Speech by Eleni Mavrou, AKEL Political Bureau member, at the commemorative event for the hero Kostas Misiaoulis

 

14 July 2022, Tseri, Nicosia

The 15 July was the culmination of the intense activity of terror that the domestic far-right, organized by Grivas in EOKA B, launched in the early 1970’s. In those years, democratic citizens were murdered, police stations and leftist houses were blown up, and innocent people were persecuted.

On 15 July 1974 the coupists were carrying out exactly what they had learned to do so well during their illegal activities. This was followed by democratic resistance and a new orgy of crimes committed by the EOKA B and the coupists. They killed, tortured, martyred people in police stations and prisons, and brutally beat people up.

Among the victims of their mania was comrade Kostas Misiaoulis, whose memory and sacrifice we commemorate today.

The “crime” of Kostas Misiaoulis was that he was an active member of AKEL, a dedicated fighter for democracy and people’s rights, an opponent of fascism. He was snatched from his house at night by armed thugs, led out of the village with other democratic citizens and shot right there.

“The lights of the landrover were switched on. An armed man was sitting on the hood who ordered Misiaoulis to hand over the weapons he had”, testifies Giorgos Kyriakou Pissi, a fellow prisoner of Kostas Misiaoulis. “The one who was on the hood fired a round of gunshots over our heads. A flash was going towards Misiaoulis. I saw him fall down. One of the gunmen ordered him to get up, but he didn’t respond. He turned Misiaoulis over and saw that he had been hit in the abdomen, while blood had already formed a pool around him. They gave instructions to take him to the hospital. Before they left they forced another prisoner to bend down and lick Misiaoulis’ blood.”

Kostas Misiaoulis’ last breath was on 22 July.

At the time of his death, our country was living a real nightmare that it had never experienced before in its history.

The Turkish invasion of 20 July 1974 was the second part of the NATO crime committed against Cyprus. Turkey’s Attila army invaded our island and its hordes murdered, captured, raped, pillaged, plundered, uprooted the Greek Cypriots, filling Cyprus with graves, missing persons and refugees.

The bitter truth that older people should remember and younger people should learn is that, as Cyprus, we have so many heroes because we were unfortunate to have traitors. The crime of treason, the coup of the Greek Junta and EOKA B that massacred our people, was not some “foolish act”, it was not the result of “national division”. It was a premeditated and planned crime.

As Makriyannis aptly wrote “those who did evil, are evil-doers. Because they wanted the evil and they wanted their interest to be served, but they want to be called good patriots. And this isn’t possible.”

It would be a disgrace to the memory of our heroes and to each of us if we accepted their sacrifice to be equated with treason.

How can we accept that they were all responsible for what happened in 1974 – both those who defended democracy and those who fought to overthrow it?

How can we accept the insulting forgetfulness imposed even last Sunday by Ministers and certain Party leaders, by the public broadcasting corporation? Or the insistence of the government and ruling DISY party to erect a memorial to Grivas, the destroyer of Cyprus, with public funds?

Albeit belatedly, the murderer of Kostas Misiaoulis was tried and convicted. Only to be pardoned four years later. Unfortunately, AKEL’s demand for the decision to be revoked was never met. Just as the demand for exemplary punishment of all those responsible for the criminal coup that opened the backdoors to Turkish Attila was never met. Catharsis never came.

It is for this reason that commemorations like today’s are of immense value.

Because the history that was written in blood in the streets and squares of this country was never written into school textbooks, never put into the official historical narrative.

Because if we don’t talk about it, no one will.

Because if we do not keep the memory alive, forgetfulness and amnesia will come to erase all that has happened and opened wounds in this country that have not yet been healed.

And, above all, because we must learn lessons from history. Because peoples who forget their history are bound to relive their tragedies and Cyprus cannot bear another tragedy.

Compatriots

July 2022. Although many years have passed, memory inevitably turns back 48 years, to the black summer of 1974. Images and sounds from the bitter past return relentlessly. The military marches and announcements on the state radio. The voice of Makarios. The tanks and the bombing. The tents of the refugees. The mothers with the photos of their missing persons.

48 years after the tragedy of 1974, it is also imperative that we look to the future, drawing lessons from the past.

We must not forget how we got to 1974. That is, that neither the geostrategic goals of Cyprus’ subordination to NATO interests, nor the expansionist Turkish plans would have succeeded had there had not been willing Trojan horses in Cyprus, namely EOKA B, to implement them.

We must not forget that in the decades since 1974, many attempts have been made to find a solution to the Cyprus problem, but they have not come to fruition. They have come up against the intransigent policy of Ankara, but they have also come up against the fact that nationalist forces in both communities have been unwilling to accept the solution of a bi-communal, bi-zonal federation, refusing to accept that fact that Cyprus is the common homeland of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.

Unfortunately, 48 years later, certain forces and people still insist on fostering illusions.

The illusion is that we can settle for the status quo. The opening of Varosha proves that things do not remain unchanged. Even if the government ruling forces – Anastasiades, Christodoulides, Averof – tell us that Turkey will not dare to open Famagusta, that it is merely engaging in  communication games, that it is bluffing.

The security we think we have is also an illusion. The proof is the Turkish provocative actions in the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Republic of Cyprus.

It is an illusion that we have other options for a solution to the Cyprus problem. The dilemma is not federation or something else. The dilemma is federation or partition. And we will never compromise with partition.

Turkey’s unacceptable and provocative behaviour is given.

The question is, what do we do? We are on the brink of the permanent partition of Cyprus, but nothing is over yet. We must at long last abandon inertia and step forward by assuming specific initiatives that will create momentum for the resumption of the negotiations.

This is what patriotism demands. Because patriotism is not big empty talk, but the constant effort to reunite our country.

Those who have passed away, those who have perished, have done their duty in full. It remains for us to vindicate them. And we will only vindicate them if we do not allow the crime that took their lives to be completed.

We will vindicate the sacrifice of Costas Misiaoulis by keeping democracy alive in our country.

We will vindicate Kostas Misiaoulis and all our heroes if we succeed in freeing our country from the occupation and by reuniting our country and people.

Dear compatriots,

We have paid for Cyprus’ turbulent path to freedom with many tears and a lot of blood. Today’s memorial service is a minimal expression of honor to the fierce struggles and sacrifices of our people, to the thousands of our compatriots who gave their lives defending democracy and our country’s freedom.

Like every young man, comrade Kostas had his dreams for the future. But he did not hesitate for a moment to put his country above all else. And this was no accident. His heroic death was a continuation of his life. He wanted Cyprus to be a better place and its children to be the masters in their own country because that is what his father and mother, his family, taught him. Raised with the ideals of the working class and the people’s movement of the Left, he had as his supreme values bread, freedom and the rights of our people.

We are here again this year. To lay before our comrade a few laurel leaves. But also to bow our heads before him. And to assure him once again that we will continue the struggle to prove ourselves worthy of his sacrifice, worthy of the ideals for which he and our other comrades sacrificed their lives for.

HONOUR AND GLORY TO OUR HEROES!