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Holy Church of All Saints, Deryneia
Honorable Members of Parliament,
Respected clergy,
Dear Mayor of Deryneia and members of the municipal council of Deryneia,
Respected members of the families of the heroes Dimitrakis Christodoulou, Stylianou Lena and Sotiris Tsagaris,
Today we honour the memory of the worthy children of the fatherland Dimitrakis Christodoulou, Stylianou Lena and Sotiris Tsagaris, who sacrificed their lives for the supreme ideal of freedom. But do heroes die? No! "Heroes are never found in darkness", Aristophanes wisely said. Heroes are immortal, they pass into eternity, they are transmuted into ideas, into ideals, into a light that shines through the ages to show us the way, so that we do not bow in the face of the terrible and do not desert in the face of danger.
Dimitrakis, as he was affectionately called by his friends and relatives, born on August 5, 1936, here in Dherynia, Famagusta, was the first-born son of a large family, nurtured with the virtues of meekness and gentleness, but also with the ideals of philanthropy and freedom. After primary school he attended the Famagusta gymnasium. Poverty forced the hero to interrupt his studies and throw himself into the breadline to help his family. However, due to his ambition, he found a way to study by correspondence courses from the "Athens Standard Correspondence Course System", where he enrolled as a student at the technical centre, in the Radio Engineering Department, to become an electrician. After completing his studies he was employed at the Famagusta Electric Company, where, owing to his industriousness, he had rapid advancement. At the same time, he worked as an electrician privately, which provided him with a good income, which gave both him and his family financial respite.
The hero of Deryneia, our hero, a brotherly friend of the fighters Elias Papakyriakou and Alekos Konstantinou, was one of the first to join EOKA and belonged to the groups of the executive of Famagusta.
The hero of Deryneia, our hero, a brotherly friend of the fighters Elias Papakyriakou and Alekos Konstantinou, was one of the first to join EOKA and belonged to the executive of Famagusta. In his private car he transported weapons and ammunition, while at other times he transported fugitives or men of the executive on various missions. Unfortunately, Dimitrakis was betrayed and was targeted by the British as a wanted man. The English put a price on his head for the sum of 5,000 pounds.
In September 1956, through the mediation of the Chief of EOKA, the hero Christodoulou joined the guerrilla groups of Pitsilia under Grigoris Afxentiou and Stylianos Lena, with whom he was making grenades in the house of the priest of Agros Papachristodoulos Augustis. The hero Sotiris Tsagaris cooperated with the guerrillas of his region as a liaison, carrier of war material and caterer in their mountain hideouts. Due to the strong blows they received from the guerrillas of Afxentios and Stylianos Lena in the area of Pitsilia in November 1956, the English hardened their pursuit of the guerrillas. As a result, Stylianos Lena's guerrilla group, despite its rich activity in ambushes against the English conquerors, was pursued by an English army regiment with armoured tanks and helicopters. On 17 February 1957 the rebels were ambushed by the English. Clashes followed near the villages of Potamitissa and Pelendri, during which Dimitrakis Christodoulou and Sotiris Tsagaris were killed by the English, while Stylianos Lenas was wounded and died after forty days, suffering horrible torture at the hands of the English in the meantime.
The sacrifice of Dimitrakis Christodoulou along with our duty to continue the struggle is kept alive by the bust erected in the central square of the village next to the Byzantine chapel of Agios Georgios, as well as the monument erected in the centre of the village Potamitissa in his honour and in honour of the hero Stylianos Lena. To these monuments we ought to place our wreaths of admiration, gratitude and pride, but also to bow in awe at the greatness of their souls.
Fellow countrymen and women,
With their sacrifice, our three young men and women deservedly earned a place in immortality and wrote their own page in the modern history of Cyprus, delivering the highest lessons of heroism, philanthropy and devotion to supreme values, so that they may become shining examples and models to teach us all that freedom requires virtue and courage.
By paying tribute to our heroes today, we have the opportunity to count our historical responsibilities and to reflect on our own duty towards their supreme sacrifice. Our duty is to continue the struggle for the liberation and reunification of our long-suffering homeland. We are fighting for a Cyprus without occupying troops, without guarantees, without barbed wire. We seek a solution in accordance with UN resolutions and European principles and values, just and viable for all the inhabitants of our Cyprus. We condemn Turkey's intransigent attitude over time, as well as its provocations in the enclosed area of Famagusta and in the Cypriot EEZ, and we consider it our responsibility and duty to support every effort to break the negotiating stalemate either through our focus on issues of principle and law, or through Confidence Building Measures and the creation of mobility, or through the strengthening of parliamentary diplomacy - in our role - in the hope of continuing our negotiating course and its successful outcome.
At the same time, we promise to keep the memory of such worthy braves unquenched and to pass on to future generations the light of their sacrifice, the value of their sacrifice, to keep unquenched principles and values such as love of country and freedom.
Now more than ever, with all the challenges we have to face, we need to ask ourselves every day "What more, not less, could we do for our country?" because love of country means responsibility. And we all have a responsibility to our country, to ensure the rule of law and the future we want to build for ourselves and our children. A future that is auspicious, peaceful, prosperous and promising.
Eternal is the memory of our heroes, eternal the example of their service and self-sacrifice.
Thank you.
IK
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