Sunday 7 November, Tembria village

Today we are here fulfilling our duty and task. The duty that those who survived haven’t forgotten, but remember the historical truth, march forward despite the problems and are struggling to solve them.

Today we have been brought here by the duty to honor those who aren’t with us; the duty to struggle for those who have sacrificed their lives for the Homeland.

Christos Kyrous, son of Kyrou and Eleni, were cowardly murdered by the British Army Security Forces in 1957. He aspired and fought to break the shackles of British colonialism. He longed to breathe the air of freedom.

Andreas Avraamides, son of Michalis and Eleni. The bold child of the family, who carried bombs in a basket with his fellow comrade-in-arms in August 1958, when he left peacefully. With that serenity and smile that all those who give their lives for ideals and values that beautify the lives of everyone else, of the whole, of the whole country.

Andreas Christou, son of Christos and Maria. Another brave lad who rushed to defend Cyprus as soon as the Turkish invasion began. For years his parents searched for him in vain. With the bitterness of his grief inside them, they eventually passed away, not knowing what happened to their beloved child. Andreas’ remains were found after his parents passed away and today he now rests in the arms of his beloved mother in a common grave, crowned with tears as any Hero who sacrifices his life for freedom deserves.

Andreas Christoforou. When the treachery of the Greek junta and EOKA B coup opened the door for the invading Turkish army, Andreas rushed to enlist in the 251 Infantry Battalion as a reserve officer. He found himself where the Turkish army landed at Pente Mili in Kyreneia. The children of the people rushed to fight in a war betrayed by pseudo-patriots whose actions paved the way for the Turkish army to invade Cyprus, to spread fire and destruction, to murder and humiliate. These pseudo-patriots, who were engaging in big empty talk and sloganeering, when they had to fight were absent from the battle fronts. Most of them went to the rear seeking refuge in the Troodos mountains – instead of going to fight at the Pentadaktylos mountain range. They left for Limassol instead of heading for Kyrenia. Andreas, however – like the other brave lads from Tembria – went where duty called on them. It is there where Andreas perished, on the battlefield, a flower of the valor of our people, a fighter to the end for the freedom of our Homeland.

Marios Tryfonos. Soldier in his first year of his military service in the Support Company (LYT) of the 256 Infantry Battalion in occupied Diorios. From the battle of Lefka, to the primary school of Evrychou, where his parents saw him for the very last time, and from there on the road to defend Kyrenia. There Marios, along with his fellow comrades-in-arms, fell into an ambush of the Turkish invaders. Their fate has been unknown ever since. For years Marios’ parents searched to find him, to see him again, to embrace him again. His father passed away with regret, his mother still lives with this unspeakable bitterness and torment longing for their child.

How many years, how many bitter feelings, how many lives cut in half, flooded with the tear of anguish, of loss and mourning?

But also how much pride for those who marched forward, on the path of honor. Fighters for freedom and with the battle medals proudly on their chests, even if they did not wear gold-plated uniforms. With our people bowing their heads as they pass, these simple, humble, so ultimately great, tried to save their country and eventually paid the ultimate price of the betrayal committed by others.

These brave lads truly deserve so much honor.

Those who caused the tragedy that our country is suffering deserve so much damnation – known unknowns who hide their guilt deep in their conscience, if have any left that is.

The most tragic image of the Cypriot tragedy are the mothers of our missing persons.

How many mothers didn’t hold the black and white photographs of their loved ones tightly to their chests?

How many still hold them, as one by one they pass away without knowing what happened to their children?

We recall the images of what is most sacred in this country. The brave young lads who made a decision and took the path of honor. “To speak of heroes, heroes walk in the dark,” wrote Seferis the poet in his stirring “Last Station” poem.

In the dark! Without knowing how the battle will end. Without knowing how they will fight. With few resources. On the side of the weak in history.

In the dark. Where the iron burns in the battle. Without knowing, without suspecting the betrayal committed.

In the dark, to light the way to freedom with their sacrifice.

So what right do we have today to write off their sacrifice?

With what soul should we give up the struggle and surrender half of our country to the occupiers?

We have no such a right!

A thousand, thousand times here, to insist, to fight, for those who have gone, for those who will come. A thousand times faithful to the duty born of the sacrifice of our heroes to struggle for the liberation and reunification of our Homeland.

We are not naive to believe that the struggle for vindication is easy. The long course of the Cyprus problem has convinced us otherwise. From the moment Turkey stepped on the soil of our homeland, we all knew that the task of vindication would be difficult. And as time passes by without a solution, the situation becomes even more difficult.

More than forty-seven years since 1974, the danger of the permanent partition of our Cyprus has never been so visible. Turkey, exploiting the prolonged deadlock and the absence of any negotiations, is imposing more and more new partitionist fait accompli. Now Famagusta has taken its turn in the partitionist crescendo of the occupying power.

Faced with this situation, there is only one choice before us: To take concrete initiatives to push things towards breaking the deadlock and resuming negotiations from the point where they had remained at Crans Montana. The negotiating vacuum not only suits Turkey, but uses it to promote partition. We, who are not only not comfortable with partition, but also know that it poses enormous dangers for our country and people, do not have the right to remain indifferent. The barren passage of time is to the detriment of the prospect of a solution.

We cannot remain apathetic, fatalistic, engaging in empty talk and sloganeering, in hollow rhetoric while Turkey is promoting partition.

We must leave behind the illusions that time is on our side, that we can live in security as long as the occupation continues in our land; the illusion that there are other solutions other than the one we have agreed to with the international and Turkish Cypriot community, namely the solution of a bizonal, bicommunal federation with political equality as outlined in the United Nations Resolutions.

Because AKEL is a party with positions and proposals, we submitted a proposal to the President last December on the content of the specific initiatives the Greek Cypriot side must take. Our proposal gives content to the UN Secretary General’s position that natural gas must be turned into a catalyst for creating a dynamic for the solution. We do not believe that our proposal will automatically yield results, but we have to try. We call on the President to abandon his negative attitude and at least discuss it.

Compatriots.

“The thought of the refugee, the prisoner, the human being as if he too had become a commodity, try to change it, you cannot”, the poet recalls, reminding us that everything we have experienced is rooted in our minds, planted images and became like “the trees that throw their branches into the virgin forests and stick to the ground and grow again, throw their branches and grow again, stretching leagues and leagues”.

Our struggle for the liberation and reunification of our Homeland is rooted on the sacrifice of our heroes.

We shall continue this struggle until the vindication of our homeland spreads its leaves, which will vindicate the sacrifices of our brave lads.