AKEL pays tribute to Turkish Cypriot Martyrs for Democracy
Saturday 17 February 2019
A delegation from AKEL and PEO, but also the “Association of Relatives of Murdered Persons assassinated for their political beliefs”, honored the memory of trade unionists and journalists who were murdered 1958-1996 at a memorial event organized last Saturday in Nicosia Cemetery by the Turkish Cypriot Association of Martyrs of Democracy. Among them are Dervis Ali Kavazoglu, Kutlu Adali, Ayhan Hikmet, Ahmet Muzaffer Gurkan and Fazil Onder. Andreas Demetriou Ttofaris, son of the murdered militant of AKEL Elias Ttofaris, who was murdered during the EOKA period in 1958, participated in the memorial event on behalf of the “Association of Relatives of Murdered Persons assassinated for their political beliefs” and Stella Misiaouli, daughter of PEO and AKEL militant Kostas Misiaoulis, who was murdered together with Dervis Ali Kavazoglu, by the Turkish Cypriot nationalist terrorist organization TMT in April 1965.
In a written statement, the President of the “Association of Martyrs of Democracy” Burhan Eraslan, says it is a day of remembrance for those who believed and struggled for democracy and peace, who were willing to fight for freedom of expression and labor and targeted by the sinister reactionary circles, as he characterized them. A cultural memorial event was held on 20th February dedicated to the martyrs of Democracy with a musical program by Mustafa Tozaki, a presentation of Leyla Ulubatli’s poem “Sparks of the Struggle” and a presentation of the events of 1958 by trade unionist Aziz Kutlay.
Burhan Eraslan referred to the names of the martyrs: writer and people’s fighter Fazil Ondur, who was murdered in Nicosia in 1958, trade unionist and educator Ahmet Yahya who was assassinated in 1962 in Nicosia, the democratic journalists Ahmet Muzaffer and Gurkan Ayhan Hikmet, the writer and trade unionist of the class trade union federation of PEO and defender of Democracy Dervis Ali Kavazoglou, who was assassinated in 1965 on the Nicosia-Larnaka road, the Cypriot students murdered in Instanbul, Ankara and Adana from 1976-1979, Ozer Elmas, Mehmet Omer, Muharem Ozdemir, Mustafa Ertan, Ercan Turgut and Sadik Cemil, as well as the journalist of “Yeni Duzen” Kutlu Adali, who was murdered in Nicosia in 1996.
