Speech by the General Secretary of the C.C. of AKEL Stefanos Stefanou at the Memorial Service of Elias and Nikos Ttofaris

 

14 January 2024, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

It is January 1958. Elias Ttofari is carried by his comrades to Famagusta Hospital with eight bullets in his back, murmuring verses from the anthem of AKEL.

“United, Workers and the middle strata,

everywhere in the towns and villages,

in a common struggle we fight

for bread and for freedom…”

Elias chose to devote his last words to the ideals to which he dedicated his life: the liberation of people, justice and freedom.

A few hours before he was cowardly assassinated and shot in the back by the shameless masked men of Grivas, he and his brother Nikos were in the local village café. They had already been informed that masked men had arrived in the village by bus. Shortly afterwards they entered the café and shot Elias and Nikos in cold blood.

That same evening another AKEL militant, Michalis Petrou in Lysi village, paid with his life. It was obvious that an order was given to attack AKEL cadres, which is precisely why the murderous attacks took place on that same evening. It was a continuation of the murders and attacks that were launched against AKEL cadres and members by Grivas’ hooded men.

(…)

The funerals of our murdered heroes turned into mass rallies denouncing the Grivas terror campaign and projected the people’s demand for an end to the attacks against the Left. In the village of Koma tou Yialou, people took to and filled the streets to pay their last respects to Elias Ttofari and to denounce the assassinations.

Comrades Elias and Nikos Ttofaris, just like Michalis Petrou, were targeted by the masked men of Grivas because they were cadres of AKEL.

The cowardly murderer Grivas wrote in January 1958. “As far as the communists are concerned, I pointed out from the very outset the principle that should have been applied… that is, they [the communists] should have been beaten, humiliated, so that they could not appear on the political scene or involved in the struggle…” He declared the same to Makarios, stressing in a letter that he would “ruthlessly lay hands on the communist traitors and I will start an all-out war against them…”

They were labelled traitors because they were communists.

Termed traitors because they did not agree with the political line of Grivas which of course proved to be disastrous for Cyprus.

In Koma tou Yialou, as in Lysi, days before the murders, the streets were filled with AKEL slogans calling for the right of self-determination for our people, demanding the abolition of the colonialists’ special repressive measures, the release of political prisoners and detainees. This was considered by Grivas to be unacceptable communist activity, because he was concerned about the growing influence AKEL had. The British colonialists shared the same concern as Grivas. Six days after these slogans on walls, the political assassinations of Grivas against AKEL cadres were organised.

The term “political assassination” in Cyprus is written with the blood of AKEL cadres and members. There is a long list of those who were murdered solely because they were members of AKEL and the People’s Movement of the Left (the mass organisations of the Left). These savage murders that were committed, were indicative of Grivas’ hatred and fascist mentality. “The greatest ordeal of my life was when EOKA was murdering leftists with the stain of being labelled as “traitors”….For the entire AKEL leadership this was a very hard ordeal,” Ezekias Papaioannou wrote in his autobiography.

It was indeed a test, because the AKEL leadership had to endure and not succumb to the popular demand for retaliation. And if civil war was averted at the time, this was primarily due to the responsible and patriotic attitude of AKEL. Here I would also like to praise the attitude of moderate elements within EOKA and the right-wing who contributed to this, even denouncing the murders that were being committed.

The aim of Grivas and those forces and circles who shared his extreme and destructive views by organising the political assassinations was to terrorise the people, to limit the influence that AKEL had. It was a question of who would take power on the day after the anti-colonial struggle.

AKEL responded to the killings by organising mass political mobilisations, in which the overwhelming majority of the people condemned the crimes.

The crimes of Grivas terror went unpunished. The families of the murdered were not morally reinstated in the slightest by the State, and many children of the families subsequently faced years of intimidation and denigration.

Only the government of comrade Demetris Christofias proceeded to reinstate those murdered for political reasons by the campaign of terror unleashed by Grivas, by an act of the Council of Ministers on 12 December 2012. As expected, there was a reaction from the familiar circles to this decision. But there wasn’t any shred of evidence whatsoever to prove that the killings were not political. Once again the tactic of spreading baseless allegations by the protagonists was chosen.

AKEL has never sought revenge for these crimes. Putting the interests of Cyprus first, AKEL fought through political means to reinstate the memory of those unjustly murdered.

Dear friends,

Sixty-six years ago, the Grivas terror campaign murdered people’s fighters and patriots smearing them as “traitors of the fatherland”. Tófaris, Petrou, Sakkas, Stylianou, Ioannou, Menikos, Kleanthous, Mikrasiatis, Ornitharis, Sfingos and so many other comrades were among the victims of Grivas. Nineteen in all comrades were murdered. Another eleven were wounded by shots fired by the masked men of Grivas, who continued their murders later on, with the formation of EOKA B. His organisation, together with its fraternal organisation TMT in the Turkish Cypriot community, contributed to the destruction of Cyprus.

A river of blood that ran in parallel to the turbulent course of Cypriot history.

A human river that at every turn raised the flag of peace, friendship and freedom higher and higher.

A human river that, decades later, still echoes the words of Nikos Mbellogiannis at the moment of condemnation:  “That’s how we love our country – by shedding our blood and with all our heart”. 

May the memory of Elias and Nikos Ttofaris live on forever!

May the memory of all the popular fighters who contributed to the struggles for the vindication of our people live on forever!

14.1.2024