Address by Nikos Ioannou, AKEL Political Bureau member, at the Anti-fascist Victory of the Peoples event in Larnaka

 

9 May 2022, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

Comrades,

“Every human being who loves freedom owes the Red Army more than he/she will be able to pay in a lifetime”.

These words of the American writer Ernest Hemingway encapsulates the undeniable truth that the Antifascist Victory of the Peoples we are commemorating today was perhaps the most world-historical event in modern human history, to which all generations – past and future – owe their freedom.

For if the crushing of Hitler fascism had not been achieved in 1945, the whole of humanity would have regressed into an infinite darkness. It would have sank into the darkness of barbarism, the Holocaust, the concentration camps, the Nazi ovens, the enslavement of the peoples and the degradation of the human race itself. For Nazism, which is based on an ideological concept that categorises peoples and people into superior and inferior, is nothing but demeaning humanity himself.

Today, we honor all those who fought and defeated Hitler fascism on battlefields all over the world.

We honor the democratic anti-fascists who fought from within the ranks of the Resistance movement in the then occupied countries of Europe.

We honor the living veterans of the Second World War and express our immense gratitude and respect towards them.

Today we honor all Cypriots who enlisted in the army to fight Hitler fascism and sacrificed their lives. We honor the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot anti-fascist fighters who buried next to each other in cemeteries across Europe were and will continue to be symbols of Cyprus’ contribution to this titanic struggle for human civilization.

Today we commemorate the historic decision taken by the Central Committee of AKEL of 16th 1943, calling on its members to enlist voluntarily and fight within the ranks of the Allied forces to fight fascism. A decision to which the leadership and members of the Party responded. Besides, in its Founding Declaration of AKEL 1941, AKEL explicitly defined itself as an anti-Hitler and anti-fascist party.

We also honor today the tremendous contribution of the Soviet Union which bore the greatest burden of the war effort. The 20 million dead and 30 million wounded and disabled of the war Soviet people testify the magnitude of the self-sacrifice of the people, the state, the leadership and the army of the Soviet Union, which is rightly called the Mother of the Anti-Fascist Victory.

The current attempt underway at the level of the European Union to falsify the history of the Second World War and to conceal the role of the Soviet Union (in order to promote the equation of communism with fascism) is a vulgar and ahistorical propaganda that can only be exposed by a simple reading of the historical facts of the war. When the whole of Europe was under the boot of the fascist occupier, the hopes of the world turned to the Soviet Union. With bated breath, humanity watched the development of the war on the Soviet-German front. Outside Moscow, the myth of the supposedly invincible German army was dispelled completely. At Stalingrad, the tide of the war was reversed. In Kursk the beginning of the end was written and in Berlin the Soviet army wrote the epilogue of Nazism. The Red flag was raised on this day in 1945 over the German Parliament.

Comrades and friends,

The 9 May is not only a day of remembrance and honor of the historical past. The 9 May is also a constant reminder of the need for vigilance and action against wars, fascism and racism. Today, more than 70 years after the crushing of Hitler fascism, fascism is being revived in various forms. The causes that led to the outbreak of the Second World War are again before us. The womb that gave birth to fascism is just as fertile today. The ghost of fascism is once again hovering over humanity.

That is precisely why all those forces and people who love peace send a message of anti-fascist action against xenophobia, racism, the neo-fascists of the ‘Golden Dawn’ party and the Cypriot far-right party ELAM, who unashamedly call themselves “the seed of those who lost in 1945”.

We also remind the working people of our country that the supposedly pro-people and “anti-systemic” mask in which the far right presents itself today is the same mask worn by Hitler and Mussolini. But the real face of fascism is not only not serving people’s interests, but it is the cruelest and most ruthless face of capitalism, the system of exploitation, injustice and impoverishment. After all, it is the big industrialists and bankers who brought the Nazis to power in Germany and it was their interests that Hitler and his kind served.

In addition, we remind the other political forces in our country that those forces and circles who covertly collaborate with or tolerate the far right and fascism sooner or later regret it, because the monster of fascism cannot be tamed. Fascism either devours you or assimilates you. We also recall that in December, on the initiative taken by AKEL, all the parties – except of course ELAM – approved a resolution in Parliament denouncing the extreme right-wing and neo-Nazism, pledging themselves to work against them.

Comrades and friends,

With these words, AKEL once again expresses its undivided respect and gratitude to those who fought against Hitler fascism.

We join our voice with all those throughout the world who are shouting again today: NEVER AGAIN FASCISM!

Long live the 9 May, the Anti-fascist Victory of the Peoples!