“We deserve to have Cyprus in its entirety – We owe it to those gone, and to those who have yet to come”

The Union of Cypriots in Britain (EKA) held on Thursday 16 July its annual event to remember the 47th Anniversary of the tragic events of the 15th and 20th July 1974.
The main speaker of the online event was the journalist Maria Papalazarou Frangou, daughter of Father Lazaros Neophytou, or Papalazaros as he was widely known. One of Papalazaros’ sons, Kyriacos, was shot in 1973 by EOKA B; another of his sons, Soteris, was killed during the 1974 invasion.
“I wish my talk today to be based on my personal experience. As someone in pain, expressing the feelings of thousands of suffering compatriots – alive as well as departed; people who lived, experienced pain, destruction, and died without seeing justice been done,” said Maria Papalazarou Frangou, who is also Secretary General of the Pancyprian Organisation of Relatives of Fallen Resistance Fighters.
She went on to say that “it’s easy to imagine how we arrived onto the July 15th events. Some present it as “disunity of the people”, a narrative that is promoted by the ruling party, thus refusing to condemn treason and to call things by their name.”
“On a day like this, we cannot listen to the apologists of this tragedy. On such a day we cannot listen to those who honour the coup participants with the alibi of acting under orders. On one hand they attend ceremonies and lay laurel wreaths for the resistance heroes, and on the other hand they go to the graves of the commandos who turned their weapons against the Republic and honour them as heroes, too. Government, Church, DISY, ELAM. That’s what they do every July 15th. They equate the victim with the perpetrator.”
Maria Papalazarou Frangou noted that “we absolved the traitor from any responsibilities with the offer of an olive branch. With the pardon that Makarios gave, upon his return from this self-exile in December 1974. I have ceased to give a pardon to Makarios himself, for some time now. Because the olive branch simply offered nothing but out of control immunity to the traitors. It offered nothing but an alibi to those who gave the order of death. And it gave nothing but refuge to those who defended the crime. I don’t equate Makarios with those who destroyed Cyprus. It is true, however, that his olive branch acted for them as the purifying pool of Siloam.”
“Every July comes to remind those who tend to forget, that this crime has occurred,” stressed the Secretary General of the Pancyprian Organisation of Relatives of Fallen Resistance Fighters.
“Most of us are reminded on a daily basis by the image of our beloved ones that is present at every moment of our lives – small and large. They remind us of what we’ve experienced and what we’ve been through. And we left with the grievance of the unjust sacrifice of our beloved ones, both departed as well as alive.”
“Not only because Cyprus remains divided, but because some have come to terms with the division. And instead of seeking a solution for reunification, some people are putting up obstacles, so that this solution is either delayed or tailor made to suit into their interests and their maximalist ambitions. Or they wish that no solution takes place because they still dream of ‘greater homelands’.”
According to Papalazarou Frangou, “the price of the 1974 coup and invasion is high. And only with the solution of the Cyprus problem and its reunification will we be able to live again in conditions of security and prosperity.”

“We have before us a Turkey and a T/C leadership that are intransigent. They are trying to turn the northern part of our country, into a province of Turkey. Together with the progressive T/Cs we must fight for the solution. Because they too suffer from the Turkish occupation. The basis for a solution is agreed and safeguarded through Security Council resolutions and the agreed convergences over time between the two communities of Cyprus, under the seal of the UN. The intransigence of Ankara and the T/C leadership should not be our alibi. We must insist and seek UN support to return to the negotiations. Large gaps in peace talks pose risks. That’s what history has proven. It is enough to recall the proclamation of the pseudo-state in 1983 and now the threatened settlement of Famagusta.”
“We deserve to have Cyprus in its entirety. From one end to the other. We owe it to those gone, to those who are here now and to those who have yet to come,” Papalazarou Frangou concluded.

Eleni Palazidou: “We have a responsibility to keep the true history alive.”

“In its more than 10,000 years journey through history Cyprus has survived many foreign invasions and catastrophes, but never before had it been attacked so treacherously from within, by its very own people,” said Eleni Palazidou, Chair of the Union of Cypriots in Britain (EKA). And she asked: “What is the way forward for Cyprus?”
“Some T/C friends said to me why do you promote “ΔΕΝ ΞΕΧΝΩ”, meaning I don’t forget? Shouldn’t we put the past where it should be, in the past? The answer is NO! We should not forget what they did to us and what we did to each other and we cannot forget that nearly half of our land is under Turkish occupation. Not for revenge but to ensure that justice is done and our land is reunited and we never again turn against each other.”
Palazidou went on to say that, “Turkey counts on the passage of time and on distortion of the purpose of past and current actions. It continues with its plan to Turkify Turkisize the occupied part of Cyprus with increasing number of settlers now significantly outnumbering the T/C, it continues with the destruction of the G/C cultural heritage and character of the area and has begun aggressively, with its gunboat policy, to impose what has always been its plan, a two state Cyprus.”
“And what do we do? We are waiting for the Deus ex machinae? At the same time, we distort history. Not only do we acquit the guilty perpetrators but we also turn them into heroes! We have a responsibility to keep the true history alive both Greek and Turkish Cypriots.”

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