revolt, challenging with their uprising the oppression and tyranny of the Ottomans. Remaining faithful to the oath they took to the Society of Friends, they managed, through their unanimity and self-denial, to stand up against a clearly superior power.
Bouboulina, Mavrogenous, Kolokotronis, Diakos, Androutsos, Karaiskakis and so many other known and unknown fighters, through their motto "Freedom or Death", captured the essence of the glorious Revolution. Their own Palingenesis, based on liberal and democratic principles, built the first independent Greek state and was destined to be identified with heroism, to become a model and an example and to emerge as a special event in European and world history.
From the very first moment, Cypriot Hellenism was on the side of the rayads, through its very important voluntary contribution. It was then that the unquenchable desire for liberation, which had been simmering in the souls of the Cypriots throughout the years of Turkish slavery, also grew in Cyprus.
The inconceivable greatness of the soul of the people of the Greek race, with the unity, solidarity and faith that distinguished them, gave inspiration and example to the people of Cyprus. It inspired them and gave them the impetus to write, decades later, their own heroic epic.
Young and young, men and women, old and children of Cyprus, responding to the call of EOKA, were led on 1 April 1955 to their own uprising. The Cypriot people as a whole rushed to participate in the preparation and conduct of the Struggle. The call of EOKA found all of them ready to give their own struggle against Great Britain. A struggle, which they carried out in solidarity, aiming at the fulfilment of their national desires. Concentrating their common will on this goal, they kept their spirit and their soul unsubdued, fought battles, went bravely to the detention and concentration camps and faced the gallows boldly, sealing the later course of our country.
Freedom or Death was replaced by the heroic "Molon Lave", the holocausts and the sacrifices. The mountains of Machaera, the Barn of Liopetriou, the Prisoner's Memorials, the Dikomo and so many other places were transformed into sacred places of heroic deaths of the EOKA braves and remained in history as eternal symbols of self-sacrifice, bravery and philanthropy. The struggle of 1955-1959 freed our Cyprus from the yoke of the British rule and led to the creation of the independent Republic of Cyprus.
In these glorious and heroic pages of the history of our Cyprus, the small town of Karavas had its own part. The contribution of its inhabitants to all the struggles of the Greek Nation for Freedom was remarkable. In 1821 the Karavians, together with the inhabitants of Lapithos, supported Constantine Kanaris in the struggle of the nation, supplying him with food and money. With the same vigour, a few decades later, they followed the call of EOKA to defend the honour and dignity of our homeland, rushing to contribute in every way to the Liberation Struggle. A shining example is the hero Iakovos Patatsos, a native of Karavas, who heroically sacrificed his life on the gallows.
Today, when our country is already counting 50 years of illegal Turkish occupation, we ought to draw lessons from our heroes during the two high moments of our history. We ought to draw lessons and strength from the faith and dedication of all of you, the Karavians, who keep the memory of our occupied land unquenched and pass on to the new generation the flame of the struggle for return. Your will and perseverance strengthen the peaceful efforts being made to achieve a solution that will reunite our homeland, freeing it from the anachronistic conditions of guarantees, occupation troops and the invasive rights of third countries. As the President of the Republic himself has repeatedly stated, what is sought is the resumption of talks in order to achieve, through dialogue, a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem on the basis of a just and viable solution.
From our side, as the Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth, our goal is to cultivate in our young people those values and skills that will make them citizens with philanthropy and critical thinking, citizens who, drawing lessons from our history, will live dynamically in the present with a creative and optimistic view of the future, in a reunited, free country.
Ladies and gentlemen of Karavios,
The monument that we inaugurate today on your temporary roof, as a minimum tribute and respect to the struggle and sacrifice of the people raised by Karavas, will keep us committed to paying our debt to deliver to the new generation a free, reunited and prosperous homeland. For this debt we will continue to fight. We owe it to our parents and grandparents, we owe it to those who fought and sacrificed for the freedom of our country, we owe it to our children and grandchildren. This will be the vindication of the heroes of our nation.
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Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or PIO
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