In the presence of the Minister of Health, Avgorou honored yesterday and today the National Anniversary of April 1, 1955-'59.
This morning the THOI Avgorou, the families of the heroes and the Community Council organized a parade and a procession to the cemetery of the Community in which a trishagio and laying of wreaths was performed.
An event was held last night for the anniversary of April 1st. The event began with a trishagio and lighting a flame at the Monument of April 1, 1955-'59. Then a flame was transferred to the Avgoros Technical School by a group of GSE commandos and athletes. This was followed by a solemn celebration at the Avgoros Technical School by THOi Avgorou, the PADED-Protoporia teaching group, the Teachers 'Movement "Change", the Famagusta Fighters' Union EOKA 1955-'59, the "ESTIA Greece-Cyprus A".
The speaker of the event was the Minister of Health Konstantinos Ioannou.
Speech by the Minister of Health Mr. Konstantinos Ioannou at the event of the Community of Avgoros for the celebration of the national anniversary of April 1, 1955
"With feelings of emotion and pride today we celebrate its national anniversary 1th April 1955, which is one of the highlights of the modern and contemporary history of Cypriot Hellenism. The oppression and contempt of the conquerors through the centuries was expressed that dawn of 1th April 1955, when with the first explosions heard, marked the beginning of an unequal battle that wrote brilliant pages in the history of our country.
The armed struggle of 1955-59 was based on the support of the majority of the people, especially the youth. The British colonialists used all the means at their disposal, prisons, torture, hangings, exiles, with the sole aim of bending the mindset and militancy of our people. Nevertheless, the thirst for freedom was not quenched. Cypriots of all ages fought and sacrificed for the coveted freedom of our homeland, having as a beacon the struggle of the heroes of 1821, writing golden pages of glory in the history of our homeland.
With the motto "we are fighting for money, but for virtue", they wrote the epic of 1955-59. An epic, in which the Community of Avgoros paid a heavy blood tax. During the liberation struggle, the Community of Avgorou lost four children, Loukia Papageorgiou Laoutari, Panagiotis Zacharias and Andreas and Georgios Karyos.
On July 4, 1958, the local organization EOKA Avgorou, in the context of the implementation of the order for a general uprising of the civilian population, placed slogans in the center of the village. English soldiers came and took them down. The next day new slogans were posted and the women, following instructions from the organization, prepared to stone the soldiers. The clash turned into a real battle. The British soldiers barricaded themselves in their armored vehicles and opened fire on the unarmed crowd, killing Lucia and Panagiotis Zacharias and injuring 18 people.
Panagiotis Zacharia joined EOKA at the beginning of the Race and offered his services together with his children and his wife. In his orchard he hosted wanted people, while in his house he kept a crypt, where they kept a duplicator for printing brochures of the Organization, which were distributed in the surrounding villages.
The death of Panagiotis and Loukia shocked the entire Cypriot people, while at the same time igniting the militancy and the will for freedom.
Two months later, another young man from the community of Avgoros, a leading figure and leader in national issues, Andreas Karyos, gave his life for freedom. On 1η In April 1955 he took part in the operation of cutting the electric cables near the village of Avgorou, during which Modestos Pantelis was killed by an electric shock. He himself, who lifted Modestos Pantelis on his back, suffered serious burns.
On September 2, 1958, he was surrounded by three of his competitors in the Barn of Liopetri, which, with their heroic death, they made a monument of pan-Hellenic radiation.
After the heroic death of Andreas, his brother Georgios Karyos, being imprisoned in the Kokkinotrimithia Detention Center, was informed about the events of the Barn and with self-denial manages to escape and go to the village of Astromeritis. There, betrayed, he is thrown into battle with the English and is severely wounded. Karyos hid and when the English soldiers located him, he attacked them with the only revolver he was holding. In the ensuing conflict he was wounded and arrested on October 19, 1958, while nine days later he died at the Nicosia General Hospital. Fate reserved a hard game for the tragic mother of the two brothers, Florentzou, who within 40 days buried her two children. However, he did not bow down and in front of the surprised eyes of the English, he blasted them, addressing them with these words: "What you are doing to us will not be erased forever, unless the children do it, let the elbows pass."
We also honor the Probationary Monk Spyridon Pericles who lost his life in 1964, in the Holy Diocese of Panagia Galaktotrofousa in Kornos during the dark days of Turkantarsia.
Dear friends,
The presence of the Avgorites was also strong during the Turkish invasion of 1974. Panagiotis Pafitis, Panagiotis Vrakas, Nikiforos Karyos, Panagiotis K. Marinou, Kostakis A. Hatzigiannis, Nikos A. Kyriakou, Evagoras Tyrimou Georgios Pilatou and Kyriakos Kalathas fell in defense of our homeland in those dark days of the summer of 1974.
The wounds left by the Turkish Attila in our homeland still remain incurable, to remind us that the struggle for reunification must continue until the end.
Until answers are given to the last family of a missing person about the fate of her beloved. Even the fate of Sergis Poizis, Antonis Papageorgiou, Christodoulos Laoutaris and Antonis Christodoulou Psathas, who are included in the long list of missing persons, to be verified.
Friends,
Forty-three years later, the consequences of the Turkish invasion cause us untold pain and suffering. A more tragic aspect of Attila's barbarity, that of the missing. Hundreds of our compatriots are still ignored to this day, with the occupying power refusing to show due cooperation to determine their fate, as if the responsibilities it's can be amortized over time.
The occupying power must meet the just demand of our side, which is also the position of the European Court of Human Rights, to allow without restrictions the exhumations in the so-called military areas of the occupied territories, as well as the access of the researchers to the Turkish army archives. He also has to provide information on the movement of remains from the original burial sites to others, which remain unknown, which is recorded as a double and even greater crime.
As a State, we feel obliged to continue our insistence on the full determination of the fate of each of our missing persons. The chapter on missing persons is a purely humanitarian issue, which should be resolved regardless of any developments in the political aspect of the Cyprus issue.
The efforts of the President of the Republic to resume the dialogue for the settlement of the Cyprus problem continue unabated, despite the uncompromising and provocative attitude of Turkey. The determination and will of the Greek Cypriot side are unwavering and aim at resolving the Cyprus issue and restoring the human rights and freedoms of all citizens of our country, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, so that together we can live together in a modern and European state. natural wealth and our sovereign rights as defined in European and international conventions.
Dear friends,
The EOKA Struggle of 1955-1959, as a top event in our history, shows the faith and commitment of our people to moral values. The love for the homeland and freedom, selflessness, self-denial and self-sacrifice compose the ethos and virtue of its fighters.
The most important message we can get from the 1955-59 struggle is the need for unity. The solidarity and the united mobilization of all of us is an urgent necessity today in order to be able to achieve the goals of our struggle for the solution of our national problem that is common to all, regardless of party and ideological differences: To see our Cyprus reunited and free. without occupation troops, where the human rights of all legal residents are fully respected, within the large European family. "
Famagusta.News