Speech by Stefanos Stefanou, General Secretary of the Central Committee of AKEL, at the event in memory and honor of the Heroes of the 1974 anti-fascist Resistance in Pelendri

 

29 March 2024, Pelendri, Limassol

We are here tonight to do what we consider our duty and obligation. To honour the heroes of the Resistance. To honour those who looked fascism in the face without flinching. To honour those who at the critical moment chose sides and with pride and courage defended democracy, Cyprus and our people.

Here in Pelendri, the resistance to the coup of the Greek Junta and EOKA B was naturally expressed from the very first moment. I say naturally, because Pelendri is one of the strongholds of AKEL. And since AKEL was the main political force that resisted the terror unleashed by the armed underground EOKA B organisation and the actions of the Greek junta in Cyprus, it was quite normal here in Pelendri that resistance to the coup would manifest itself immediately upon hearing of the coup.

EOKA B knew very well that they would find it very difficult to subdue Pelendri even though they were the ones holding the guns. AKEL has a long history of resistance in Pelendri. Here in the community, AKEL cadres kept a hideout during the EOKA struggle to hide second-in-command EOKA leader Afxentiou. This shows the grit that the local AKEL cadres had. But it also demonstrates the greatness of our Party, which may have disagreed with the armed tactics of the EOKA struggle, but never hesitated to support EOKA fighters who genuinely fought for the freedom of the country against the British colonialists.

In support of this historical fact, I note that the then AKEL newspaper, “Demokratis”, had refused to publish the British proclamation for the bounty of Afxentiou. All the other newspapers, including the so-called “national-minded” ones, published it. AKEL refused. Such actions, which are numerous in the history of AKEL, are the identity of our Party’s unabashed patriotism. An identity of which we are proud of.

For that reason, to impose the coup, the coupists brought in help from outside. They called in reinforcements from nearby villages, mainly from Kyperounda. They arrested the leading members of AKEL and the mass Organizations of the Left, started searching houses, spread and engaged in terror with weapons and arrests.

They locked up comrades Fesas, Hadjinicola, Andreou, Evangellou, Hadjikyriakou and Andreas Thomas in the Youth Centre which they turned into a detention centre.

They took up arms and used violence against comrades Paraskevou, Cleo, Eleni, Kyriakou and others who courageously ran to demand that their comrades be released. They tried to prevent the late Xenu Tyllirou from standing up to them, but with her insistence she drove them out of the church with her voice.

They threatened and targeted comrades Hatzinikolas, Mantis, Soutzis, Vassiliou, Tsaggaris, Xena, Paphitis, Euripides, Charalambous, Yiagos and all those others who tried to organize the resistance, to defend the freedom and dignity of our country and people.

They took Yiannakis Thomas out of the village and dragged him to suffer successive mock executions, until he was locked in a cage until the time his comrades protested for him to stay with them. Kyriakos and Yiannakis Thomas, Kyprianou, Sygeris, Poyatzis were all laid on the ground with the automatic machine guns of the EOKA B coupists pointed at them. Until the order from the self-appointed Limassol Police Director, Chrysanthos Anastasiades, came over the radio: “Bring the four of them to Limassol to the central police station for questioning. The young man – Yiannakis Thomas – take him to Nicosia and on the way execute him“.

EOKA B coupists knew who they were dealing with. That is precisely why they put their weapons in front of them, shouted and threatened in Kyperounda square when his comrades put Yiannakis in the middle of them to save him from execution. But the audacity of the brazen EOKA B coupists ran out when another message came over the radio: “The prisoners must be released, the Turkish Attila army is just around the corner“.

The treacherous work of Grivas’ EOKA B and the Greek Junta had been completed. Cyprus was falling into the hands of the Turkish army. Into the hands of Ankara which, as Denktash had predicted since the 1960’s, would be given the opportunity it had been waiting for: “We will not rush to partition the island. We will wait. The opportunity will be given to us on a plate.” It was finally given to Turkey by those who pretended to be more patriotic than the patriots, more Greek than the Greeks.

But even when they saw their deeds become a crime against the homeland, the blood of heroes bleeding unendingly, the uprooting of our people as refugees, death and mourning, they did not stop their murderous actions. Nor did they stop when half of Cyprus fell victim to their fascism and fanaticism. It was October 1974 when they attempted to burn Michalakis Mihail, who was then serving his military service. His crime? His leftist ideology!

At the time, AKEL and the entire Peoples Movement of the Left were being targeted, paying a heavy price in the blood that was shed. Hundreds of young people put their lives on the line to prevent fascism from passing, for the freedom and territorial integrity of Cyprus. EDON Youth militant Karasamanis fell heroically defending the freedom of Cyprus against the Turkish invasion, while comrade Kyriakos Frantzis who is still missing.

So Pelendri has its share in the heroic resistance of our people against the coup, but also against the Turkish invasion.

Dear friends,

Events like tonight not only fulfil our duty to honour those who fought in 1974. They also keep the memory unquenched and remind us of the pages of our history that are deliberately being suppressed. Because it is important that the slogan “I do not forget” is an experience, not just a slogan or just an alibi for forgetting everything.

Especially today when the far right is rearing its head once again.

Today when the Cyprus branch of the Golden Dawn party, ELAM, is selling us patriotism again as a tragic repetition of history.

Today, when the wound is still open and the partitionist barbed wire of division is carving the body of our homeland, the political descendants of Grivas are trying to look at history through their distorting lenses and falsify the historical truth.

Today when certain forces and circles are trying to convince us that fascism is just another point of view in democracy. In this very place where the blood of the thousands who stood unarmed on the front lines against the Turkish army’s tanks in a betrayed struggle still flows.

The blood of those who were tortured inside and outside the detention centres, in the neighbourhoods, in the Local Clubs of the Left.

The blood of those who were executed in cold blood in the streets.

The blood of the innocents who ran for their lives on the morning of 20 July 1974 with the Turkish invasion.

The blood of the half of Cyprus that was destroyed.

And let the Right and the far right not now boast that they have – supposedly – irreconcilable differences. Every year together, hand in hand, they run hand in hand to demonize those who attacked democracy.

If they are now boasting that they are at odds with each other, the reason is because of the election results. Otherwise the differences between them have become blurred. ELAM elected both Anastasiades and Christodoulides and Anita Demetriou to office. And in return, DISY generously rewarded them with the chairmanship of a Parliamentary Committee to project and normalise themselves. They are communicating vessels, which are now competing in the run-up to the elections.

The elections of 9 June place important challenges before the Cypriot people, far more important than the electoral competition between the Right and the extreme right. At stake is the strengthening of the forces that are fighting for a solution and the reunification of our country, for peace and progress, against the forces that are attempting to plunge Europe into darkness.

They pose the challenge of strengthening the forces that struggle and assert the support of society in the face of the major problems it faces, such as poverty, energy poverty and the housing crisis. To strengthen AKEL-Left-Social Alliance, the force that is asserting for Cyprus and Europe from the arena of the European Parliament. The steady and consistent force that fights for a different Europe, centred on people’s needs, their interests, aspirations and visions.

Dear friends,

In a few minutes the story of the heroic Papalazarou family will come to life on stage.

A play written in the blood of comrades Kyriakos and Sotiris, which encapsulates the tragedy that our people experienced in 1974.

A History that leaves a bitter taste at the end.

Crimes that were never punished.

Murderers with the blood of innocents on their hands who not only were never punished, but some of them got promotions, made fortunes and walk among us without feeling any remorse for the harm they have caused.

And in the background is Cyprus, still divided and waiting for vindication.

So yes, no matter how many years pass we will continue to talk about the treason and the crime that was committed.

And we will not stop struggling until Cyprus is free from Turkish occupation. Until our Cyprus is liberated and reunited and the two communities live together again in peace in their common homeland where they will be true masters.

We will continue to fight until we vindicate the struggles and sacrifices of our heroes – both living and dead.

Honor and Glory to the Democratic Resistance!