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- Ελληνικά
Brothers from Greece,
Compatriots,
It is a great honour to welcome this evening's event organised by the Office of the Head of Humanitarian Affairs of Missing and Trapped Persons of the Presidency of the Republic and the Organisation of Greek Secondary Education Officers of Cyprus on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the illegal Turkish invasion and the ongoing occupation of our country.
Fifty years later, the tragic consequences still exist and "No one forgets, no one is forgotten".
None of us forgets Kratimenos Anastasio, Analyst George, Konstantinos Tsitiridis, Iliopoulos Panagiotis, Toulis Ilias, Martzaklis George, Tsagalidis Konstantinos, Iliopoulos Ioannis, Christopoulos Alexios, Xanthopoulos Athanasios, Koukoularis Christos, Binakis George, Bourekas Asimakis, Chios Frangos, Sarlian Charalambos, Georgiou Michael, Christos Kaiser, Christodoulos Kaoutzanis, Papatryfonos Andreas, Mustakas Kakoulli, Michael Sotirios, Hadjidimitris Paul, Poyatzis George.
In the presence of relatives of the missing and fallen, and especially of our brothers and sisters from Greece, we express our unlimited gratitude both to the people we honour today, and to every single person who demonstrated unparalleled self-denial, sacrificing his own life for our country.
At the same time, on the occasion of tonight's event, which becomes, if you like, a commandment of common commitment and vigilance, we unite once again our voices, asserting our common will to justify their struggle through the end of the current unacceptable state of affairs, the liberation and reunification of our country.
July 1974, linked to the tragic events of the treasonous coup and the Turkish invasion, has marked the history of our long-suffering island.
It is in these difficult moments for the defence of the dignity of our homeland, the safeguarding of its independence and territorial integrity, the survival of Cypriot Hellenism in this land that our Greek brothers fought, as in previous trials, side by side with the Greek Cypriots, sealing with their blood once again the indissoluble bonds between them.
And one of the most tragic aspects of the Turkish invasion, in human terms, is the humanitarian issue of the unclear fate of our missing persons. A tragedy that was and is also experienced by dozens of other families of the missing and fallen during the Turkish occupation.
As a State, as President of the Republic, I want to look at you and promise you that until the fate of the last missing person is determined, we will continue our efforts, placing the issue as a top priority.
And I want to acknowledge a reality tonight, that it was also thanks to your effort, the relatives of the missing - when some people had "closed" the issue -, perseverance and fighting spirit that we have so far achieved the exhumation and calibration of some of the cases from our original number of 1619 missing persons.
I want you to be assured, my dear relatives, that for us the hypothesis of the death of our missing persons as a solution to the problem is not acceptable. It is contrary to humanitarian principles and the legitimate right, the human right of every mother, every father, every wife and every child to be informed about the fate of their loved ones. It is tragic, but it is also indicative of what the passage of time brings. Private Charlian Charalambos, who lost his life in the events of 1963-'64 and whose remains have recently been identified, has no living relative today. His remains were exhumed on 14 April 2017 and after anthropological examinations and investigation of the events, it was concluded that they belong to Charlian Charalambos. The Greek authorities were informed of the event, with a request that his relatives be informed. Since then, his complete skeleton has remained at the Anthropological Laboratory of the Republic of Cyprus.
Despite the efforts of the Greek authorities, we have been informed by the General Staff of the Army of Greece that no living relative has been found and therefore -it was the least we could do- we decided that his remains should be buried with due honours and under the responsibility of the Presidency of the Republic. The burial of the dead fighters, moreover, is for us, for all Greeks, a sacred duty and a supreme duty.
I therefore take this opportunity to reiterate once again my appeal to those who know or possess data and information, even about a missing person, to submit them immediately to the competent services in order to facilitate the important work of the Missing Persons' Committee.
Along with our missing persons, the thousands of dead, the many more wounded, the suffering, the destruction of our cultural and religious heritage, the continuing alteration of the demographic character of our homeland constitute, among many other things, tragic consequences of the Turkish invasion, which are still being suffered 50 years later.
They constitute the open wounds of an ongoing crime, which, in addition to the flagrant violation of the basic human rights not only of the refugees but also of every citizen of the Republic of Cyprus, flagrantly violate every concept of law.
Wounds, consequences, repercussions that at the same time define our collective duty and responsibility to continue and intensify our efforts to find a viable and workable solution for liberation, for reunification.
We really want - for us there is no other way, no Plan B and no personal agendas - to make our land a truly independent state, freeing it from anachronistic guarantees and occupying troops.
Fifty years is a long time. Too much. A whole generation, our generation, that of the children of war, was born and raised in refugee, in occupation, in the harsh reality of a divided Cyprus. The children of war, who slid into their mother's arms in those tragic days of 1974, playing and learning letters in tents, now have children of their own, but with the homeland still divided and still feeling unjust and betrayed. At the same time, another generation, that of our own grandparents, our own grandmothers, left without being buried in their own lands, with an unfulfilled desire and longing to return.
I stand among you today, half a century after the most tragic moment in Cyprus' history, the first President of the Republic of Cyprus who was born just a few months before that July and grew up with the other children of war, of refugeeism, of "I DON'T KNOW", of the endless search for what is right, what is just, of the endless search for hope through constant, repeated disappointments.
In 1974, the Republic of Cyprus was subjected to a double rape that traumatized it, divided it, broke it and, despite the ongoing attempts to destroy it, did not destroy it. Yes, we are now counting fifty tragic summers, including multiple open wounds. But contrary to the wishes and efforts of some, we are at the same time counting fifty years in which the Cypriot people - whatever some may think - did not compromise, did not give up, did not forget. Despite the difficulties, the pain, the problems, we did not compromise and we did not get used to the occupation. We marched and fought without compromising with the fait accompli. After all, with the unjust and the unacceptable, the dull man cannot come to terms. On the contrary, the Cypriot people believed, raised and further strengthened their statehood, the Republic of Cyprus, by constantly making efforts to end the occupation and reunification.
Without ever forgetting, the Cypriot people stood, regrouped, temporarily housed their refugees, raised their children. The Cypriot Hellenism, to the disappointment of some, has not forgotten, hopes, waits and struggles.
Fifty years is a long time. Too much. There is no choice but to end the occupation and reunite our homeland.
We must get rid of the occupation and division, and the only way is to use all available means to further strengthen our state, our economy, active international diplomacy, upholding the principles of international law and highlighting the additional advantages of Cyprus, tangibly and not theoretically. We are called upon to create in an anarchic international system. We must showcase our country's advantages by building partnerships and strengthening relations with all our partners.
The only way for us is the way of progress and peace, the way of continuing every effort to resume talks as soon as possible to achieve the longed-for solution, reunification. Despite the frustrations, the challenges, we do not accept the occupation. With realism, determination, perseverance, with no scepticism, no defeatism, no introspection, we continue our efforts and we know very well where we want to go.
Strong and united, we must all stand by this truth and present it clearly: our priority is the solution, reunification, peace, security and the well-being of all Cypriots and legal residents on our island, and for all this we must continue our efforts together, in earnest. Anything other than reunification does not ensure the interests and the peaceful future of the Cypriots, of Cypriot Hellenism in this land. There is no room for discounting this truth.
The 15 Greeks, as well as the eight Cypriot professors, whom we honour tonight put their lives before their duty.
Together with so many others, who ran to defend our homeland in every struggle it had to face, they are a beacon and a guide for our own course.
A course that we must follow, under conditions of strong unity and unanimity, in practice and not in words, in order to justify their struggle and sacrifice.
In this effort, we are investing substantially - the presence of the Minister of Education is indicative - in our education. In an education which, through the high work carried out daily by all of you, our teachers, will strengthen the historical memory and consciousness of our children, so that they will be able to claim by peaceful means the liberation and the longed-for return to their ancestral lands.
As I have repeatedly mentioned, I strongly believe that we have an obligation and a duty to tell our children and the younger generation about the black summer of 1974, about all the struggles and sacrifices of those who gave their lives for a better Cyprus, for the Republic of Cyprus to exist today. Because virtue and courage require deep knowledge. Knowledge first and foremost of yourself, that is, of your real history. This, to forestall any reactions, in no way works negatively towards efforts to resolve the Cyprus problem, since the viability of a possible solution largely passes through and through respect for one's historical identity and not through self-abolition.
(PM/GC/EP)
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