16th June is a beacon of consciousness and struggle for every Cypriot standing against fascism
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 16th June 2020, Nicosia
AKEL honors the anniversary of 16th June 1943, which is one of the proudest moments in the History of the Party and Cypriot people. With the decision taken on 16th June 1943, the Central Committee of AKEL called on the militants and members of the Party to voluntarily enlist in the ranks of Allied army to fight Hitler fascism on the battlefields of World War II. Hundreds of AKEL cadres and members, including 11 of the 17 members of the Central Committee, responded to the Party’s appeal, which represented the biggest and most organized enlisting of Cypriot volunteers.
Thousands of Cypriots of course took up arms during World War II. AKEL honors with respect and gratitude all the Cypriots who joined the peoples of the world in the humanity’s historic and epoch-making battle with fascism. The Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots who are buried in cemeteries all over Europe are irrefutable proof of our homeland’s contribution to the great victory of the Peoples. We recall that recently the Houses of Representatives called on the State to highlight further this glorious page of Cypriot History, especially through the educational system.
The historic decision of 16th June 1943 was an expression of AKEL’s internationalism and patriotism. With the Party’s decision, Cypriots were called upon to join the struggle for the liberation of Greece from Hitler’s tyranny, the liberation of the enslaved countries and the safeguarding of the national, political and social future of the country. At the end of the war, the anti-colonial struggle in Cyprus was forged around the volunteers of AKEL, beginning with the struggle for their demobilization, preventing the British colonialists from using them to suppress the anti-colonial national liberation struggles of the peoples of other colonies.
The 16th of June 1943 is a continuation of the page written by the Cypriot communist volunteers in the Spanish Civil War fighting against Franco fascism. It is a precursor to AKEL’s participation in the democratic resistance against EOKA B fascism and the 15th July 1974 coup d’état in Cyprus. It continues in today’s struggles against the revival of fascism that is taking place in our country and around the world, with the cultivation of xenophobic hatred against refugees and immigrants, with Trump’s racist poison in the United States and with the rise of the ultra-right across the world.
16th June is a beacon of consciousness and struggle for every Cypriot who stands against fascism and who envisions and is struggling for a world of peace, freedom and equality.
