Funeral eulogy by the General Secretary of AKEL A.Kyprianou at the burial of the remains of Christakis Charalambous Fouskos

 

13 June 2021, Pera Orinis village

Almost half a century has elapsed since that black July summer of 1974, since the betrayal of the coup d’état and subsequent destruction.

Almost half a century later, we are still burying our dead. A divided homeland, shattered souls, lives and people in pieces assembled in the missing person’s anthropological laboratories.

Almost half a century has passed and yet every time our soul hurts the same. The pain is still the same when our duty calls us so many years later to bury the sons of this homeland again. Brave young men who rushed to defend their homeland and sacrificed their lives for democracy and the freedom of Cyprus.

We are burying today with all the honors he deserves, our hero Christakis Charalambous. Another brave young lad from Cyprus and the ranks of our People’s Movement of the Left who did not panic at the critical moment. He stepped forward and put his life on the line in the resistance so that the invading Turkish army would not pass.

Christakis Charalambous, the son of Charalambos and Maroulla, was the fourth of the family’s eight children. A tall and hardworking boy always with a smile. As a child from a toiling family, he began working at an early age. Every day before he left for school, he helped his father with the herd. When he finished elementary school he began an apprenticeship to become a construction worker. He was an active member of our class-based trade union federation of PEO and a member of the People’s Movement in his area. He served his military service during the years when the flames of conspiracy and subversion were ravaging Cyprus in the 1970’s. When Turkey invaded Cyprus, he joined his battalion, the 361st Infantry Battalion. Since that day, his whereabouts are unknown – that is until his remains were found together with the bones of seven other heroes near the Turkish Cypriot village of Templos in the district of Kyrenia. They were identified by the DNA method.

Another hero, another life sacrificed defending our Cyprus. The tragic irony is that precisely those who opened the back door for the Turkish army to pass with the coup d’état – as they did then – are delivering lessons about patriotism. The tragic irony is that those who paved the way for the selling out of Cyprus to be handed over to Turkey today are accusing those who are struggling to end the occupation and to reunite our country, of treason.

The crime committed in the summer of 1974 was not the result of some bad luck. It was a premeditated crime. It was the culmination of a conspiracy elaborated at NATO headquarters which found willing partners in Cyprus to execute it. Despite the brave resistance of the Cypriot people, despite the extraordinary efforts of our heroes, the illegal and sinister plans of those who ordered the crime against Cyprus were fulfilled. The treacherous coup d’état paved the way for the Turkish invasion.

Did we perhaps not know what would subsequently happen? We knew very well what would follow. The US and NATO never gave up on achieving the goal of subjugating Cyprus to serve their interests. In 1964, ten years before the twin crimes of the coup and invasion were committed, former US Secretary of State Acheson, the instigator of the notorious plan for the partition of Cyprus, stated: “The best solution to the Cyprus problem is partition. And I tell you that if I had the US Sixth fleet at my disposal I could solve it even tomorrow”.

Did we fall victim to what certain forces and circles planned and executed for us – without our approval? When perhaps we all realized that foreign forces would do everything they could to conquer Cyprus from within, did we unite and fight to prevent their illegal plans from being carried out? Unfortunately, no. In the face of the situation created after 1963, Archbishop Makarios had the courage to proclaim the policy of the feasible; to declare that reality put before the Cypriot people the task of ensuring the survival of the Republic of Cyprus, the common home of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots; to say bluntly that reality did not permit any deviations so as to seek the desirable and that Cyprus would remain truly independent only if it pursued a non-aligned policy.

However, nationalists and chauvinists refused to acknowledge this reality. Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots did everything they could to destroy any possibility of living peacefully in their own homeland. They knew that the overthrow of Makarios would open the door for Turkey to invade, nevertheless they planned and executed the coup d’état, blinded by their intolerance.

When Cyprus as a result of their actions sank into the tragedy of the uprooting of our people as refuges in their own country and the occupation, Archbishop Makarios had the strength and political courage to proceed to accept the honorable and painful compromise of Bi-Zonal, Bicommunal Federation. He had the foresight to realize that time could not be turned back; that reversing all that was caused by the coup and invasion could only be done through the solution of federation.

Today, on the brink of partition, it is inconceivable to expect that we will be able to resolve the Cyprus problem by seeking any other solution. After all, the dilemma that lies before us is not federation or something else, but either federation or partition.

Our people were betrayed by the Greek junta and the Greek Cypriot fascist armed underground organisation EOKA B, who prepared the ground for Turkey to invade Cyprus. The occupation still divides our homeland and people today through the force of arms. If we really want our country to be reunited, we must stop flirting with other unfeasible solutions.

Cyprus will either be reunited with a solution of bi-zonal bi-communal federation, or we will be left with partition.

Unfortunately, at this precise moment, developments surrounding the Cyprus problem are extremely critical. The outcome of the meeting in Geneva was disappointing. We had expected it, given that the Turkish positions and demands for a two state solution were and remain unacceptable demands. We note with hope the position taken by the UN Secretary General that the international community will not accept a two state solution. The situation is difficult and dangerous. The Greek Cypriot side must seriously reflect on the substance too. We have had enough of sloganeering, big empty words and the exploitation of patriotic feelings. Our people have paid dearly for them. It paid a heavy price with its own blood, death and its uprooting as refugees.

We are ready to make a constructive contribution. In December, AKEL submitted a proposal to Mr. Anastasiades for the resumption of talks. We are ready to make a contribution even now in the discussion on how we should confront the Turkish side, how to open up a perspective to the talks for the solution of the Cyprus problem.

Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots can be optimistic about the future in the land that gave birth to us only when we manage to live together within a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation; within the framework of a reunited state with a single sovereignty, a single citizenship and a single international personality, where it will be ensured that the two communities will coexist and cooperate in a united and independent homeland, a continuation of the Republic of Cyprus.

This certainly cannot be guaranteed by any solution, but only with a solution that will end the occupation and colonization of the occupied areas, that will restore the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and unity of the Republic of Cyprus.

A solution based on the Resolutions of the United Nations, the High-Level Agreements, International and European Law.

A solution that will demilitarize Cyprus and exclude any guarantees or intervention rights in the internal affairs of our country by foreign powers.

A solution that will reunite the land, the people, the institutions and the economy within a bi-communal, bi-zonal federation with political equality as described in the United Nations texts.

Only in this way will we be able to reunite our homeland and ensure once and for all that our people will not relive a new 1974 that this time will cost us the whole of Cyprus.

Only in this way will the struggles of our people be vindicated and will the souls of our dead finally rest in peace.

May the memory of Christakis live long in our hearts and minds.

You gave your life for this country.

It is our duty not to let your sacrifice go to waste.

It is our duty, your family, the future generations to live in a free and reunited Cyprus.