Papalazaros Neophytou remained faithful to the ideals of the Left to the very end of his life

 

Papalazaros was and will remain the iconic figure of Cypriot history

9 July 2022, ‘Haravgi’ newspaper, by Mihalis Mihail

His case reminds us of other priests, in different countries around the world, who, understanding the world they live in, managed to combine the ideals of the Left with Christian faith and the struggle for justice.

As a man of the people and of God, not only did he see no contradiction between his priesthood and his ideology, but, as he said, “rather the concepts have a common identity. All these years I haven’t had any difficulty in being a priest and a leftist.”

He reminds us of the hundreds of priests who joined the Greek resistance EAM-ELAS and fought for the liberation of Greece from the Nazis and foreign intervention.

The 5 July marked two years since the passing away of Papalazaros Neophytou, the father of the two heroes, Kyriakos, who was murdered in the Paphos Metropolis in 1973, and Sotiris, who was killed during the Turkish invasion of 1974.

Agathoniki, his heroine and life partner, passed away first on 1 November 2018. Papalazaros and Agathoniki’s life was not rosy. Like thousands of others, they fought for the rights of the poor. But the loss of two of their children was what set them apart. They were not broken by the pain, instead they found strength to fight even harder for the rights of the common people. They were in the frontline of the struggle against nationalism and the extreme right, for the liberation and reunification of our divided homeland.

Volunteer in the Second World War

The difficult times of the 1930’s led Papalazaros’ father’s family into debt. In the end he also lost his fortune, as he was unable to pay off the moneylender from whom he borrowed the large sum for the time, £6!

Lazaros, as he was called before he became a priest, followed his brother and joined the army himself to fight Hitler fascism. He was sent to Palestine and Egypt for three years, until 1949. This period helped him, like thousands of other Cypriot volunteers, to come into direct contact with the ideas of the Left. Returning to Cyprus, in 1949 he began working first in the fields and then on construction sites. In 1952 he married Agathoniki. Together they had 9 children.

A left-wing priest…

Alongside his left-wing ideas, Papalazaros had a strong connection with religion, which led him in 1965 to choose to dedicate himself to priesthood and was subsequently ordained a priest. His joining the priesthood was facilitated by the exhortations of the local community chief of the village Choletria and several of his fellow villagers. Papalazaros made sure to inform all concerned that he was a leftist and even a member of AKEL. His fellow villagers collected signatures that there was no problem at all because of his ideology.

As Papalazaros recounted, the then Metropolitan Gennadios, who was later one of the three Metropolitans who collaborated with the Greek junta against Makarios, asked to see him. He met with him and they talked. At the end Gennadios asked him, “Is it true that you are a member of AKEL?” “Yes, and that is not going to change,” Papalazaros replied! But Gennadios asked him: “Well, are you going to talk about AKEL in church?” only to get the answer that Papalazaros’ concern would be his village and his children. The reply satisfied Gennadios, who promised him that he would send him to the seminary. However, he in the end sent him to the Monastery of Trooditissa.

The murder of his son Kyriakos

Life for the Papalazarou family did not go smoothly.

When their son, Kyriakos (Note: just 17 years old and an active member EDON, the youth organisation of AKEL) was about to enter High school, Gennadios told them to take him to the Paphos Metropolis to live there. In the meantime, Gennadios had gone over to the anti-Makarios camp. When the three Metropolitans met to depose Makarios, Papalazaros organized a pro-Makarios meeting by gathering all the priests of Paphos and taking them to the Archbishopric in Nicosia to express support for Makarios.

According to Papalazaros, his son Kyriakos informed him that the Greek junta’s Ambassador Panagiotakos often visited the Paphos Metropolis for contacts…

After the attempt to depose Makarios in the Holy Synod failed, Gennadios left the Metropolis, which was guarded by Makarios supporters. Kyriakos returned to his village and went back to the Metropolis when order was restored.

The Papalazaros family began to receive threats from the armed fascist underground EOKA B organisation and one night a policeman asked the family to leave the village because there were indications that EOKA B would kill Papalazaros that night. Papalazaros agreed to leave and went to the house of the priest of the village of Kouklia. And indeed, they went to his house and did not find him. As he said, when they went to his house and did not find him, they went to the Metropolis and shot his son.

At dawn on 1 July 1973, Kyriakos was returning to the Metropolis from a party held at the Technical School where he was attending. When he arrived, one of the guards of the Metropolis, who was a supporter of EOKA B, murdered him by shooting him in the mouth with his pistol.

Papalazaros always said bitterly that no one was interested in the murder. He also met Makarios himself, who ordered an investigation. The murderer was well-known, but when the trial took place none of the five policemen called to court testified against him. So the trial was postponed. In fact, it was abandoned because the court never dealt with the matter.

The family’s contacts with the then Attorney General, Michalakis Triantaphyllides, were unsuccessful, as he told them that the police had lost the file. But even later the Attorney General, Alekos Markides, told them that nothing could be done as the file was burnt.

The coup d’état

On 15 July 1974, when word reached the isolated village of Choletria that a coup had taken place, Papalazaros, at the urging of the Paphos Association of Fighters, went around the village addressing the call for resistance.

They filled a bus and set off for Nicosia. They first went to the Ktima and there they saw large quantities of weapons. Those gathered in the square were arming themselves and boarding buses to go to fight in Limassol. They arrived at Kouklia, where a policeman urged Papalazaros to return to his village because there was information that Turkish Cypriots from the neighbouring village of Stavrokonnou were going to attack Choletria. Eventually they returned to the village, but nothing came of it.

Sotiris fell fighting

However, another member of the family, the eldest son Sotiris, who came for his summer holidays from the Soviet Union where he was studying, ran to fight in the resistance.

He went to the working class neighborhood of Ayi Yiannis in Limassol, where they put up a resistance against the coupists of EOKA B. After five days the Turkish invasion took place. Sotiris ran to enlist at the Polemidia military camp and was sent with other reservists to Episkopi. They were assembled at the Gymnasium when a stray bullet killed an officer. Sotiris saw where the bullet came from, went around the back and killed the Turkish soldier, taking the gun and ammunition.

By evening they had saved the Episkopi village, but before they left, a stray bullet again scratched Katerinaki, while Sotiris was pierced by the bullet. He died on the way to the hospital in the area of Erimi and was buried with the others in a mass grave.

At that time his mother Agathoniki was pregnant with twins. When they were born, they were given the names of their deceased brothers, and so Kyriakos and Sotiroula took their place.

Commemorative events being organised for the heroes Papalazarou

On Saturday 16 July 2022, at 7:00 pm, there will be a presentation of the reissue of the book “SOTIRIS PAPALAZAROU, Poems – short stories – travelogues” published by EDON and a performance of the play “My Angel” by the ‘Antilogos’ Theatre.. Organizers: EDON and the family of the heroes Kyriakos and Sotiris Papalazarou.

On Sunday 17 July, at 8.30 a.m., the memorial service of the heroes Kyriakos and Sotiris Papalazarou will be held at the church of Agios Panteleimonos in Choletria. A commemorative speech will be delivered by comrade Stefanos Stefanou, General Secretary of the Central Committee of AKEL. A wreath-laying ceremony will follow at the two heroes’ Monument.