Panikos Dimitriou: 48 years since the sacrifice of a boy from Agios Memnon Famagusta

48 years are completed these days since the sacrifice of Panikos Dimitrios in 1975, as described by the Konotarch of the occupied community of Agios Memnon Famagusta. He writes in his post:

Panikos Dimitriou was born on February 10, 1957 in Agios Memnon, Famagusta. He was one of the five children of George and Constantia Dimitriou. After their displacement in 1974, they settled in Limassol and Panikos attended Laniteo High School.

On January 17, 1975, the 18-year-old Panikos together with a crowd of students gathered in front of the entrance to the British bases at Akrotiri.

Their purpose was to protest because the British transferred Turkish Cypriots from the free areas to the occupied ones, thus contributing to the change of the demographic structure and the division of the homeland.

The reaction of the young people was very dynamic. They used slogans, pelted stones and damaged what belonged to the English. The British soldiers initially responded with tear gas, but when they realized that they could not curb the militancy of our unarmed students, they brought out their armored vehicles against them, but even so they could not push back the youth. One of the armored vehicles, carrying out aggressive maneuvers, hit Panikos and then overwhelmed him.

The lad from the enslaved Saint Memnon lost his life, but won eternity, in the pantheon of heroes of freedom.