Twenty-three years later, the motorcyclists of the Isaac and Solomou Memorial Initiative group, marched to the Deryneia roadblock where the heroes Tassos Isaac and Solomos Solomou breathed their last.
With the slogan "memory gives hope" the motorcyclists started from all over Cyprus with a final destination at the Deryneia roadblock, where the tragic events took place in August 1996.
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Move the "little swallow"
Along with them are the heroes' parents and Isaac's daughter, Anastasia, who spoke for the first time.
"I was afraid of what I would say," he said. "I did not want to offend anyone. Then I remembered the promises of justice and respect for the sacrifice of Tasos and Solomos. Why should I respect a society that does not respect its historical continuity? ” She wondered, while continuing she said that for so many years she hid in her anger but in the end she was drowned in frustration.
"We are closed to our ego," he said. "We digest crimes, we are characterized by inaction, we accept and are indifferent to the crime against our country. "The killers are baptized deputies and ministers," he added.
Erhan Arikli, he continued, “boasts about his seat in the pseudo-parliament. "Kenan Akin, the killer of Solomos, lives undisturbed in the occupied territories and we are opening the roadblocks of shame and asking the UN to protect us."
Anastasia Isaac continued by saying that for 23 years the international warrant of Interpol for their arrest remains in the drawers and she wondered for how many more years we will wait for justice, how a murder was forgotten so simply, how a man who fell for her freedom was forgotten of his homeland.
Andreas Pettermeridis: "How provocative can a monument be for Tassos and Solomos, when there is a tourist checkpoint below?"
For his part, the representative of the Memorial Initiative group, Andreas Pettermeridis, said that the event, which has been taking place for so many years, is their struggle against oblivion.
"All together a fist to claim our freedom," he said, adding that we are still refugees in a homeland under occupation.
Mr. Pettemeridis also referred to the recent reactions to the monument that his team placed on the site, in memory of the two heroes.
"Unfortunately tonight, he said, we say goodbye to the monument as well, as he said, the state decided, through the Attorney General, to move it."
He referred to the description as "provocative" for the monument to ask "how provocative can a monument be for Tassos and Solomos, when there is a tourist checkpoint below?".
Concluding, he said that they themselves will never stop and the team will fight every year and more intensely.
The event included songs, while the motorcycle of Tassos Isaac was driven to the area with members of the group holding lighted torches.
The presence of the police was also intense.
About 200 members of the group were to spend the night in tents set up to commemorate the days of the invasion.
This morning a memorial service is held in the memory of the heroes from the Holy Temple of Agios Dimitrios and a trishagio follows in their graves.
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