The Cyprus parliament honored Thursday the International Day against Fascism, the International Day of Remembrance of Victims of the two World Wars and the anniversary of the death of the Turkish Cypriot pacifist leader Ihsan Ali.
After holding a minute’s silence during the Plenary Session, the President of the House of Representatives Yiannakis Omirou said that the International Day against Fascism is honored every year on 9 November in memory of the nightmarish “Kristallnacht”, that was the first mass pogrom against the Jews, on November 9 1938. This fact, said Omirou, marked the beginning of one of the greatest atrocities in the history of the mankind, the Holocaust.
Referring to the International Day of Remembrance of Victims of the two World Wars, Omirou said that over 80 million people, among them Cypriot volunteers, fought with the Allied forces and were sacrificed during the ten years of the 20th century that the two wars lasted.
He added that in the current conditions of economic crisis there is a bigger risk for the revival of Nazism. He added that Nazism is no longer a ghost but a real threat to society and democracy.
“Considering the thousands of dead of both wars we pay tribute and we commit ourselves, the state and society at large, that we will never allow racism and nationalism to lead humanity into destruction”, he said.
The House President also referred to the 35th anniversary since the death of the Cypriot politician and fighter of peaceful coexistence between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, Ihsan Ali.
Omirou said that Ihsan Ali spent his whole life for the defense of the Republic against foreign intervention and with his initiatives and action served peace, coexistence and the vision of a common homeland for all its legal residents.
