Funeral oration by the General Secretary of AKEL A. Kyprianou for Michalis Poumbouris

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 3 September 2018

Today we bid farewell to a truly great man in the full sense of the word; a fine man who made his mark on Cypriot society through his struggles; a true comrade who was always ready to offer his services, help and advise the younger generations.

Today we bid farewell to Michalis Poumbouris. A man who devoted an entire life in the front line of the struggle. A comrade who gave everything he had, without making any calculations, without showing any hesitations, without asking for anything in return. Today we bid farewell to Michalis Poumbouris who left us as he lived: a hearted man. We will remember him forever as a genuine militant of AKEL, a communist that life had marked him as a comrade, his deeds and actions made him a comrade, his services and struggles made him an example for future generations.

Michalis Poumbouris was born in 1919 in the village of Marathovounos in the Famagusta district. He was a child of a poor rural family. Even before he managed to finish primary school, he went to work. From dawn to night he worked hard for a day’s wage. His consciousness matured in the daily struggle to survive. He understood the need of organizing the poor to wage the struggle for a better tomorrow, for the liberation of people from the bonds of oppression. From his youth he became a member of AKEL and through his actions he became a local militant in his village.

In 1943 he responded willingly to the call issued by the C.C. of AKEL and volunteered with 16 other of his fellow villagers to fight Hitler-Fascism. Together with thousands of Cypriot anti-fascists, he fought in Italy from the spring of 1944 until the end of the war in May 1945. After the end of the Second World War he was actively involved in the movement of the Cypriot soldiers demanding their demobilization. The British colonialists, despite the promises they had previously made, responded by imprisoning Michalis Poumbouris and many other soldiers in the Hatatpa camp in the desert of Egypt until May 1946.

When he returned to Cyprus, he undertook Party duties in his village and the surrounding region. He literally scoured the region with his comrades, as regional secretary of AKEL. With a bike he went everywhere. He transmitted the Party’s messages. He listened to and promoted the problems of Cypriot workers and peasants. With his determination, dialectic thinking, virtuosity, methodical approach and his insight and political perception he made a great contribution together with his comrades in his village and region which faced many local problems. On his initiative and that of the local Party base organization, the entire village was mobilized, demanding from the colonial authorities that projects be built to address the lack of water. Their struggle reached a climax with the organization of an all-out strike in 1953 in Marathovouno. The struggles waged eventually yielded results and the colonial authorities were forced to transport drinking water to Marathovounos and to eight other neighboring local communities in 1957. In this way, he won the respect and recognition not only of Party members, but also of all his fellow villagers.

He also formed a warm relationship with our Turkish Cypriot compatriots, particularly with the inhabitants of the village of Tziaos. Michalis Poumbouris made fraternity and cooperation with the Turkish Cypriot community a daily practice. Under his guidance, he brought together and rallied Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots to wage small and big struggles for the common life in their common homeland.

His daily work and humble presence among the people, but also his determined intervention with regards people’s minor and major problems were appreciated by his comrades. In 1953 he was elected a member of the Central Committee of AKEL and in 1957 a member of the Political Bureau. In 1954 Michalis Poumbouris was transferred to the AKEL Famagusta district Party full-time mechanism, initially as the Head of the Party Agricultural Bureau. In 1955 he was elected AKEL Famagusta District Secretary, a position he was repeatedly re-elected to until 1988.

The period Michalis Poumbouris assumed duties in the full-time party mechanism were not just difficult, but years that smelt of blood. It was the time when British colonialism decided to intensify its attacks against AKEL and the mass organizations of the Left. It was the time when AKEL was outlawed. It was the time when Grivas unleashed the orgy of anti-AKEL terror, culminating in the political killings and assassinations, most of which were committed in the Famagusta district. It was the era of the great conspiracies against the Cypriot people that led to the first inter-communal clashes and the imposition of the Zurich-London agreements.

Michalis Poumbouris proved in practice the patriotism, dynamism, courage, selflessness, self-sacrifice and humbleness that characterized him. He literally threw himself in the fire of developments and fought with all his strength, always at the forefront of the struggle, always with his comrades, always with the same unshakable faith and dedication to the principles, ideals and values ​​of the Party. In December 1955, he together with 130 other AKEL militants were arrested by the British colonialists. He was detained in central prisons and concentration camps until April 1957.

He lived every moment of that murderous period. He mourned together with his comrades the victims of political assassinations. He put his life on the line with his comrades at a time when being a member of AKEL meant you were ready to be murdered at any time. His political virtue was at that time highlighted in all its magnitude. Steadfast, forceful and consistent to the decisions of the Party, he guided the Famagusta district determined not to allow Grivas and his masked men to destroy Cyprus by dragging AKEL into a civil war. The mass political mobilization to denounce the killings shook the whole of Cyprus in a powerful way, giving a powerful response of determination and strength against the brutal terror unleashed. At that time, Poumbouris, together with the other comrades of the Party leadership, waged a real battle among the people, trying to contain the anger, prevent bloodshed and explain the position of AKEL and to avoid any retaliation. Michalis Poumbouris with the books he subsequently wrote and many other interventions was at the forefront in the campaign that developed for the restoration of the murdered militants of the Left of the period 1955-59.

Throughout a whole lifetime, together with the comrade of his life Kyriakou, also a member of the People’s Movement of the Left, Michalis Poumbouris, struggled in the Party’s ranks for peace to prevail in our country and for our people’s prosperity. Unfortunately, he did not witness days of peace. The intercommunal clashes that followed and AKEL’s struggle for reconciliation and peaceful cohabitation were another chapter in his life. It is well known that he maintained relations of deep appreciation and friendship with the Turkish Cypriot community. It is also well-known that many Turkish Cypriots often sought his help in dealing with the threats of Greek Cypriot or Turkish Cypriot chauvinists; help that he always gave generously, without fear and without hesitating for a single moment.

As fearlessly as he resisted and combated the terror of EOKA B, so was he equally fearless against the fascist coup d’état and the Turkish invasion. The AKEL Famagusta District organization and its Secretary resisted with all their strength the fascist onslaught and fought to prevent the coming disaster. But they didn’t manage to succeed. The city of Famagusta was left undefended (by the junta-controlled National Guard coupists) to fall without resistance into Attila’s hands.

Michalis Poumbouris lived the rest of his life as a refugee himself, in a small refugee house in Larnaca and then with his daughter Angela in Nicosia, without ceasing even for a moment struggling for the vindication of Cyprus and the return to Famagusta. A refugee in his own country, like thousands of others, he didn’t yield and was at the forefront in the organization of the refugees and in tackling their problems as a member of the Pancyprian Committee of Refugees, but also as a Member of Parliament for the district of Famagusta.

During the last two years of his parliamentary term, Michalis Poumbouris also held the post of Parliamentary Representative of AKEL-Left-New Forces. A child from a poor family who went to school only up to the age of eleven was delivering speeches in the House of Representatives with ethos, political insight, intelligence and with a clear logic that one with difficulty could find in the parliamentary seats of even the most privileged raised and well-educated political representatives of the ruling class. This is not accidental. Michalis was guided by the principles of Marxism and, as its genuine expressor, analyzed issues in a dialectic way. When on the verge of 1990 the Party was tested in the period of the internal-party crisis, Michalis Poumbouris played a leading role in the struggle to defend the unity and ideological character/identity of AKEL. At the same time, he stood with all his strength and prestige on the side of the new Party leadership under Demetris Christofias and supported the effort to renew the Party based on principles. As he characteristically said, “the Party is its principles, not individuals.”

Michalis Poumbouris retired from the AKEL full-time mechanism, but he was not “discharged”. He participated in the Party’s activity right to the very end. His dialectical thinking was always precious advise for all of us. His social education and constant acquisition of knowledge through self-discipline have made him not only an exemplary militant, but also a writer. The recording of his experiences, but also thoughts in the books he subsequently published after his retirement are priceless. Historical moments, social and political struggles, and the recording of the “alternative truth” censored by the Right and ultra-right about the darkest periods of Cypriot history are included in the writings of Poumbouris which are a valuable source of knowledge and lessons for the future generations not only of the People’s Movement, but of Cyprus as well.

“It was a long and winding road up to here…a difficult road. Now this road is your own… See, your struggles are worthy, life will term you a comrade, your actions will make you a comrade.” That’s exactly how Michalis Poumbouris lived, as described in Ritsos’ poem. That toiling young lad, eleven years old from Marathovouno, who did not tolerate injustice and exploitation; that courageous young man who scoured Cyprus on the bicycle; that brave young man in the antifascist camp behind bars in Egypt; that Party leader and militant who wiped the blood of his murdered comrades and made it a banner in mass rallies, who stood firm in front of the bullets of betrayal, who became a pillar of support for his fellow refuges in the tents of refugee camps, who was a fighter both in and out of Parliament for Cyprus and its people; that fighter and militant of the people who became with his whole life and struggles a comrade in the full sense of the word.

That’s how we will remember him forever.

May his memory live on forever.