“We honor comrades who, in difficult times, did not compromise with injustice”

 

AKEL veterans’ award ceremony held yesterday in Paphos

12 March 2026, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

At a ceremony held yesterday in Paphos, AKEL honored veterans of the district who have completed 50 years of uninterrupted party membership and struggle in ranks of the Party.

As AKEL Paphos District Secretary Andreas Fakontis said in his introduction, “Tonight we are not just holding an awards ceremony. Tonight we are engaged in a profound political act. We are honoring comrades who did not just serve a party, they served an idea. In difficult times, in periods characterised by persecution, social tensions, political clashes, they didn’t back down, they didn’t remain silent, they didn’t compromise with injustice.”

The comrades receiving the 50 years of AKEL membership Medal joined AKEL shortly after the tragic events of 1974—the treacherous coup d’etat by the Athens junta and EOKA B, and the Turkish invasion. The 37 comrades receiving the Medal are among the hundreds of AKEL members who, in difficult conditions, struggled for the refugees, the war-stricken victims and our missing persons, who worked hard to rebuild the Cyprus economy, who planted the seeds of hope and for the country’s prospects on the ruins of war.

Addressing those receiving the Medal, the General Secretary of AKEL stressed that “This is AKEL. This is the Cypriot Left for a hundred years now. AKEL serves our homeland, our Cyprus, it serves our society, it serves workers and the common people. That is how we were, that is how we are, and that is how we will continue to be.

AKEL is the Party of the workers and the common people. Since its foundation, it has always worked and struggled, and will continue to do so, for the common people to gain dignity, to fight misery, the darkness of ignorance, to obtain better working conditions, and for working people to gain rights and prospects.