Defending historical truth is an ongoing democratic duty

AKEL on Day of Democratic Resistance

 

6 December 2025, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

7 December 1974, the day President Makarios returned to Cyprus after the fascist coup of 15 July 1974, is a day of remembrance and honor for the Democratic Resistance.

AKEL pays tribute to the fighters of the Democratic Resistance who fought against the betrayal committed by the Greek junta and EOKA B in the armed clashes that took place during the days of the coup d’etat, in the torture chambers and interrogation cells, in popular demonstrations and in every field to defend democratic legality and our homeland.

We honor our own people who, even as they buried the dead of the Turkish invasion and lived in tents, flooded the streets demonstrating for the return of Makarios to Cyprus and to the Presidency. The magnificent mass rally to welcome the democratically elected President is an emblematic moment in modern Cypriot history, through which our people sent a message, both inside and outside Cyprus that they would not compromise with NATO’s crime of dividing our homeland.

7 December is also a day that reminds us of our duty to defend historical truth in the face of long-standing attempts to falsify history with the aim of exonerating fascism’s treason.

AKEL once again reminds the government and all state institutions that the House of Representatives, with the Resolution it approved in December 2022, calls for initiatives to be taken to highlight the Democratic Resistance and its heroes, but at the same time, also calls on the government and all institutions to refrain from “organizing any events honoring and glorifying all those who turned against democratic legality, and in particular the leader and members of EOKA B.”

AKEL reiterates that defending historical truth is a duty we owe to the true heroes of our country. It is at the same time an ongoing democratic duty, given that this historical distortion underway is being carried out with the deliberate aim of absolving the far right of the shame of the betrayal it had committed in order to facilitate its strengthening.

AKEL honors the Day of Democratic Resistance by calling on all Cypriots to defend History and truth, to protect democracy against the rise of the far right, and not to compromise with the crime of 1974 that divided our island, but to continue the unyielding struggle for freedom and reunification.