August, the month that dressed Cyprus a few times in black. Turkish invasion, plane crash and of course two murders, of Tassos Isaac and Solomos Solomos.
Two heroes, who left with their heads held high and with a vision of a free homeland.
It was like today, August 11, 1996, when motorcyclists who started from Berlin, aimed to reach the occupied Kyrenia. After the intervention of the then President of the Republic, Glafkos Clerides, it was decided to end the march, something that was opposed by almost all motorcyclists, who reached the Deryneia roadblock.
The story is more or less known of a dead man, Tassos Isaac, who was savagely beaten by the gray wolves waiting to kill anyone in their path.
Andreas Kakouris, from Paralimni and a friend of Tassos Isaac, a man who was severely beaten but managed to escape from the hands of blood gray wolves, remembers and tells REPORTER what happened that frustrating day.
About two hundred people broke the roadblock
Although he was not among the motorcyclists but heard what was happening at the Deryneia roadblock, he decided to go and see up close everything that was happening. "I went and watched from a distance what was happening with the binoculars. After a while we proceeded to the roadblock. "Then some people broke the roadblock and we went inside."
According to him, about 200 people entered, and proceeded to the "Koutoroupi" factory. "In front of us was the United Nations and opposite us the Turks. I remember that Tassos and another person came in with me. At some point, the United Nations rallied and started going to the roadblock we broke. "
Then she remembers, the Turks started coming towards them and she moved every time and a little further to the left. "It simply came to our notice then. Finally the third time I saw them approaching, I looked around and realized that there were five to six of us left. "We had to run to get out of where we entered, because the barbed wire behind us was about two meters high."
He made a desperate attempt, as he describes in a trembling voice, to run himself, but the Turks surrounded them. "At that moment I saw two people trying to get under the barbed wire to escape, while another was hit by the Turks. When Tasos saw that they were hitting one, he returned to save him. "Then I did not see what happened."
"I ate a stone on the head and fell"
He knew, as he says, that Tassos was also attacked, but he saw those two who were trying to get under the barbed wire and did not succeed. "Then I ate a stone on the head and fell. A Turk comes and grabs me by the throat and another hit me with a pipe three times on the head. Fortunately, by chance I did not lose consciousness and I felt blows from above me. They did not strike to strike. "They were beating to kill."
"I raised my voice and got up"
At one point he uttered as he remembers a voice of despair and got up. Then, "they did it back and then they came one by one. With sticks, with pipes, my hands swelled from the blows, but fortunately I did not eat any more on my head.
I also remember at one point someone came with the stick and I waited for him to hit me. At the time he turned it to hit me, I put my hand and broke the wood, but fortunately he did not think of nailing me, otherwise I would not be alive today ".
At some point, the Turks left as he remembers and left him, as a result of which he ran to the barbed wire where the Greek Cypriots behind him pressed him and managed to get out.
He learned it at night…
After he left the battlefield, some wounds were inflicted on him and then he was put in an ambulance and taken to the hospital. "Tassos was next to me, but I did not know it. At one point a nurse said that someone had died, but the doctor realized that we were with Tasso and replied that the dead man was from a car accident. Then I went upstairs and waited for surgery and around nine in the evening, my sisters told me that Tasos was dead.
"My life has changed…"
Andreas's life after that day changed drastically, he admits with his eyes muddy from what he experienced then. "After that incident, my life changed very psychologically. He was both my friend and my acquaintance. After the incident we were often with his father and occasionally with his sister. I can not go to his house. "
Tassos was a Levantine! His heart was saying it!
Asking him about Tassos Isaac as a person, he has only the best to say. "Tassos was a Levantine. He also gave his soul for his friend. And lad. Unfortunately he was killed, fortunately he did not understand anything. If you see the photos when Tassos falls, he faints and then they beat him non-stop. He was a man who was not afraid. "
Footage from that frothy day:
Source: REPORTER
