Speech by the General Secretary of the C.C. of AKEL A. Kyprianou to the political memorial event to honor the murdered militants of AKEL and the People’s Movement of the Left during the period 1955-59

 

 

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 31 May 2018

On 12^th December 2012 the Ministerial Council of the Demetris Christofias administration took the historic decision to restore the militants and supporters of AKEL and the mass organizations of the Left who were murdered for their political beliefs during the period 1955-59.

As expected the reaction to this decision was ferocious, at first on the part of the Association of EOKA Fighters who stated that “This act has been judged by the majority of the people as null and void. Two political parties, DISY and EDEK, have denounced it…history will not be written by AKEL…since 1955 the leadership of AKEL has basically behaved in an anti-national way, which unfortunately it continues to do so to this very day. We will not analyze all the treacherous things they have said and done at that time. For us the crux of the matter is their unacceptable, ahistorical and anti-national stand on the issue of the collaborators of the British who betrayed our struggle…EOKA did not execute anyone for their political views. EOKA executed traitors, collaborators of the English”. This is what, inter alia, the ahistorical positions of the Association of EOKA Fighters refer to – not in 1970, nor in 1990, but in 2013.

We don’t need to remember the tombs where the victims of the political murders committed are buried, nor the real facts and the strong, consistent and patriotic stand AKEL upheld and still upholds on the Cyprus problem. The result of AKEL’s patriotic stand is that Cyprus didn’t collapse and yield for so many decades. We don’t even need to point out how many times AKEL has been vindicated as to what it had been warning about with regards the various policies of the Right and the ultra-Right on the Cyprus problem. AKEL has always put the interests of Cyprus and the people of Cyprus over and above everything else, unlike the Right and the ultra-right, who were being guided by expediencies, petty-party interests and ideological obsessions.

We will recall the words of Grivas[1] himself. “As far as the Communists are concerned, the principle which I had pointed out from the very beginning should have been implemented…that is to say, that they should be attacked, humiliated so that they won’t be in a position to emerge on the political arena or in field of struggle…” This is what Grivas wrote to Bishop Anthimos of Kitium in January 1958. So, yes, the political views of the victims were the reason they murdered. It was political considerations, indifference to national interests, the lack of a democratic culture and ideological obsessions that guided those issuing orders for murders and assassinations to be committed.

We recall the testimony of Ourania Kokkinou[2], who said “There were traitors, indeed conscious agents of the English, and EOKA many times faced the ultimate danger because of them. All the traitors that existed were members of the Organization (EOKA) and fanatical “national-minded” people”.

We recall the words of the Head of the Right, Glafkos Clerides[3], who testifying to the Commission on the Cyprus File in the House of Representatives reiterated what he had previously stated about Grivas as “someone who has people who murder those who didn’t believe in the same ideals as him, he is a murderer.”

This is what Clerides was saying back then, regardless of whether his party affiliation and personal considerations obliged him, after the death of Grivas in January 1974, to proclaim him a “worthy son of the homeland”.

We shall recall the words of the Head of EOKA in the district of Famagusta, F. Papafotis, who said about the assassination of comrade Menikos in the village of Lefkoniko: “I ordered the Organization to arrest Menikos, to immobilize and take him to a square of Lefkoniko, to call on the people to gather in the square and after denouncing his anti-national behaviour, and set him free to go to his village. The order was executed by the fighters exactly as it was given. Unfortunately, Savvas Menikos did not withstand the people’s condemnations and died of heart failure.” We shouldn’t also forget his statements a few years ago that if he had the opportunity he would again order the same murders. Unfortunately the Embassy of Cyprus in Athens just recently held an event to honor this man…

These are being done in yet another attempt to whitewash and exonerate the Right of its shame for the political crimes it committed in the past. 

Has anyone brought Papafotis and his like before a court?

Who had decided that Papafotis and his like could bind people on trees and subsequently kill them as in the case of Menikos?

Whatever Papafotis says, no matter how much they try to glorify things, Savvas Menikos was murdered and indeed with cruelty and hatred. Armed men arrested him, tied him to the eucalyptus tree in front of the church, and called on all the villagers to go and spit on him.

A similar fate was reserved for all the militants and supporters of AKEL and the mass organizations of the Left who were murdered for their beliefs during the period 1955-1959. The labelling and vilification of the people of the Left as “traitors” was the necessary argument for those wearing hoods and masks to execute the orders of Grivas that aimed at attacking and weakening AKEL. In 1958, the year when the orgy of political murders was at its peak, Grivas wrote in his letter to Makarios, “I will attack the Communists mercilessly and wage an open war against them…” So it happened. 

In the same year, comrade Ilias Ttofaris died in his father’s small café, shot in the back. They did the same with comrade Michalis Petrou. Demetris Yasemis was murdered for exactly the same reason. Cowardly murderers left a note on the body of comrade Andreas Sakkas with the inscription “He was a traitor”. Panagiotis Stylianou was brutally beaten until he died. They shot and killed in cold blood comrades Nicodemos Ioannou, Maria Charitou and Despoula Katsouri, who was just 13 years old, as well as many other comrades and supporters of the mass organizations of the Left.

The list of those who became the martyrs of the Left is long. The murders were committed with such intensity, frequency and brutality that our Party would have been absolutely justified if it would have responded in kind.

Ezekias Papaioannou[4] mentions in his autobiography that “the greatest ordeal in my life was when EOKA was murdering militants of AKEL and supporters of the mass organizations of the Left, slandering them as “traitors”. Our comrades wanted to respond to these crimes in the same way. For the entire AKEL leadership this was a very tough test. Should the Party leadership give in to the pressure of Party members and supporters and respond in the same way or should it restrict itself to organizing mass denunciations and protests over the horrific crimes being committed? The leadership of AKEL did not yield. It placed above everything else the interests of the people and the country, and it stubbornly refused to lead developments towards a civil war initiated by the Left. I remember one night when some comrades came to see me where I was staying terribly angry and they told me, “If you don’t let us respond we’ll kill you.” I replied, “I prefer you kill me instead of thousands of people and children crying.”

AKEL responded to the murders by organizing mass political mobilizations, in which the overwhelming majority of the people denounced in the strongest possible terms the criminal actions of Grivas and his masked hooded men.

They are adopting a similar stand towards AKEL today as well. In their inability to justify their stand on the Cyprus problem and their contradictions, inconsistencies and regressions, they are attacking our Party, which once again is taking a patriotic, responsible and serious stand. This annoys them because they know that no matter how much they undermine and vilify AKEL, they will never denigrate it in the Cypriot people’s consciousness; that the stigma and label of “traitor” will be temporary and passing; that life itself will always vindicate the correctness of AKEL’s positions in contrast to their own adventurist actions.

In April 1955, Grivas wrote in his diary that if AKEL got involved in EOKA, “it would be cut down”. There were two reasons for this stand. The first was Grivas’ anti-communist mania and frenzy. The second was the very influence AKEL had as the biggest and best organized political party in Cyprus. AKEL had to be exterminated so that it wouldn’t be able to play a role in our country’s political life the day after the end of the anti-colonial struggle. The same view was shared by the British, who believed that AKEL was the only discrepancy in the colonial administration they had imposed.

Our country’s modern history confirms that a more ideal ally for imperialism than Grivas couldn’t have been found – both before and after the declaration of Cyprus independence in 1960. In 1964, the USA and NATO had drawn up the Acheson plan[5] for the partition of Cyprus. As Spyros Papageorgiou mentions in his book “Makarios – Through Fire and Iron,” Grivas took on the task of promoting the partitionist plan. Shortly before 1974, the US and NATO had decided that Makarios had to disappear from the scene so that they could shackle Cyprus to their interests. They once again found in Grivas, EOKA B and the Junta of Greece precious collaborators.

Many circles and forces to this day are still talking about AKEL’s supposedly treacherous or “anti-national” stand during the period of the struggle waged by EOKA. We disagreed with the tactics of armed struggle. History itself and developments have fully vindicated AKEL’s position. We honored and honor the heroism shown by humble fighters who sacrificed themselves for the sake of EOKA’s struggle. The extract from the decisions of the 9th Congress of AKEL in September 1959 is characteristic which states that we pay tribute to “all those honest fighters who gave their lives in the struggle for self-determination”. The anti-colonial struggle should not have been waged in the absence of the Turkish Cypriots. We as AKEL insisted that we should mobilize the Cypriot people as a whole in a political rather than an armed struggle, in combination with a proper internationalization of the Cyprus problem. Unfortunately for Cyprus, they didn’t listen to our voice.

Reflecting on the past, we cannot avoid making comparisons with today.

For entire decades, the framework that divided our people was based on the notion that there are two separate “peoples” in Cyprus. We were bold enough to question this notion as AKEL. We spoke about the people of Cyprus who were sons and daughters born from the same motherland, though they have a different language and religion. We dared to submit proposals that demolish walls of separation on the basis of ethnic origin; proposals that transfer the confrontation to a political, class and not ethnic level; proposals rendering the reunited Republic of Cyprus the common home of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots alike.

We all remember how ferociously and vulgarly comrade Demetris Christofias and AKEL were attacked because they dared table these positions as proposals at the negotiating table. We all remember the unprecedented assault headed by Mr. Anastasiades and all the other political forces we came under. Their all-out attack had at its cornerstone the deeply ideological position that “its better that we remain with a half-state, but one that is purely Greek” and that “the Left wants to Turkify us.” We will not stop repeating: we are threatened by Turkification not because we are insisting on a federal solution and the proposals we have tabled, but only if we attempt to abandon them all. The recent developments with Turkey’s demand for a two-state solution are unfortunately vindicating our position once more.

We have resisted and withstood the all-out war unleashed against us. We carried the weight of the attack we came under. We endured the political costs. We knew and insist today too that these positions are realistic, workable and unifying. We are not going to move from these positions because Mr. Anastasiades is regressing and contradicting himself. Neither are we going to abandon these positions because Mr. Anastasiades decided to sacrifice the Cyprus problem for whatever considerations and expediencies or because he is exploiting his supremacy in the mass media to accuse AKEL of supposedly “adopting Turkish positions”. Turkish positions are served in the best possible way by those who allow time to pass by and the occupation to be consolidated day by day.

Mr. Anastasiades accuses us that we are strengthening Turkish intransigence. If he studied the history of the Cyprus issue a little, he would recall that Rauf Denktash[6] was accusing Ozger Ozgur[7] of the same thing. Back then, in 1990, Denktash, who we all know was aiming at partition, accused Ozgur of serving the intransigence of the Greek Cypriot side. Why? Because Ozgur was reacting to Denktash’s position for securing the separate right of self-determination. Let’s all make the corresponding assessments and analogies with today.

Turkish positions are served by those forces and circles who whether consciously or unconsciously, openly or behind the scenes, are paving the way for a two-state solution, for the partition of Cyprus. For decades, Turkey has been consistently promoting policies that are deepening the Turkish Cypriot community’s dependence on Ankara and weakening it. Turkey promoted the economic integration of the occupied territories through funding not just in the construction and tourism sector, but beyond. It is continuously seeking to interfere in the occupied areas. It is aiming to cultivate religion as a means of exercising greater control over society. A section of the Turkish Cypriot community is resisting all of these actions. However, a small community will not always endure to stand up and confront powerful Turkey. If the Right in the Greek Cypriot community doesn’t understand this early enough, this time it will irreparably damage Cyprus.

The blood that has been shed in our homeland will be vindicated only if we are able to reunite it; only if we reverse the given situation caused by the Turkish occupation; only if we are able to reach a solution that creates conditions of security and stability for the whole of the Cypriot people. A solution that will reunite the island on the basis of the agreed framework and create conditions for progress and prosperity for all. That is, and must remain, the common goal of the struggle of progressive and peace-loving Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.

As AKEL, we steadfastly insist on the strategy and framework of the solution that has been agreed since 1977 and which includes all decisions of the UN and other international organizations; a solution that will demilitarize Cyprus and exclude interventions and guarantees from foreign powers; a solution that will reunite the land, the people, the institutions and the economy; a bi-communal, bizonal federal solution with political equality as described in United Nations texts. For a solution that will lead to a united state, that will be a continuation of the Republic of Cyprus and one state with a single sovereignty, a single international personality and a single citizenship.

Fazil Onder, Ahmet Yahya, Ahmet Ibrahim, Ayhan Hikmet, Ahmet Gurkan, Dervis Ali Kavazoglou. Savvas Menikos, Michalis Petrou, Ilias Ttofaris, Andreas Sakkas, Kostas Misiaoulis and many others. Every time dogmatisms, ideological obsessions and fanaticism have prevailed, it was the Left, and subsequently Cyprus as a whole, with tons of vicious slander and denigration against it, even with the shedding of blood, who was the first to pay the price. The late historian Rolando’s Katsiaounis explained poignantly the reasons why: “The Left was itself the victim of extremist groups. It sought to protect the Republic of Cyprus, viewing at the same time the Turkish Cypriots as its rightful citizens. Responsibilities do exist, but they are not collective. These responsibilities lie with those who engage in empty rhetoric and with their political ancestors that the left will change the history they themselves have invented. The mentality of these people has been and remains that Cyprus is Greek and that the Turkish Cypriots are unwanted and unwelcome. This position is erroneous. Cyprus is a common homeland, it doesn’t only belong to the Greek Cypriot community, even though it is the majority. Cyprus belongs to all its people…This people must find its inner peace and decide its future.”

We therefore have to decide our future. We should be the ones to decide about our own future, about the day after and about how we want Cyprus to be like in the future. We must decide about our country’s peace, progress and the prosperity for tomorrow. That is how we will honor the memory of the victims of the political murders committed that have deeply wounded our people, but also all those who sacrificed their lives for the dignity and freedom of Cyprus.

The blood shed may have dried on our comrade’s bloodstained shirts. The burden of vindicating our comrades is borne by all of us, with modest pride, as the Poet wrote. We have the duty of delivering to their children and the children of their children a Cyprus as they had dreamed of: a reunified and free Cyprus from one end to the other, full of banners of peace and the development of the struggle for social justice.

[1] Fiercely anti-communist, nationalist leader of the military wing of EOKA, who previously founded “X” anticommunist organization against the National Resistance in Greece and subsequently fought on the side of local reaction, US and Britain against the Democratic Army during the Greek civil war. Later on he came illegally to Cyprus to found the underground armed extreme-right organization EOKA B for the overthrow of the Makarios government through a coup together with the Greek military junta.

[2] EOKA Leading member, arrested and imprisoned. Coordinated female division of the Orthodox Christian Youth Union. She recruited many young girls to EOKA. Later on she disagreed with Grivas and was one of Makarios’ closest associates in the fight against the Athens junta and EOKA B plans for a fascist coup.

[3] Former President of the House and the Republic, founder of the ruling DISY right-wing party.

[4] Historical leader and General Secretary of AKEL 1949-1988

[5] In 1964 US President Johnson’s special Cyprus representative Dean Acheson presented a plan for the dissolution of the Republic of Cyprus and partition of Cyprus through “double enosis”, i.e. the division of Cyprus between Greece and Turkey.

[6] Former leader of the Turkish Cypriot community, a fierce right-wing anti-communist and nationalist who always promoted partition, separation and persecuted the TC democratic progressive forces.

[7] Late progressive leader of the Turkish Cypriot CTP party, staunch and consistent fighter for the rapprochement of the two communities, for peace and reunification of Cyprus and its people.