Speech by Aristos Damianou, AKEL Political Bureau member at the first memorial service of the hero Pantelakis Charalambous
Lazania, 15 July 2023
“On a hill I noticed a pile of freshly dug soil. We found bullet casings, a lighter, a watch strap and black human hair. I realized that it was the body of my brother Anastasis Christofi…we disinfected the place…we first dug up the one whose hand was sticking out of the ground… it was recognized as Christakis Kombos”.
Dear members of the family of the Hero Pantelakis Charalambous,
Dear members of the families of the brothers Pambos and Tasos Christofi and Christakis Kombos,
Compatriots,
Every year, on such days, we reverently bow our heads to honor the sacrifice of our Heroes. We place laurel wreaths of honor on their graves.
Every year, we honor many young people who died fighting for freedom and democracy.
This year, however, there is a historical peculiarity. We honor the memory of Pantelakis Charalambous in his birthplace the village of Lazania, for the first time since it received his remains, and together we honor the memory of three other Heroes: Pambos Christofi, Tasos Christofi and Christakis Kombos.
After 48 years of a makeshift burial at the Agios Nikolaos cemetery in Limassol, the families of the heroes have found the courage to proceed with the exhumation, identification and burial of the heroes in the place where they were born, Lazania. For Pantelakis Charalambous this was done on 6 November 2022, for the brothers Pambos and Tasos Christofis on 12 November 2022 and for Christakis Kombos on 19 November 2022.
What is it that makes someone a real hero?
It is the time when the big decision is taken to put into practice what he/she believes in and pay for it with one’s life.
It is the conscious choice made to fight and sacrifice one’s life for values and ideals.
Four young people, full of dreams and hopes, who during those horrific days of July 1974, the fascism of the Greek Junta and EOKA B so unjustly and so tragically had the thread of their lives cut in their attempt to defend the lawful and democratically elected President Makarios, to defend the constitutional order and democracy.
The coup and the invasion were not some “random events”, nor did they happen because of some “insanity” of a “clique of nationalists” and as a result of the “spontaneity” of “young boys” who somehow “got carried away by the Enosis vision”.
The truth however – annoying as it is for certain forces and circles – must be told because history cannot be selective.
The coup and the invasion were the culmination of a well prepared crime that was committed against our country and people.
Neither NATO, nor Turkish expansionism would have succeeded in invading Cyprus had they not found willing servants – both domestic and foreign – uniformed, sworn traitorous, to assist them. Whether they insist to this day on trying in vain to exonerate and defiantly honor them, or not, the fact remains: the Greek Junta, Grivas and EOKA B sent our people to the slaughter.
The betrayal was deliberate, organized and prepared well in advance, at all levels – ideological, political and military. The patrons and instigators of the dissolution and overthrow of the Republic were US-NATO imperialism and the CIA.
Their plans were opposed by genuine patriots, free, democratic and progressive people. We owe them a lot. We owe them first of all our dignity as a people, because they are the ones who salvaged the honor of Cyprus and of each and every one of us individually. The democratic resistance demonstrated that Cyprus does not surrender to fascism without a fight.
The heroes we commemorate tonight served democracy together, were murdered together and were buried together for 48 years.
PANTELAKIS HARALAMPUS – 22 years old, carpenter from Lazania
The sixth of nine children of Charalambos Christofi and Theodosia Charalambous from Lazania, poor shepherds who struggled to feed their large family.
CHARALABOS CHRISTOPHI SIAMMAS – 24 years old, technician from Fikardo
The third of the eight children of Christophi Ioannou (Siammas) and Eleni Christoforou, he was a man of full of drive and determination. He was involved in local community affairs and an active citizen in the small community where he lived.
ANASTASIS CHRISTOPHI – 22 years old, carpenter from Fikardo
He was a quiet and peaceful man of rare mental strength and vigour.
CHRISTAKIS KOMBOS – 24 years old, member of the Special Reserve Corps. (Note: an armed force of loyal police members set up by Makarios to counter and fight EOKA B as the Police Force was heavily infiltrated by pro-junta EOKA B members)
Born in Limassol on March 29, 1950, he was the sixth of nine children of Petros and Eleni Kombos. He graduated from Limassol Second High School. He is described by his brother Matheos as a peaceful man and always smiling. His decision to join the Reserve Corps proved fatal as it was to cost him his life.
Fellow compatriots,
Their brutal murder on 16 July 1974, by EOKA B is one of the most horrendous crimes ever committed in Cyprus.
Christakis Kombos, a member of the Special Reserve Corps, took part in the fighting that took place at the Presidential Palace against the attack launched by the coupists on 15 July. He subsequently accompanied President Makarios on his escape route to Kykkos and then to Paphos.
On arriving at the village of Klirou, the policeman Giorgos Vryoni Vrudos claimed to be ill and President Makarios instructed Kombos to stay behind and accompany Vrudos to Limassol.
They took refuge in a house and changed their military for civilian clothes and were subsequently arrested, interrogated by members of EOKA B and released.
They escaped to the village of Fikardo, where the brothers Charalambos and Anastasis Christofi, together with their friend Pantelakis Charalambous from Lazania, offered to take them to Limassol by car.
Following the Pharmakas-Odou-Kellaki route, they arrived at the Pareklisia drive, where they ran into an EOKA B checkpoint and the gunmen arrested them and began to interrogate them.
At some point the lawyer Andreas Neocleous from Limassol, who was on his way to Nicosia to be sworn in as a “Minister” in the 5-day coupist “government” of Sampson, was passing by.
Vrudos, who was a fellow-villager, told him that he had information about Makarios and asked him to let him go to the Polemidia camp to convey it to a certain person, a certain Neophytou.
Neocleous ordered him to be let go and, accompanied by EOKA B members, he went to the camp.
At 7:30 in the evening on the same day (16 July), he asked to be taken to the place where the four youths had been arrested and detained.
When he was taken there, the leader of the EOKA B coupists told him that he didn’t know what had happened and that they had left by bus.
The four fighters of Democracy and Resistance, however, had been taken to Amathous, to the house of a former policeman, and after being “tried”, they were subsequently sentenced to death.
After being brutally tortured, they were taken to the Vathi Arkatzii area in Agios Tychonas where they were executed in cold blood and buried hastily in a rubbish dump.
The killers stood the two brothers facing the mountain and the other two facing the sea and opened fire with automatic weapons.
And as reported in the mock trial that followed the killers of the four celebrated their crime.
The discovery of the dead bodies was made on 5 August 1974, 20 days after their murder.
Journalist Chrysanthos Chrysanthou, in his book entitled “Democracy was consolidated with blood”, states that the discovery of the bodies was made by a relative of Christakis Kombos, who had heard a tip about the execution of four men in one of the four garbage dumps of Agios Tychonas. He searched the area every day until he discovered a human hand sticking out of the dirt and “from the scratches and dirt on the nails, it appears that the victim was alive when he was buried”.
The hand was of Christakis Kombos.
The description of Ioannis Christofi, brother of the two murdered men, is also shocking:
“The first two were on their backs. The body belonged to my brother Charalambos Christofi, the last body we dug up I recognized as belonging to my brother Tasos. When the doctor cleaned him up, we found his watch in his pocket. I took his watch and looked at it. I recognized it because it said “OMONOIA” on the plate. It was his favourite team. The clock was dated 17th and the time was 11:32 am. I washed it because it had human flesh on it.”
Police officer Panicos Christodoulou, testifying in court, said the two brothers Charalambos and Anastasis Christofi were found in an embrace together in the mass grave found at Agio Tychona.
The four heroes were buried in a mass grave in the cemetery of Agios Nikolas in Limassol.
The seven accused did not plead guilty and were referred to the Criminal Court, which in its decision of 8 September 1978, ruled that it was not necessary to call the defendants to plead and acquitted them of the charges. For the record, we note that the arrested persons were Andreas Pouris, Mihalis Stokkos, Charalambos Fournaris, Giorgos Agiotis, Charalambos Manolis, Mihalis Pahniotis and Christakis Pavlou.
Attorney General Kriton Tornaritis appealed the decision to the Supreme Court on 11 September 1978.
At the same time the relatives of the victims organized a protest in Nicosia.
The Supreme Court accepted the position of the defence and on 17 January 1979 ruled by a majority that the Attorney General was not entitled to appeal against acquittal decisions of the Criminal Courts and therefore rejected an appeal against the acquittal by the Criminal Court.
Our heroes were buried in a mass grave in the Limassol cemetery. After exhumation, the grave remains there as a cenotaph to eternally symbolise their shared sacrifice in defence of democracy.
Their first national memorial service was held on 13 July 1975 and since then and every year the families of our heroes, the State, the community, the local clubs and organized groups of the region pay tribute to the four ill-fated heroes.
In 2022, the families of the heroes had collectively decided that the time had come for their exhumation and their transfer to their birthplace for a proper funeral and burial with due honors.
Thus, with the assignment of all legal matters to the lawyer Aristofanis Georgiou [former AKEL Political Bureau member], the process began in court, which on 1 July 2022 issued the Orders requested and ordered the Commissioner of Humanitarian Affairs to proceed immediately with the exhumation, identification of the remains and reburial of the Heroes in their birthplace.
The Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs with his Officers proceeded immediately to implement the Orders and conducted the 1st exhumation in July 2022, where the remains of the 3 Heroes were identified. Further investigations were required and a new exhumation was carried out in September 2022, when the fourth remains were located and at the same time, after the brothers of the Heroes provided the Institute of Genetics with genetic material, the identification of the bones was carried out.
On 25 October 2022 at the premises of the Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs, the families were shocked by the information they received about the four murdered persons and about the way they were killed, as well as the brutality used against them.
According to the forensic experts of the Kapodistrian University of Athens, it was obvious that the four were beaten, abused and shot, but at the same time it seems that they had resisted the ruthless killers of EOKA B until the very last moment. It was obvious from the bones that Pantelakis’ death was caused by a gunshot that struck the ribs on the right side and broke them from the 2nd rib to the 8th rib and the right shoulder blade. It was further demonstrated that his death was instantaneous. At the same time he was struck in the nasal bone and lower jaw. The red jersey he was wearing shows where the bullets passed through.
Our other three heroes seem to have survived the violence and abuse and the multiple shots they were shot with, which is why they were given the final shot to the skull so that the EOKA B coupists would be sure of their deaths.
Honoring our four fallen heroes, we honor the heroic parents of Pantelakis, Charalambos and Theodosia, the heroic mother Eleni and also the heroic father Christofi for the Christofi brothers, we honor Petro and Eleni parents of Christakis Kombos who experienced the pain and drama of the loss of their only children.
The story of Pantelis Charalambous, Christakis Kombos and the brothers Pambos and Tasos Christofi, heroes of the Republic, is not mentioned in any school textbook.
Heroes without justice being delivered whose blood will forever haunt this land.
But for all of us, our four Heroes will remain eternal symbols of the struggle for democracy.
We will remember and honor them.
We will struggle for the vindication of their heroic sacrifice.
Their sacrifice will be vindicated through the vindication of Cyprus, its freedom and the restoration of the principles of democracy and respect for the historical truth.
The question of course is whether the sacrifice of our comrades and all the other children of our Cyprus, who sacrificed their lives for the cause of a united homeland, for peace, freedom and democracy, has been vindicated. Unfortunately, the answer is no. Beyond the strong symbolism, beyond the importance of the sacrifice for our beliefs, for values and ideals, their struggle has still not been vindicated.
Today marks the 49th anniversary of the treasonous coup d’état and in a few days the illegal Turkish invasion and occupation.
With our people and land still divided.
With the barbed wire of division preventing the common life and struggles of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.
With our fellow Turkish Cypriot compatriots living under the suffocating embrace of the Turkish establishment, with a leadership that is a mouthpiece of Turkey and the partitionists of Ankara.
With the Greek Cypriot community living the uncertainty caused by almost half a century of occupation.
With a part of the Greek Cypriot community showing signs of fatigue or worse, of compromise with the status quo.
But partition and occupation is not a solution, for us it is a disaster.
That is precisely why we insist, we do not give up.
We continue the struggle for the liberation and reunification of our country and people.
We owe it to our heroes, but above all we owe it to the future generations. To those who are coming and to whom we must hand over a united, peaceful and prosperous Cyprus.
It is a provocation, with Cyprus still divided, to see once again this year the official state (government and state officials) attending, laying laurel wreaths and with the presence of Ministers [at the graves of the Commandos who attacked the Presidential Palace on 15 July) equating those who attacked and destroyed democracy with those who defended it and sacrificed their lives. The fact that the Christodoulides government is following the same erroneous path is a disgrace.
What do the parties DIKO, EDEK and DYPA who support the government have to say?
Such actions are a provocation to the democratic sentiments of our people, to the feelings of the people who resisted fascism. It is a provocation first and foremost to the mothers clad in black who lost their sons murdered by Grivas’ men and the traitors of EOKA B.
Honoring the memory of our heroes, all those who fell for freedom and democracy, we stress once again that the attempt to justify, vindicate exonerate those responsible for the tragedy of our country, the attempt to falsify the historical truth, is an insult to those who sacrificed their lives and must be met with the resistance of every democratic citizen.
Historical truth and democracy are values that we have a duty to constantly defend and strengthen.
Because our heroes are demanding justice!
Because our homeland demands vindication!
HONOUR AND GLORY TO OUR HEROES!
LONG LIVE OUR CYPRUS!
