Greeting by General Secretary of the Central Committee of AKEL Stefanos Stefanou at the mass Event – Concert of AKEL

 

“50 years of the Coup and Turkish Invasion”

Monday 15 July 2024, Famagusta Gate, Nicosia

Compatriots,

Friends and friends,

It was July 1975, just one year after the twin crimes committed against our homeland – the fascist coup and the brutal Turkish invasion – when AKEL invited to Cyprus the giant of the democratic resistance against the Greek junta, Mikis Theodorakis.

I remember, as a young child at the time, the concert given at the old GSP stadium in the presence of Makarios, other state officials and the entire leadership of AKEL, headed by its historic leader Ezekias Papaioannou.

I remember the huge figure and presence of Mikis – that’s how it seemed to my childhood eyes, and that’s how it was in reality – dressed in black, stretching out his also huge arms, conducting his orchestra and gesturing to the singers Maria Farandouri, Antonis Kalogiannis, Petros Pandis and Yiannis Thomopoulos to lift the lyrics of our great poets into the air. Ritsos, Elytis, Neruda….

It is not by chance that AKEL invited Mikis Theodorakis to Cyprus. Apart from being a symbol of resistance against fascism, Mikis was a symbol of the struggle for freedom and democracy.

A struggle that was born in the National Resistance, steeled in the exile camps set up by the right-wing foreign-instigated Right in the dry islands where Leftists were imprisoned and suffered.

A struggle that took on mass dimensions in the struggles waged by the Lambrakis movement and which culminated in the 1973 Athens Polytechnic uprising. Mikis became a symbol of struggle both with his actions and through his songs.

In the devastated and in ruins Cyprus too, his songs were played and heard everywhere. In Cyprus, where Miki’s art found refuge when he was silenced by the censorship of the Right and subsequently, the junta.

The thousands of people who filled the GSP stadium from every corner of the stadium with raised fists and firm voices accompanied the performers in their songs. “When they are killed, life marches on, with flags and drums”, “These trees can’t get by with less sky”, “Small people and fighting without swords and rifles”, “Don’t cry for our people”, “Hush, hush, the bells will ring…”

But the bells never signaled the vindication of our people. They have been silent ever since!

Fifty years of expectations, struggles, optimism, but also of disappointments, illusions and miscalculations. Sometimes we came close to a solution, the last time in 2017, but today, against the backdrop of seven years of deadlock surrounding the Cyprus problem, the solution seems so distant and elusive.

Fifty years since then many raised fists came down, their determination for a solution gave way to compromise with a de facto division. The eyes of many forces and circles no longer turn to the shores of Famagusta and Kyrenia, but are fixed on the construction of high-rise towers of Limassol. There are many unfortunately who are now settling for less sky as the song goes….

But we will never do that!

We will never compromise with the Turkish occupation.

We will never compromise with partition and a two state solution, even if we were promised all the golden passports in the world.

We know very well that partition is a time bomb at the very foundations of the Republic of Cyprus and the existence of our people, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. The Left, as always, will continue to assume the historical responsibility for a solution to the Cyprus problem, which is the only way to avoid partition.

It is for this reason that on the anniversary of the traitorous coup d’état, which rolled out the carpet for the Turkish invading army of Attila, we return to Theodorakis’ concerts in Cyprus in 1975, to renew our militant commitment to our homeland’s vindication.

We return to Theodorakis’ songs to warn yet again that the passage of time without a solution leads to the permanent partition of our homeland…

With tonight’s magnificent concert, we send the message that we must show courage and boldness to take substantive initiatives capable of breaking the deadlocks and continue the negotiations from the point where they were interrupted in 2017.

Tonight we send the message that we remain consistent to what we have agreed with the Turkish Cypriot side and which the international community has adopted.

We are sending a message of our determination to go the last mile that has remained for the solution at Crans Montana.

Compatriots,

Dear friends,

Fifty years after the tragedy of 1974, we address the refugees, the enclaved people [in the occupied territories], the relatives of the dead and missing persons, the wounded, the prisoners of war held as captives, the raped women, the war-stricken victims of the war.

We address the fighters of the democratic resistance, assuring them that for us the slogan “I do not forget” is not some flag of convenience, but a beacon for the continuation of the struggle for vindication.

For us, the slogan “I do not forget” encapsulates the historical truth, it becomes a collective political consciousness and fuels the struggles to open the perspective of tomorrow. A tomorrow with lasting peace and security for all.

We will insist on speaking frankly and bluntly about the truth because that is our obligation to History. And because we have an obligation to preserve memory. To remember that half a century ago our land was marked by the double crime that was committed: the treasonous coup and the barbaric Turkish invasion.

We will also insist on developing our cooperation with our Turkish Cypriot compatriots. For they are our natural allies in the struggle for the reunification of our homeland.

Because it is together with the Turkish Cypriots that we will raise the sun to shine over our Cyprus.

Because this land belongs to us and belongs to them, as one of Mikis’ song goes.

Our Cyprus is too small to be divided and big enough to embrace us all!

We continue the struggle for our Cyprus!

For our people!

Long live our Cyprus!