Speech of Andros Kyprianou, General Secretary of the C.C. of AKEL, at the mass meeting to denounce the fascist coup d’état and Turkish invasion
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 15th July 2016, Nicosia
“- The whole story, the coup d’état and invasion was a betrayal.
– Yes, but you on your side participated in the consolidation of the coup.
– I didn’t participate in any coupist action.
– But, you said that you got the whole of Limassol under control.
– Should I have permitted a bloodshed to take place, because the other one (Note: referring to President Makarios’ escape from the Presidential Palace that was under attack and his subsequent departure from Cyprus) was leaving by airplane and shouted: “resist until the end”?
– Why didn’t you go to the police station to help the lawful forces of the state but went and …
– Who were the lawful forces, sir …? The Praetorian guards of the President? Was it the bishop who became an armed chieftain? Who were the law abiding forces?
– You can’t come thirty-three years afterwards declaring that there was no legitimate lawful government in 1974 and talk about “Praetorian guards”
– Anyone who didn’t agree with Makarios was targeted.
– Whether the democracy we had was good which it was or it wasn’t, institutionally there was a democracy.
– What democracy?”
This dialogue is extremely revealing about the mentality and way of thinking of the coupists.
The interchange took place in the House of Representatives Committee on the File of Cyprus in 2007, 33 years after the coup d’état and invasion. It is a dialogue between a former leading coupist and an MP member of the Committee. So many years after the crime committed and the protagonists of the coup have not understood anything ∙ they regret nothing.
Forty two years to this very date, they don’t feel they have committed treason.
They feel that they themselves were betrayed.
They feel that they are in a position to deliver lessons.
They feel that they are rightfully years later at the forefront of political and social life.
They feel that they are rightfully in positions of power, regardless of the fact that on that morning of 15th July 1974 they were holding machine guns, shooting and celebrating because “Mouskos[1] is dead”.
They feel that they haven’t committed any crimes. Every time, however, on such days, they feel uneasy and uncomfortable because none of us forget. Nothing is forgotten. Besides how can stories written in blood be forgotten?
The testimony of Chrystalla who was told by the coupists “we’ll arrest your husband and bring him back.” After a while she heard shots being fired.
Georgos was arrested and they took him to the Central Prison. They were asking him during his interrogation “You are a militant of the Left aren’t you?” He replied, “I am and I’m proud of it, and I don’t regret it, not even now.”
The story of the army Major took aim with his gun at Vasos in the cemetery over an open pit shouting “You will bury the dogs of Mouskos along with the heroes”?
The same time another bullet executed Sotiris Adamou Constantinou in cold blood, who refused to carry out the order to attack the Presidential Palace on 15th July.
To Avraam they declared that “You won’t see your wife, or your children ever again… Your graves are ready.”
The case of Andreas who the coupists tied both his feet to an excavator with his children hearing him screaming in pain.
Who can forget that all these criminals on the 15th of that black day in July 1974 were portraying themselves as more patriotic than patriots? On the day of the Turkish invasion on 20th July they ran to hide behind the frontline of the war. They ran to hide in the mountains and in hospitals, so they wouldn’t fight the invasion.
Who can forget that the blood spilled for fascism not to pass and the invasion that was drenched in red blood which was our own too?
Who can forget so much blood shed, to defend democracy and the Homeland?
Costas Misiaoulis, Costakis Evagorou, Nikos Flourentzou, Kyriakos Papalazarou, Andreas Cestas, Pambos Christofi, Tasos Christofi, Pantelis Charalambous, Christakis Kombos and so many others. It would be a disgrace to their memory and for each and every one of us, if we accepted their sacrifice equated with the treason committed.
Raised within the ranks of our Peoples Movement of the Left sprang brave comrades like Gavriel Theodosiou, Andreas Stylianou, Gerasimos Leontiou, Evelthon Ioannides, Karasamanis and so many others. It would be a shame for their sacrifice for the ideals that led them to stand in the frontline of the struggle, for us to accept today the falsification and rape of history, just so those forces and circles who opened the backdoor for the occupation troops to sleep soundly at night.
“The Greek Junta has achieved an economic miracle in Greece and at least the Junta did not steal from public funds,” “Makarios provoked the coup with his letter to Gizikis[2]“, “the EOKA B members were misled young people, besides Makarios also committed crimes”, “they were simply following orders, they could not but attack the Presidential Palace”, “the coup was the foolish action of a clique of officers.”
The coupists and their political protectors attempted to promote these and many other such myths.
Myths are the castles of the system, someone wrote. This reference hides a lot of truth. The more the years go by, the more does the system pin its hopes on forgetfulness and amnesia. Those who need the extreme right as a reserve force in their battle to attack and strike the Left choose to preserve their myths. We have a duty to expose these myths constantly, to remind the people of the real historical events.
The Greek junta did not achieve an economic miracle. The advocates and forces of the junta were dictators and puppets in the hands of imperialism. Anticommunism, blood, exile, torture, looting of wealth and statements promoting subjugation and submissive attitudes. This is what characterized them. The Junta was a regime that owed its existence to foreign masters. It owed its survival to a wretched deep para-state. It handed everything over to local and foreign capital, which were exempted from paying any taxation. At the same time, the leaders of the junta lived their lives at public expense. They decided and issued the order to more than double their salaries. Even the electricity bill of the dictator Papadopoulos’ villa was paid by public finances. In just six years the Greek junta accumulated a debt 1.5 times larger than it had risen over 145 years.
The EOKA B members weren’t some misled young kids who wanted to resist the “criminal” Makarios. Neither was the coup the foolish action of a group of officers. The coup was the monster that was hatched from the NATO machinations and the CIA, by the plans elaborated by Grivas, the crimes committed by EOKA B and the Junta. As the Finding on the File of Cyprus affirmed, the plans for the murder of Archbishop Makarios were being planned since the early 1970’s. The main protagonists were the Commander of the Commando Forces, D. Papapostolou and Polycarpou Yiorkadjis. The crime was being prepared at all levels. In 1972 an EOKA B unit, led by Stavros Stavrou Syros, received weapons on behalf of the Organization. In 1973, Eliades and Potamianos were waiting for financial help from America. That same year Grivas was eager to launch his treacherous plans, writing and communicating with the Greek junta dictator Ioannides. All the years during the activity of EOKA B, plans were being elaborated for operations to assassinate and murder Makarios. Various plans such as “Apollo”, “Fist”, “Hermes”, “Retaliation”, “Victory” and “Thunderbolt”. Some of them bear the signature of Grivas himself, but also others of Syros and others of Karoussos.
“Those who attacked the Presidential Palace were merely executing orders, thus we should honor them as heroes”, so they say. According to this logic we must also honor the British soldiers who burned Afxentiou as heroes. They were also carrying out orders… According to this logic we should also honor as heroes the soldiers who crushed with their tanks the gates of the Athens Polytechnic uprising in November 1973. The truth is that the heroes were those who refused to obey and execute the orders of fascism which is why they paid with their lives for their action!
“Everybody has responsibilities for what happened in 1974”, they persist. Not so.
On the one hand stood AKEL and with it the vast majority of the Cypriot people, united around the non-aligned policy pursued by Makarios.
On the opposite end stood a handful of EOKA B fighters who were conscious fascists.
On the one hand stood thousands of honest patriots who shed their blood for democracy and freedom.
On the other end, stood those who sold out to the Junta.
We didn’t all play the same role.
On the one hand stood Grivas and EOKA B, who although knew that the coup would give the excuse to Turkey to invade Cyprus, planned and executed it deliberately as soon as they found the opportunity.
On the other hand stood AKEL, which although it had prevented due to the militant rallying of the people around Makarios the planned coup in 1972, was not complacent. AKEL constantly warned about the criminal plans against Cyprus. Furthermore, it proposed the creation of a People’s Militia that would be the opposing force against EOKA B and the National Guard which was under the control of the junta.
Finally, the coup was not provoked by Makarios as a result of his letter to Gizikis as the coupists and their supporters claim. Besides it was impossible, as the Finding of the House of Representatives concluded as well, for the organization and execution of a coup to be decided and organized in less than ten days. Arapakis himself, the then Junta Greek Navy Chief, testified that when Makarios’ letter arrived in Athens, the execution of the coup had already been ordered. With the execution of the coup half of the crime was committed against Cyprus and the Cypriot people. The other half was subsequently completed with the Turkish invasion.
The betrayal of the coup was the “pretext” for Turkey’s invasion.
This was the only way the Turkish army could invade and occupy to this very date more than one third of the territory of our country.
This was the only way could choke to death, shed the blood and tears of thousands of Cypriots; to separate the people of Cyprus, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.
This was the only way it could erect the barbed wires of the occupation.
This was the only way Turkey could transfer more than 40,000 Turkish soldiers; the only way Turkey could colonize continuously the occupied areas, threatening the survival of both the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots in the land of their birth.
This was the only way for our people to be constantly living under threats in their own homeland.
For 42 years we have been living together with the time bomb of the occupation and the nightmare of partition. Until when?
The first thing that must be clear in everyone’s mind is that Turkey is following a conscious and consistent policy from 1974 to this today. It is integrating the occupied areas on many levels and in many ways. It is pursuing policies that deepen the dependence of the Turkish Cypriot community on Ankara and annihilating it. The Turkish army, together with the Turkish Embassy’s mechanisms in the occupied areas immediately after 1974, undertook this role which it is playing to this day.
At the same time, the economic integration of the occupied areas is also being promoted by financing the construction and tourism sectors and not just that. I remind you all also of the undersea water pipeline which fully integrates the occupied areas in Turkey in terms of water resources. The land involved in the onshore section of the pipeline in the occupied areas is considered Turkish property, whilst the underground and surface sources of the occupied territories have been transferred to the private management company that will take over the sharing of the water, with the end of the procedures.
The illegal airport was also handed to a Turkish company, while by 2018 the complete privatization of ports and electricity is planned, in line with the model of the privatization of water.
In addition, many of the so-called universities belong overwhelmingly to Turkish companies, through partnerships with Turkish Cypriots, while it has been written that applications for 15 Turkish universities are pending which want to open branches in the occupied areas.
To all this must also be added the agreement establishing the “Coordination office” of Turkey’s Ministry of Youth and Sports, but also the constant increase in interventions and funds from Turkey to support issues related to strengthening the public presence of religion.
Bearing in mind all the above mentioned, the verbal declarations made by Turkey that it wants a solution are contradicted by developments themselves. I will repeat once again: Turkey is called upon to move from words to deeds; to prove that it is not simply engaging in communication games, but that it is really prepared to contribute towards reunifying Cyprus and towards converting Cyprus into a unified state that will be a beacon and an example of harmonious coexistence of all its inhabitants for the whole world.
It is true that the Turkish Cypriot community is putting up resistance to the partitionist framework that Turkey is trying to impose. However, no one can speak with certainty about how much longer a small community can resist such a big power; about how much longer it can exist without the unusual Turkish Cypriot nationalism overcoming it, which is distancing itself both from both Turkey and the Greek Cypriot community.
These realities must awaken President Anastasiades and everyone in the Greek Cypriot community before it is tragically too late. As long as the Cyprus problem is not solved, these realities will increase. Because of their reactionary character they will exacerbate the problem rather than solve it. First and above all President Anastasiades must show consistency, determination and commitment to our strategic goal. Every day it should be made more and more clear, more and more evident to everyone that we have the political will and are working for the solution of the Cyprus problem based on the agreed framework.
All those interested in a solution to the Cyprus problem need to understand that we are the ones who want and are working for the solution; that on the other hand, Turkey is attempting to create faits accomplis on the ground. This stand decreases the optimism for achieving a solution and undermines the prospects for a solution that will be based on the agreed principles.
All those interested in a solution need to understand that we will only accept such a solution. We need the President, but also the entire political leadership of the country to realize that now the next elections will not judge us, but the future generations.
Woe if they come to the conclusion that we will sacrifice future generations for the sake of coming to power.
Woe if instead now when the time has come for everyone to rise to the occasion and project principles and long-standing positions first in order to achieve the reunification of our country, we start regressions, engage in creating impressions and playing tactical games.
Whatever progress has been achieved so far at the negotiating table was achieved because the Christofias-Talat convergences have returned to the table. Let the President take care from now on to act correctly, based on principles and with consistency so as to take steps forward in the procedure.
As far as AKEL is concerned, the solution of the Cyprus problem is our foremost and unwavering goal.
It is the only way our people, both Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, to live without their survival being threatened in the land of their birth.
It is the only way to create preconditions for growth, prosperity and progress.
These cannot be safeguarded by any kind of a solution.
They can be safeguarded only by a solution that will terminate the occupation and colonization will safeguard them; that will restore the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and unity of the Republic of Cyprus.
Only by a solution based on UN resolutions, the High-Level Agreements, International and European Law; a solution that will demilitarize Cyprus and exclude any rights of intervention in the internal affairs of our country by foreign powers.
Only by a solution that will reunite the territory, the people, the institutions and the economy under a bicommunal, bizonal federation with political equality as described in the UN texts.
We stress again and again these principles, so that its absolutely clear to everyone that any agreement that will not include them will not be accepted by AKEL.
For four decades we are struggling for the vindication of our country.
We dared to talk about the wounds suffered, about the criminal and horrendous crimes committed, about the killings, treason and treason.
We dared to build on the ruins of the 1974 our perspective.
We took the lead for the formation and development of the movement of rapprochement of our people.
We have been ridiculed and derided…and fought for all of these positions.
But we didn’t not yield or compromise.
On the contrary, we strengthen our voices as the Party of all Cypriots.
The Party of all working people.
The Party that speaks about two politically equal communities.
The Party that speaks about the whole of Cyprus which belongs to its people and not about half a Cyprus to be Greek.
We don’t just believe in this vision AKEL believe sin, but we also struggle to realize it!
We are working and struggling for that day to come when the History of this country will turn the page. The new chapter of Cyprus will begin – the chapter of peace and the future that we will build together with our Turkish Cypriot compatriots.
We owe it to those who fell and sacrificed their lives in that betrayed summer!
We owe it to those who will come.
We owe it to our history and our future, the future of our people!
Honour and glory to our Heroes!
[1] Makarios III was born Michail Christodoulou Mouskos
[2] Senior Junta Greek Army General
