The sacrifice of Kavazoglou-Mishaoulis guides us in the struggle for reunification
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 10 April 2019, Nicosia
54 years ago on 11th April 1965, the heroes of Greek-Turkish friendship Dervis Ali Kavazoglou and Kostas Mishaoulis, who were murdered by the chauvinists of TMT, passed into immortality in an eternal embrace. The murder of Kavazoglou is a link in the long chain of political murders committed of Turkish Cypriot patriots who supported and were struggling for the friendship and cooperation of the two communities in Cyprus.
The separation of our people and the clashes between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots served the anti-Cypriot plans of foreign centres, who were seeking at any cost the dissolution of the independent Cypriot state and our island’s transformation into an unsinkable NATO aircraft carrier in the Eastern Mediterranean. The extreme nationalist and chauvinist circles in both communities contributed towards the realization of the imperialist machinations and plans through their actions and deeds.
The murder of the AKEL militants Kavazoglou and Mishaoulis during that crucial period for Cyprus was an attempt to silence any voice against separation, bigotry and the isolation of the Turkish Cypriots.
The sacrifice of the Hero Martyrs Kavazoglou and Mishaoulis has always had a timeless significance in our people’s struggle for the reunification of our homeland, the overcoming of the anachronistic separation and de facto partition that was imposed by the imperialist crime committed in 1974 – with the execution of the fascist coup d’état of the Athens Junta and EOKA B and the Turkish invasion and occupation that subsequently followed.
Today, when the extreme Right on both sides of the occupational line of division is once more raising its head and again beginning to issue threats, the principal duty of every Cypriot patriot – Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot –is the common struggle to breach the deadlocks and ensure the salvation of our homeland, for the reunification of our people, the creation of the preconditions for peaceful coexistence and equal economic progress in conditions of security and mutual respect.
Against nationalist outbursts and chauvinist bigotry, the Left, faithful to the ideals of the peaceful cohabitation of the two communities, continues to struggle for the vindication of Cyprus and our people, the reunification of the State, for our liberation from any ‘custodians’, for a prosperous homeland for all its citizens. AKEL is serving the historical legacy, for which hundreds and thousands of true patriots, among them Dervis Ali Kavazoglou and Kostas Mishaoulis, struggled and gave their lives for, whose sacrifices are an example guiding us, an example of self-sacrifice for all.
