Speech by the GS OF CC AKEL Stefanos Stefanou at the event in honour of Takis Hadjidemetriou
2/4/2025, 19:00 , POED hall Nicosia
Tonight, AKEL honours Takis Hadjidemetriou in this sobre but full of meaning and messages event. We honour the politician, the scientist, the intellectual; qualities he served with hard work and dedication, but above all in a moral way.
We honour Takis Hadjidemitriou for yet another quality which charactirises his activity and overall presence in public life: his patriotism.
What patriotism means to each person may of course differ. But who can deny that Takis Hadjidemitriou loved Cyprus immensely and deeply? Who can question that he fought for his homeland all through his life, with all his strength, without aiming at personal gain, without self-interest?
We honour Takis Hadjidemitriou who, together with other great men of his generation, dreamed of another Cyprus, creative, pioneering, democratic, progressive and staked their youth, their entire lives on this vision. Because Takis, from the moment he began to mature politically and acquired a political orientation and compass, did not limit himself to formulating a vision, but pursued every possibility and every opportunity to realize it
Very early in his life Takis showed he was a restless mind that was not tamed nor limited by school desks and curricula. What fascinated him was his father’s library, the hidden treasures in the thousands of pages of books, the high meanings and the quests that young Takis, thirsty for learning, was discovering. And as he read, plans, dreams, visions for life, for his country, for the future took shape in his mind.
The great social struggles and strikes of the time deeply influenced him, since they were putting the focus on the need to turn the wheel of evolution, to let the law of progress prevail for the many and not for the few and privileged. However, what was fascinating him most was the search for recognition for Cyprus, which in the Greek Cypriots’ perception at the time the dominant, in an almost absolute way, was the aim of “enosis” with Greece.
With this as his baggage, Takis boarded the ship from Limassol to Piraeus. At the Athens Dentistry School, he joined the student movement where he found a fertile field of action for Cyprus, for Greece, for the whole world. He joined the Youth Organization of the Liberal Party, and the Political Office of the Cypriot journalist, author and politician Loukis Akritas
“Be a bridge of communication, not a dead-end” Loukis once wrote to him. And it was as if he had sealed with this advice Takis Hadjidemetriou’s entire course in the political activity. A path that opened up roads before it, that built channels of communication, that in the face of dead-ends he insistently searched for ways out and solutions.
Returning to Cyprus Takis, by now a dentist, did not shut himself up in the sterilized clinic limiting himself to his practice as a promising scientist. But his plans, dreams and visions exceeded the square footage of his clinic. How could his dreams for a world of peace, of democracy and of democratic socialism fit in a room, no matter how big that was. And what’s more, how could his dream for a prospering and peaceful Cyprus fit (in a room) at a time when our people were treading their first steps in a context of freedom under siege and independence that was disputed and undermined?
Together with other personalities, friends and fellow travelers, he opened new pages of life and intervention in public activity. The “Cypriot Chronicles” and the Cultural Centre “The Roof of Cypriot Chronicles” became the starting point and destination for Takis and his generation that never stopped dreaming: he calls for a university in Cyprus, cultural life open to all, promotes theatres, concerts, spiritual growth and provokes a dynamic of fermentation of ideas that is influenced by the antiwar movement and May ’68 in Paris. And what a precious amulet from that time the editions that included Seferis, Anagnostakis and other greats of Greek culture who at that time due to the censorship and gagging imposed by the Greek Junta, found a precious refuge in Cyprus and in the above-mentioned editions.
With the same energy and zeal he with his wife Katia and the Swede Jerry Svensson worked for the establishment and financing of the Cultural Foundation “Exormisi”.
The chapter of Takis Hadjidemitriou’s activity against the dictatorship occupies a prominent position in his political activity. He was among the first in the struggle against the dictatorship with the establishment of the Committee for the Restoration of Democracy in Greece and the resistance organisation “Democratic Defence”.
With the same determination he enrolled in the struggle to defend democracy in Cyprus when the Greek Junta and EOKA B’ with their terrorist and fascist actions set to execute it; actions that culminated in the execution of the treacherous coup d’etat against President Archbishop Makarios the 3rd, that brought Turkey to Cyprus. Subsequently, Takis “enlisted” in the enormous effort to solve the Cyprus problem and to reunify our country and people, a fact that ever since defines his course, his “being” – to this day.
Dear friends,
Takis Hadjidemitriou served politics, he was not served by it. He served the country and the people with high moral and honesty, from every position entrusted to him by the people and the State.
He was a Member of the House of Representatives with EDEK, of which he was a founding member, a representative of Cyprus, of the House of Representatives and of his Party at conferences and events for Cyprus, for Afro-Asian Solidarity, in the Inter-Parliamentary Union, in the Council of Europe, in the Subcommittee on Cultural Heritage of the Council of Europe, in the Mediterranean Assembly, in the Western European Union.
He worked with zeal for the accession of the Republic of Cyprus to the European Union, as a member of the Joint Committee of the European and Cypriot Parliaments and as Coordinator for the Harmonisation of Cyprus with the European Union.
Along with all the above Takis has served as: President of the Foundation for Sociopolitical Studies, member of the Socialists’ Movement, the Socialist Initiative and the Bicommunal Movement “Cypriot Voice”. He is a representative and protagonist, along with Sener Elcil, of the ‘Bicommunal Peace Initiative – United Cyprus’ representing 75 Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot organisations.
Takis Hadjidemitriou was and has remained throughout these years a tireless voice of sobriety but also of dynamism, a pen of realism but also of vision that has been recording all what we have struggled for, what we have achieved, what we have lost, but above all, what we could have used to build our Cyprus in conditions of peace and cooperation and, unfortunately, illusions, nationalism, dogmatism, intolerance and betrayals have prevented it. Takis records all this in his important writings which have as central point of reference the modern history of Cyprus. A history which he lived very intensely, evolving and, in some cases, differentiating his perceptions and beliefs to become a symbolic figure of the common struggle of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots for a solution, for the reunification of our country in the framework of a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation with political equality.
In spite of the times, Takis, having already put his stamp on the struggle for a solution and reunification, continues this patriotic, progressive struggle together with all those who believe that Cyprus is neither Greek nor Turkish, but belongs to the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots. Besides, we must not forget that according to its Constitution the Cypriot state is bicommunal.
I want to assure you that AKEL continues to be and will continue to be in the vital and crucial for the future of our country struggle for a solution, liberation and reunification; co-fighters and fellow travellers with Takis Hadjidemitriou and all those who believe in this vision.
For his action for the cooperation the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities and in general for the solution of the Cyprus problem, Takis Hadjidemitriou was honoured by the Ihsan Foundation, the New Cyprus Association, by the Committee of Occupied Municipalities and other bodies. He was awarded the European Cultural Contribution “Europa Nostra” Award, the European Parliament European Citizen Award, as well as the Medal for “Outstanding Contribution” to the Republic of Cyprus.
The Technical Committee for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage of Cyprus represents for Takis a special life chapter. For fourteen long years Takis together with the other members of the Technical Committee, contributed decisively to the rescue and conservation of 99 monuments. Monuments that stand there, irrefutable witnesses of identity and history but also markers of the compass of the future.
“Be a bridge of communication, not a dead end”. Loukis Akritas’ advice to the then young Takis, sowed a seed that germinated in his consciousness and bore fruit throughout his years of work, especially the years he worked in the Technical Committee. Because in the face of the problems – and there were problems – in the face of the difficulties – and difficulties did arise – a way out was found, common goals were agreed upon, a common path was traced, work was done.
For his contribution to the preservation and conservation of our country’s cultural heritage, AKEL awarded Takis Hadjidemitriou, along with the co-chair of the Technical Committee for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage, Ali Tuntsai, the “Tefkros Anthias – Thodosis Pierides” Award of the Party’s Central Committee.
Dear invitees , dear friends,
In one of the many interviews he gave, he set the rhetorical question “when did we love this place?”
Surely, dear Takis, not everyone loved our land, at least not everyone loved it more than they may have loved their wishful thinking or career.
However, there were and are those who loved every grain of sand from the beaches of Famagusta and Keryneia, every blossom from the orange trees of Morphou, of Lapithos and Karavas, every fruit from the plain of Messaoria, every stone in the streets of divided Nicosia, every cyclamen that grows in the rocks of Pentadaklylos. They may be anonymous, but they are not a few. They may not have the luxury of gazing at Cyprus from luxurious towers, but they write history in the streets, in the neighbourhoods, at the crossing points, in the rallies, where Cypriots’ longing and anxiety for a peaceful and reunited Cyprus meet. These, the many, the anonymous, represent Cyprus. And, yes Taki, this Cyprus will win!
One of the books that the still adolescent Takis discovered in this father’s library and which fascinated him, was the “Pericleou’s Epitaph” of the ancient Athenian historian Thoukidides. Thoukidides wrote there:“Our system is called a Democracy because power is exercised by the many… we obey the laws and, indeed, those that have been made to protect the weak and those that, although unwritten, is shameful to break.”
The whole of Takis Hadjidemitriou’s life and work is condensed in these lines. In all his life he served Democracy with passion and dedication, as the system where power belongs to the many. In this service he never even for a minute lowered the bar of morality, honesty, integrity, respect for legality that first and foremost must distinguish public figures. Not out of fear, but consciously; not because that is what the laws say, but out of respect for the unwritten, global, universal laws of progress, of evolution, of the compass that indicates and guides as to what justice means.
My dear Takis, from the depth of our hearts and gratitude we thank you immensely for all that you have offered to Democracy, for all that you have offered to our Cyprus and its people, Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots, Maronites, Armenians and Latines.
We are very happy that we have the honour to honour you! I wish you health and strength!
