AKEL in Great Britain organised an event in memory of George Euripides (Kodros) on Friday 24th November 2017 at 7.30pm at the Cypriot Community Centre, Earlham Grove, Wood Green, London N22 5HJ.
George Euripides passed away on Monday 30 December 2013 at the age of 78.
He was an active member of AKEL in Britain Catford branch, and was a member of the party’s executive committee for many years. He was also a founding member of the Union of Cypriots in the UK (EKA) and until his final days, an active member of the Liberation Movement, working tirelessly to keep the organisation alive.
Speakers were Chryso Ioannou, Mikis Euripides(George’s son), Mary Afxentiou on behalf of Panicos Yiallouro, Andreas Gregoriou on behalf of George Georgiou MP, Christodoulos Stylianou, Neofitos Nicolaou on behalf of Donis Christofinis, Mikis Christodoulides, George Antony and Andreas Solomou. Eleni Palazidou, Ferdi Sedat and Bambos Charalambous.
Below an obituary
Distinguished Guest
Dear Friends & Comrades
Family of Kodros
It’s been almost four years since we lost our dearest comrade George Kodros Evribides, but his memory and his lively personality keeps living on and is in our hearts.
George was born on 10th of October 1935, in Vasa Kilaniou, one of the most important vine-growing and wine-making villages of the region. He was the son of Evribides Alexandrou and Terpsa and had six siblings: Theofilina, Kiki, Leonidas, Alexandros, Loulla and Andreas. George was the 6th child of the family. His family was well off and owned land and vineyards in the region. His father was one of the first to own a car in Cyprus.
George lost his father at the age of 14 while he was attending Mitsis Trade School in Lemithou, a boarding school in a picturesque scenery surrounded by pine trees, in a great location up in the Troodos mountains. After graduating from school, he worked for a year in Cyprus and in 1956 he moved to the south-east of London, in the area of Bermondsey, where he stayed with his cousin Theano for about a year. George very quickly adapted to the new way of life and enrolled at Goldsmith College to study law. However, he had to terminate his studies due to the fact that he brought his mother, along with his 4 nephews and nieces to UK and had to sustain them financially.
He worked for few years with various companies’ well-known car accessories firm Loucas, Ranburn Ltd and others. However, his business mind did not allow him to rest. He wanted to help his loved ones, so when he spotted a gap in the market for car accessories, and after gaining sufficient experience, in 1965 he set up his own engineering business named George Injection Pumps. Soon after, he helped set up the company Goods Diesel Pumps. He then bought Ranburn Ltd, a company with 100 years of history. George was a multi-functional and resourceful person, like Odysseus in Homer. In 1974 he also buys his own restaurant Blue Dolphin in Goodge Street and keeps himself preoccupied 24/7, until 1979.
Even though George came from a relatively well-off family, he always tried to help the vulnerable and the poor. He never compromised with injustice and fought for human rights. As soon as he came to London he joined the Cypriot branches of the Communist party and attended meetings, seminars and learnt about Marxism. There he met his very dear friend Evagoras Sergides. Evagoras is the brother of his wife Maroulla, whom he met through him in 1967. They got married in 1969 and had three children.
In 1966, Kodros and Dr George Christofinis, along with other comrades, founded EKA, the Union of Cypriots in Britain. EKA’s main objective was to organise all Cypriots who fight for a common struggle. An organisation that later on, after the tragic events in Cyprus in 1974, contributed to the founding of the National Federation of Cypriots in UK. Kodros was the treasurer of the organisation for years. At the same time, he was a member of Liberation, an organisation fighting for the freedom of colonies. He worked very closely with Jeremy Corbyn the labour leader and became good friends.
He also tried to preserve the Cypriot culture and he wanted the younger generations to learn their language and the traditions of the country of their origin. He was one of the founding members of OESEKA, the Federation of Educational Associations of Greek Cypriots in England and in 1978, he founded the Greek Community School in East Dulwich, which ran for more than a decade.
George was one of a kind. He was a humorous man, who had strong beliefs. He would never hesitate to express his views on the injustices in the world and the difficult times our society was facing. He was a simple man, who always cared about the people around him. He was always fighting for equality and justice. It must be noted that he participated in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and in the anti-apartheid movements, supporting the people of South Africa. He also supported the women at Greenham Common in the 1980’s who were protesting against nuclear weapons. He fundraised for the striking miners and expressed his rage towards Margaret Thatcher and her policies. He later campaigned on behalf of the labour candidates in his area.
George was a true ideologist, always loyal to his party and its ideals. He was a modest and dignified fighter of Freedom, Democracy, Social Justice and Socialism. Helping AKEL had always been one of his life’s priorities. With the Cyprus Presidential elections coming up in January I could just picture him being restless, uneasy phoning us over here, phoning Akel in Cyprus, phoning his friends asking about the opinion polls, probably criticising all of us of not doing enough and that’s not him being difficult or awkward but been a perfectionist and passionate for Akel to do well. He was a member of AKEL’s District Committee (OLOMELIA) for years, a member of the finance committee and member of the management committee of Parikiaki. He helped organise the party’s dinner and dances and encouraged others to make financial donations, buy raffle tickets or convinced them to attend the functions. He was one of the pioneers who helped turn the bazaar that Parikiaki used to organise at the Cypriot Community Centre to the mighty Cypriot Wine Festival & Business Expo, an event that attracts thousands and thousands of Cypriots and other nationalities every year.
Together with his wife Maroulla, he would host the annual monthly meetings of the Catford branch of AKEL. Hospitality was his speciality, whether it was for meetings or inviting people round for meal, having a barbeque at home or taking them out for dinner, or distributing generously his produce from his allotment. Another great gift that Kodros had was his ability to make life long friends. He was a gifted public relations man, that every company would have loved to have him on board.
Politics was always a matter of discussion for George. He would frequently meet his late friend Dr George Christofinis, with whom he shared similar views, and discuss about political affairs and events for hours. Both being loud, they were voicing their anger and opposition at the injustices around the world and then play a game of tavli, to lighten up the atmosphere. The two of them, along with the historian Stavros Panteli were the perfect trio, three true friends who always cared and helped those around them.
He never abandoned the cause of Cyprus. He was always present at the demonstrations and rallies against the illegal occupation of his beloved island, he would attend all the events organised by the National federation of Cypriots.
He stood next to all Cypriots, as he considered the pain and suffering of Greek and Turkish Cypriots to be the same. That is the reason why, he had so many Turkish Cypriot friends who are here with us tonight.
George devoted his life to everything Cypriot. Our community was always very closely tight to his heart. Caring for Parikiaki was one of his priorities and being in the Management Committee of Parikiaki, he has helped in arranging the new distribution system that we now have in place. For years he was collecting the paper from the printers and distributing it in South London. Previously he was involved with To Vima, working voluntarily with Hambis Michael and George Pefkos, helping the newspaper in any way he could, whether it was raising funds or distribution.
I remember a couple of things which used to be George’s trademark: he hated wasting paper, so he used to take notes on the back of envelopes or any available space on a piece of paper. He was recording vital information, in a way only he could understand.
As I already said, George had a great sense of humour. Whenever we met at different events and after we shook hands, he used to introduce me his wife Maroulla as his ex-fiancé. He was waiting patiently for her reaction before he could add “my ex-fiancé and current wife.”
Not to mention his red tie, handkerchief in his left pocket and white jacket.
George was a successful man, but there is an old English saying: “behind every successful man is always a woman”, and comrade Maroulla is the woman; she has contributed a lot.
Unfortunately, George Evribides left us on 30 December 2013. Our community, AKEL in Britain, AKEL in Cyprus and Cyprus in general, owe him a lot. George was a real fighter, he loved life and justice and he battle to improve the conditions of life for the Cypriots in Britain.
Andros Kyprianou the General Secretary of the Central Committee of Akel sends his regards to the family and the greatest of respect and admiration for Kodros summed up with a quote. “A true communist is distinguished by the quality of his character and Kodros had this quality”.
For this and for all the reasons I mentioned earlier, we will always be grateful to you, Kodro, thank you for all the lessons you taught us! Your memory will be living on in the hearts of your wife Maroulla, your four children: Mark, Valentina, Mikis and Rolandos and your six grandchildren: Ioli, Alex, Benjamin, Leo, Illias and Sam, and obviously in our hearts.
Long Live his Memory.
24 November 2017
Bambos Charalambous
Επικήδειος για τον Γιώργο Ευριπίδη
Ο θάνατος του κάθε ανθρώπου αποτελεί βαρύ πλήγμα και πένθος στους δικούς του, πολύ περισσότερο στη συγκεκριμένη περίπτωση του λαϊκού αγωνιστή, του πολύ αγαπητού μας συντρόφου Γιώργου Ευριπίδη, που χάσαμε για πάντα τη Δευτέρα 30 Δεκεμβρίου κι έριξε σε πολύ βαρύ πένθος, την πάντα στο πλευρό του, αγαπημένη του γυναίκα Μαρούλλα, τα παιδιά του, Μίκη, Ρολάνδο και Βαλεντίνα, και Μαρκ τα εγγόνια του, τα αδέλφια, τους συγγενείς και φίλους, το αριστερό κίνημα, και γενικά την προοδευτική μας παροικίας. Στους οποίους, από μέρους της ΚΕ του ΑΚΕΛ, εκφράζουμε τα ειλικρινή ολόθερμα συλλυπητήρια, ιδιαίτερα εκείνα του τέως Προέδρου της Κυπριακής Δημοκρατίας, Δημήτρη Χριστόφια και του Γ.Γ της ΚΕ της ΑΚΕΛ Άντρου Κυπριανού, της Ομάδας των προοδευτικών Τουρκοκυπρίων και πολλών άλλων βετεράνων συμπατριωτών μας, που δεν μπόρεσαν να είναι σήμερα μαζί μας.
Μέσα απ’ αυτό τον ύστατο χαιρετισμό θα θέλαμε να σκιαγραφιστεί ακέραια η αγάπη και ο μεγάλος σεβασμός και να αποδοθούν οι ανάλογες τιμές που αξίζουν προς τον αείμνηστο αγωνιστή σύντροφο μας, Γιώργο Ευριπίδη. Ένα άνθρωπο που στη ζωή του αγαπούσε το ωραίο και το καλό, μορφώθηκε, παρά τις οικονομικές δυσκολίες, τόσο από εκπαιδευτικής όσο από κοινωνικής και πολιτικής άποψης, ως ένας σωστός διεθνιστής/κομμουνιστής αγωνιζόταν και οραματιζόταν να δει την εδραίωση της δημοκρατίας και την κοινωνική δικαιοσύνη για όλους τους ανθρώπους. Ο ίδιος είχε απαλλαχθεί, από οποιωνδήποτε ρατσισμό ή διάκριση και αυτό φαίνεται από την παρουσία ανάμεσα μας σήμερα Τ/Κ, συμπατριωτών μας. Τόσο στην κοινωνική του ζωή, όσο και με τους πολιτικούς αγώνες του, μόνο καλά επιθυμούσε να προσφέρει στο συνάνθρωπο του, και γενικά στην κοινωνία, ανεξάρτητα από εθνικότητα, θρησκεία ή χρώμα.
Ο αξέχαστος μας Γιώργος, πολύ γνωστός ανάμεσα στην παροικία μας αφού από τα πρώτα χρόνια στην Αγγλία, όχι μόνο ζούσε την παροικία μας, αλλά και πρόσφερε σ’ αυτή ανεκτίμητες υπηρεσίες που έμειναν, και θα παραμείνουν στη συνέχεια, ως αναγκαίες βασικές προϋποθέσεις που θα εξ υπηρετούν τις νεώτερες γενεές στα χρόνια που θα αρθούν. Πολύ δύσκολο στο χρόνο που έχουμε στη διάθεση μας να περιγράψουμε στο ακέραιο την πολύπλευρη και πολυδιάστατη προσφορά του. Σε όσα ιδρύματα συνέβαλε, θα παραμείνουν για πολλά χρόνια ακόμα όπου οι συμπατριώτες μας θα χρησιμοποιούν μέχρι σ΄ ότου θα υπάρχει παροικία, έχοντας πάντοτε υπόψη το λαϊκό κίνημα και τα Ελληνικά σχολεία.
Για ακόμα μια φορά, ως ΑΚΕΛ, μαζί με τα συλλυπητήρια μας, παράλληλα εκφράζουμε από τα βάθη της καρδιάς μας και τις ευχαριστήριες μας προς την οικογένεια του, διότι όταν ο σύντροφος μας Γιώργος βρισκόταν στις επάλξεις, απαραίτητα η οικογένεια του τον στερήθηκε. Οι ευχαριστίες μας σίγουρα απευθύνονται σ΄ όλη την οικογένεια, όμως είναι ιδιαίτερες προς τη γυναίκα του, την αγαπητή μας συντρόφισσα Μαρούλλα, που πολλές φορές, αν όχι σε όλες, βρέθηκε δίπλα του και για πολλά χρόνια στους αγώνες. Ακόμα και το σπίτι τους χρησιμοποιείτο για τις συνεδριάσεις, είτε αυτές ήταν για το Ελληνικό σχολείο της περιοχής ή ήταν για την Κομματική Οργάνωση του ΑΚΕΛ. Πρόσφεραν και αγωνίστηκαν και οι δυό τους, πέραν από το μέτρο του δυνατού στα κοινά της παροικίας μας, για την πρόοδο και την ευημερία των ανθρώπων και κατά επέκταση για τη δικαίωση των αγώνων της Κύπρου μας, που τόσο πολύ αγάπησαν και γνοιάστηκαν γι αυτή.
Ο Γιώργος με τον ερχομό του στο Λονδίνο το 1956, ασυμβίβαστος όπως ήταν με την κοινωνική αδικία, εντάχθηκε στις γραμμές των Κυπριακών Ομάδων του Κομμουνιστικού Κόμματος Αγγλίας και αργότερα, γίνεται μέλος του ΑΚΕΛ Βρετανίας το οποίο υπηρέτησε με ειλικρίνεια και αφοσίωση από διάφορα αξιώματα μέχρι αυτό του τιμητικού μέλους της Επιτροπής του Παραρτήματος και του Οικονομικού του Γραφείου.
Ανήκει στη γενεά των αγωνιστών της δεκαετίας του ’50, ανθρώπων της πρώτης γενεάς που αγάπησαν τη ζωή και τον άνθρωπο και αγωνίστηκαν κάτω από τις πιο αντίξοες συνθήκες για τη βελτίωση γενικά της ζωής των Κυπρίων στη Βρετανία, σε μια εποχή που χρειαζόταν πολλούς και σκληρούς αγώνες. Δούλεψε μαζί με το Δρα Γ. Χριστοφίνη, Ελένη Γεωργίου, Σταύρο Παντελή και άλλους βέβαια, πολύ σκληρά, για την οικοδόμηση της οργανωτικής υποδομής της παροικίας, ιδιαίτερα του εκπαιδευτικού κινήματος, έργο που αναμφίβολα με τη σειρά του συνέβαλε και θα συμβάλει στη διατήρηση της οντότητας και του εθνικού χαρακτήρα της παροικία μας
Ένας από τους τελευταίους πρωτοπόρους που συνέβαλαν στη δημιουργία και σταθεροποίηση των παροικιακών εφημερίδων Βήμα και Παροικιακής και μια σειρά οργανώσεων, που πέραν από τις Κυπριακές Ομάδες του Κομμουνιστικού Κόμματος Αγγλίας, του Παραρτήματος ΑΚΕΛ, Κομματικής Οργάνωσης ΑΚΕΛ, στο Catford. Ιδρυτικό μέλος του Συνδέσμου Κυπρίων της ίδιας περιοχής, του εκπαιδευτικού συντονιστικού σώματος των Ελληνικών σχολείων της ΟΕΣΕΚΑ, της Ένωσης Κυπρίων Αγγλίας, η οποία με τη σειρά της συνέβαλε στην ίδρυση της Εθνικής Κυπριακής Ομοσπονδίας Ηνωμένου Βασιλείου, οργανισμό που διαδραμάτισε σημαντικό ρόλο στο έργο της διαφώτισης της κοινής γνώμης στη Βρετανία για τους πολλαπλούς αγώνες για την Κύπρο μας. Το ΑΚΕΛ και η παροικία μας του οφείλει πολλά και άλλα τόσα η Κύπρος μας.
Με καταθλιμμένη καρδιά αποχαιρετούμε ένα άνθρωπο της αριστεράς και άξιο στέλεχος του κινήματος μας, αυτό τον απλό καλοσυνάτο άνθρωπο, που με ευγένεια, με αισιόδοξη αγωνιστικότητα του, τη φιλική και με χαμηλούς τόνους προσέγγιση του θα παραμείνει αξέχαστος. Θα λείψει τόσο του λαϊκού κινήματος όσο και της οργανωμένης παροικίας.
Αγαπητέ μας Γιώργο, για όλους εμάς που συνεργαστήκαμε για πολλές δεκαετίες μαζί σου, διαπιστώνουμε ότι έκρυβες μέσα σου απέραντη καλοσύνη και δραστηριότητα. Πράγμα που σε έκαμνε να παραμείνεις σε όλη του τη ζωή, μέσα στα πλαίσια του καλού και ευγενή ανθρώπου με τεράστια πίστη στους στόχους και τις επιδιώξεις και την χαραγμένη πολιτική του κόμματος μας.
Θρηνούμε το χαμό σου Γιώργο, αλλά ταυτόχρονα τιμούμε και τη μνήμη σου, τη μνήμη του λαϊκού αγωνιστή που με τους αγώνες, αποτελείς υπόδειγμα καλού και τίμιου αγωνιστή που με τη συμπεριφορά και τις πράξεις σου, έγινες γνωστός στον κάθε πατριώτη και δημοκρατικό άνθρωπο.
Να πάς στο καλό, αγαπητέ σύντροφε με τη συνείδηση ήσυχη, εσύ έκαμες το καθήκον σου στο ακέραιο και να είσαι βέβαιος ότι εμείς θα συνεχίσουμε, αυτό δηλαδή, που εσύ επιθυμούσες.
Αιωνία σου η μνήμη πολύ αγαπητέ και αξέχαστε μας σύντροφε.
Christodoulos Stylianou
Dear friends
I am delivering this speech on behalf of my organisation-Turkish Cypriot
Association for Democracy.
I spoke to Bambos earlier, and asked him how long I could speak, so that I
could draft my speech. He said Ferdi, only four minutes. I said, what! How
can I say what I know about George in just four minutes? So I negotiated
five minutes with him. So forgive me if I read this speech very fast. There
is a lot to say about George.
George knew my father Sedat, who was also of the same political orientation
as him.
We lost George at the end of December 2013.I knew he was not well, and I had
not seen him for few months, so I decided to call him just at the beginning
of the new year to see how he was getting on. Only to be told that George
had passed away. I still remember that shock moment and it was very hard to
absorb.
I knew him well enough for me to be able to say the following;
George was an inspirational person. He was full of humanity, love and full
of feeling for a lot of people. If there was any hate in him, it was the
hate of injustice. It was the hate of unfairness.
With these kind of feelings and emotions, George found that he could fight
for all these feelings and expressions within AKEL, which he was a loyal and
hard-working member.
His main dream was to one day to see a united Cyprus. A united Island, where
all its people can live under one banner ,without the scourge of hatred and
arrogance.
He saw nationalism as a sickness, a disease,a virus, a condition that
infects peoples brains to the extent that they cannot see any logic. A
condition that fills people’s hearts with hate and revenge. A condition that
makes us behave like an uncaring wild pack of wolves at war with each other.
He understood the value of peace, reconciliation, love and the feeling of
reaching out to each other. George sponsored ,with his own money ,a book
that was translated from Turkish to Greek written by the author Leyla Kiralp
,titled the sharing of a wet white hanky chief. The book was about the story
of the loss of loved ones by a Turkish Cypriot and a Greek Cypriots widows.
The book was about the pain from loss ,created by war and suffering being
the same whether we are Turkish Cypriots or Greek Cypriots.
George was also an internationalist, he was active in the Communist Party of
Great Britain ,but particularly active in Liberation. Liberation is an
organisation that has a very long history in the struggle against
colonialism ,and has been responsible on marked moments in the history of
the anti colonial struggles,in the past.
Amongst the prominent members of liberation which he worked with was one ,no
other than Jeremy Corbyn. They knew each other well.
It would be our heart’s desire to know that one of the dreams of George has
actually been realised.
Who would’ve expected an obscure backbencher Jeremy Corbyn to rise and win
the Labour leadership elections twice with huge record margins. Build a
party membership more than doubling up and topping almost 570,000
members.Come out of a battle waged against him by his own back stabbing
parliamentary Labour colleagues ,23 points behind in the opinion polls,and
despite massive media campaign of lies and personal attacks deliver a blow
to the Tory party whose only reason to hold the election was to finish
Jeremy Corbyn.
These are the battles George found inspirational and Jeremy Corbyn was his
comrade in arms.In fact when about a year ago, Jeremy Corbyn came to the
Cypriot Centre ,invited by the Famagusta Association, I mentioned to him
that I was a friend of George Euvribidis. His eyes immediately lit up ,and
said George was such a wonderful person and we will all be missing him. I
wish I recorded that.
There are many more battles we will be engaged in. Like George, I know that
when we reach the end of our natural lives those struggles will continue.
George also believed that such struggles are handed down from generation to
generation .The fact that our children or their’s will live in a better
world justifies lending ourselves to these couses.
Knowing that the fruits of our struggles will be handed down to the next
generation of people itself is a noble cause. This is what makes us strong,
as such causes would not be taken up by selfish people who would only be
engaged in something for themselves only.
Just a few days ago I was talking with someone about my age being 19 in
- And here we are 2017 and we’re still fighting to unite our island.In
honouring George, I feel that it is our duty to carry on ,come what may ,as
our struggle is just and is the right thing to do and we will accept nothing
less than a united Cyprus.
On another note, I am also sure that his own family meant a lot to him. No
doubt he also meant a lot to them .His family are very lucky to have had a
man like George. You can all stand up tall and say “he was my husband, my
father, my grandfather”.
As far as I am concerned we may have lost George, but he still lives on. His
memories, his inspiration and his love and humanity is still in our hearts
and he lives in our minds and will never die.
Ferdi Sedat
