The Mayor of Ayia Napa, Mr. Christos Zannettou, opened the exhibition dedicated to
history of the refugee stamp, known as the Refugee Stamp
The Mayor of Ayia Napa wished that the refugee stamp would soon be replaced by the peace stamp
In a particularly emotional atmosphere, the exhibition dedicated to the history of the refugee stamp, known as the Refugee Stamp, which was created based on the engraving work of ΄΄λληνος, was inaugurated on the evening of Friday, August 25, at the Center for Regional Studies, by the Mayor of Agia Napa, Mr. Christos Zannettos. engraved by A. Tassos with the title "Cyprus 1974".
As a symbol of the refugee and the uprooting from our ancestral homes, the Mayor Mr. Christos Zannettos characterized the Refugee Emblem, in his greeting which he characteristically mentioned "for forty-nine years a child in tears, curled up in front of the barbaric barbed wire of shame accompanies every our parcel that is transported through the Post Offices inside and outside Cyprus, while simultaneously sending to the whole world the message of the "Nightmare" that was seen and of the "Meadows" that passed on July 20, 1974, spilling blood on the sacred lands of our homeland".
The Municipality of Ayia Napa added "with initiatives and various actions, it plans and supports actions with the ultimate goal of promoting our national problem and individual goals to inform all our visitors and at the same time to keep the flame of return to our beloved metropolis of Famagusta unquenched and but also in every enslaved part of this long-suffering country."
Therefore, he continued, "we proceeded with joint actions with the Municipality of Famagusta starting with the signing of the memorandum of understanding for the creation of a temporary headquarters of the Art Gallery of the Municipality of Famagusta which we inaugurated on January 18, 2023 together with the Deputy Ministry of Culture and the Municipality of Famagusta in a specially designed space in the Thalassa Municipal Museum and we co-organized the 1st "Famagusta Remembrance Day" event as a minimal tribute to the memory of the sea-loving queen with the aim of establishing it as an annual institution until the long-awaited liberation of our occupied homeland".
He also expressed the wish that the stamp of the refugee will soon be replaced by the stamp of peace, reunification, peaceful coexistence of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots which will send to the whole world the message of unity, mutual respect, security, of the reunited Cyprus. "May the melancholic Cypriot of Anastasios Alevizos soon pass into history and may his tearful eyes become a historical memory and lesson for the coming generations of our island."
Finally, Mr. Zannettu congratulated the art historian Ms. Maria Pafiti for the idea and for the initiative to start an exhibition tour dedicated to the refugee stamp in order to make its history known to those who do not know it, as well as to further strengthen the preservation of the collective historical memory as well as all artists and institutions who donated their works to the Center for Regional Studies, but also all those who worked on the preparation and implementation of the report on the Refugee Emblem.
For her part, the curator of the exhibition and art historian Ms. Maria Pafiti, after thanking the Mayor for the fervor with which he embraced the exhibition as well as the competent officials of the Municipality for their valuable help in setting it up, presented the history of the exhibition and made an extensive reference to the works and the participating artists.
It is noted that the exhibition is the main part of the large exhibition hosted by the House of Representatives last Spring in Nicosia and entitled "Refugee Stamp: A stamp for the refugees of Cyprus, the history of a symbol", which was edited by art historian Maria Pafiti .
It also includes works by important Cypriot artists, past and present, created on the occasion of the Turkish invasion and the violent separation imposed on our land by the barbed wire fence. Works by the artists: Telemachus Kanthos, Giorgos Skoteinou, Lefteris Oikonomou, Andreas Ladommatou, Giorgos Gavriil, Lias Lapithi, Andreas Nikolaou, Panagiotis Pasanda, Elina Theodotou, Mario Theofilidis, as well as photographs by Giorgos Pantazis and Katias Christodoulou are presented.
The exhibition will remain open until Saturday, September 30, 2023.