Speech by the General Secretary of the Central Committee of AKEL Stefanos Stefanou at the burial of the remains of the brothers Charalambos and Tasos Christofi Siammas ad heroes of the anti-fascist resistance against the 1974 coup d’état

 

Saturday 12 November 2022, village of Fajardo

 

Dear compatriots,

Dear relatives of Charalambos and Tasos,

It is with feelings of profound emotion that I am here today. But first and foremost with feelings of anger, rage and indignation.

This is because today we pay the due tribute to two heroes of our homeland who fell victims to the atrocities not of the foreign invaders, but of the Cypriot coupists. An atrocity that the human mind cannot comprehend.

Today we honor Charalambos and Tasos. The two brothers who were not thrown into wells or piled into mass graves by the foreign trespassers of our land. The two brothers, the two heroes of democracy and universal human values, who were brutally murdered and dumped in a garbage dump, together with two other fellow resistance fighters, not by foreign invaders, but by Cypriot sub-humans.

Charalambos and Tasos return today to their birthplace, after 48 years, to be buried for the third time.

The first time they were hastily buried by the coupists in a rubbish dump after the brutal murder they committed.

The second time, as a result of the criminal actions of EOKA B terrorism, they were buried in a mass grave in the cemetery of St. Nicholas in Limassol.

Today, they are returning to their village of Fajardo after much effort and a long delay, to have a proper burial for the first time, but without being reunited with their own beloved ones. And even more so without their parents being here to bury them after they passed away, embittered and withered by the brutal murder of their children.

The unremitting and continuous effort of the families of the four resistance heroes, but also of our comrade Aristophanes Georgiou [NOTE: lawyer, Party veteran, former AKEL Political Bureau member and AKEL MP], contributed to the return of the heroes to their place of birth.

Compatriots,

The decision and the procedure of exhumation, the investigation that followed, but also the reburial of Charalambos, Tasos and their two comrades, Christakis Kombos and Pantelakis Charalambous, leads to many conclusions.

The first and the most important conclusion to be drawn: horrible crimes were committed in this country. Crimes against humanity. Crimes against our homeland. And they were committed not only by foreigners, but by Cypriots as well.

The second conclusion: The struggle of our people was betrayed and unequal from the beginning.

The third conclusion: Where there is a victim, there is always a perpetrator.

And you cannot be on the side of both the victim and the perpetrator in the face of crimes that have been committed. You cannot condemn the Turkish invasion without simultaneously also denouncing those who caused it, those who prepared the conditions for Turkey to invade Cyprus.

You cannot denounce the coup d’état and not also denounce its protagonists, EOKA B and the Junta of Greece.

You cannot forget that in almost every village and in every district, Cypriot so-called “super-patriots” with Kalashnikov machine guns in their hands arrested, beat up, murdered citizens, neighbours and even relatives simply because they were belonged to the Left, democrats and supporters of President Makarios. To do so is unhistorical, immoral and deeply provocative against our people. An act against families who have been mourning with the pain and grief over the years.

This absurdity, which reaches levels of obsession and dogmatic entrenchment, is still going on today. How else can one explain the insistence of certain political forces and candidates on Cyprus’ membership of NATO, who is the very the instigator and orchestrator of the partitionist plans against Cyprus? NATO – the organizer of the twin crimes committed against our people?

How is it possible for the state to honor the fallen of the resistance, democracy and freedom, but at the same time also honor all those who turned their weapons against democratic and constitutional order?

How is it possible, when the crescent moon of partition is still visible at night along the occupied Pentadaktylos mountain range, when funds are being approved in Parliament, just recently, for the construction of a museum dedicated to Grivas, the murderer and destroyer of Cyprus?

This is a disgrace and shameful!

Not only will we not follow this political absurdity, this crude falsification of history, but instead we will continue, as we have done since 1974, to stand against and combat it. We have a debt to our country, we have a debt to those who sacrificed their lives for democracy and our country. We have a debt to our children’s future to combat it.

And we shall continue to fight against it by upholding, reminding and insisting on the historical truth. The truth that is laid before us today. Because the story of the Christofis brothers, Charalambos and Tasos, is unfortunately not the only bloody episode of the insanity and atrocity committed by the coupists during that horrific summer of July 1974.

The stories of many other young resistance fighters during the coup had a similar development. Young people whose life was unjustly and prematurely cut off by the coupists. Who were deprived of realising their dreams and of their children, brothers and sisters and husbands from their families.

Similar stories are told by many anti-fascist resistance fighters who were lucky enough to escape death when fighting against EOKA B and the coup. Resistance fighters who are here today, lips bitten and fists clenched to salute and bid farewell to the brave young lads who were so cowardly murdered.

Dear compatriots,

Charalambos and Tasos from the village of Fajardo were two young men full of dreams and had aspirations for life. They were active and socially aware. One of them was an engine driver, the other a carpenter, and they both found themselves early on in the daily struggle to make ends and the battle of life to earn a living. They struggled and dreamed of the better days that they were sure would come for them too through their hard and honest work.

Until the day the calendar read 16 July 1974. Just one day after the traitorous coup of EOKA B and the attempted assassination of President Makarios. Already the day before, the coupists had launched an unprecedented campaign of terror and persecution against democratic forces and people. Some were arrested and interrogated, others were imprisoned and others were assassinated and murdered.

On that day the Christofi brothers were with their friend Pantelakis Charalambous in the village of Fajardo. There they met with the member of the Special Reserve Force [set up by President Makarios to fight EOKA B], Christakis Kombos, during the latter’s attempt to escape from the coupists. They suggested that they take him to Limassol and thus began their own fateful journey. On the way they were arrested by the coupists. They were brutally tortured and executed in cold blood to the celebrations of their assassins. They were then buried roughly in a garbage dump in Agios Tychonas.

The two brothers, Charalambos and Tasos, were found, several days later, embraced in the mass grave.

From the testimonies and the recent anthropological study that has been carried out, the atrocity is illustrated. The heroes were brutally tortured, but this was not enough to satisfy the ruthless coupists. They were shot once, but this was not enough. They were shot several times, but even that was not enough. The brazen assassins broke the skulls of the unfortunate lads as well.

How much hatred?

How much insanity?

How much fascism?

Compatriots,

The murderers and accomplices in the murder of the four heroes in Agios Tychonas are well-known. After many efforts by the families, relatives and AKEL, the murderers were brought to court, but justice was not done. The judge proved not able to do his duty and was clearly influenced by the EOKA B terror that still prevailed even though the Turkish invaders were consolidating their occupation of Cyprus, and in the context of a katharsis that never actually took place, he acquitted the criminals with ridiculous excuses. In the end, most of them were later convicted and imprisoned for…the possession of guns. That’s a very light punishment for such a major crime.

In our own hearts, in our own conscience, the murderers will never find forgiveness. Never! Let the murderers never find rest.

Those who did committed the horrific crime did not pay the price. Unpunished, and even worse, unrepentant, they live and walk among us. And when the crime goes unpunished, the wounds it opened do not heal.

They bleed and stain the memory of the dead.

They bleed and wound the dreams of the living.

But what is the punishment dished out and who is the one who will deliver justice? Certainly none of those responsible for the tragedy that we have been suffering for 48 years. And certainly none of those who do not dare name the guilty parties and those responsible for the crime. And the crime remains unpunished. And not only that. Added to the denial of justice by punishing the guilty is the attempt to legitimize the crime committed.

And this is being done in many ways. On the one hand by the guilt-ridden attempts to falsify history and de-legitimize Grivas and EOKA B. And on the other by the barren passage of time on the efforts to solve the Cyprus problem and the perpetuation of the occupation and partition both on the ground and in the minds of the people.

This is the stage we are unfortunately at today. The Cyprus problem is going through its most critical period ever and is unfortunately sliding towards permanent partition day by day. Time is working against our people and in favour of Turkey, which is instrumentalising the prolonged deadlock on the Cyprus problem, destroying every prospect with its provocative actions.

In the face of this dangerous situation, we cannot remain passive. We need to move towards a solution. We must take targeted initiatives to break the deadlock and resume the negotiations. The government must convince the international community that we really want and need a solution. That we want the negotiations to resume from where they had remained in 2017 at Crans Montana.

Compatriots,

Only a solution to the Cyprus problem will decisively address the consequences of the 1974 crime against our people.

Only in this way will the sacrifice of all those who fought and fell on that black summer for democracy and freedom of this bitter country, our Cyprus, be vindicated.

Only in this way will the sacrifice of our heroes Charalambos and Tasos, and of all the other resistance fighters who gave their lives for democracy and legitimacy, be vindicated.

Their memory will live on in all of us and in all democratic Cypriots!

Immortal and glorious!