Cyprus-Forum.com

[kimon07]

This new topic is dedicated to those who dare defame the EOKA fighters as murderous cowards who only shot English soldiers in the back, thus repeating and reviving the British propaganda of that time.

And to those who claim that EOKA was finished since 1957 because "it had lost the support of the people".

Part 1

Britain's Colonial Wars from 1945

CYPRUS
‘Ah, British Mother, had you a boy there?
No blame to him for the evil done
Or that a sorrowing Cypriot couple
Lost that day a beloved son
When at eighteen years, in the cause of freedom
Petrakis Yiallouris met his eclipse
Shot through the heart, by a conscript soldier,
“Cyprus, Cyprus!” upon his lips.’

From Cypriot Question
by Helen Fullerton

“The military conflict ended in stalemate, but this was really a victory for EOKA – because a few hundred guerrillas, with popular support, had remained undefeated while facing British troops who numbered over 40,000 at the height of the conflict. However, the bitter course of the struggle - coupled with the divide and rule tactics used by the British authorities – meant there was little chance of unity between Greeks and Turks.”

For more “heroic acts” of the British Army go here:

http://www.troopsoutmovement.com/oliversarmychap5.htm

Below are some of the “cowardly” operations and battles of EOKA Freedom Fighters.

Battle of Machairas

The Battle of Machairas was fought between March 2 and March 3, 1957, during the EOKA struggle against the British. It took place in the Troodos mountains near the monastery of Machairas.
On March 2, 1957, a force of approximately 60 British soldiers acted upon information that Grigoris Afxentiou, second in command in EOKA to Georgios Grivas-Digenis himself, was hiding in a cave in the area, entered the monastery and interrogated all the monks as to the guerrila's whereabouts. When they received no answers, they searched the surrounding area and came upon - possibly through an informer - a cave hidden by some bushes.
Sublieutenant Middleton, who headed the detachment, called upon Afxentiou to surrender. At this point, Afxentiou asked his four companions to leave the cave and give themselves up but refused to do so himself saying "...I must die". When the British saw that Afxentiou was not among their prisoners, they rushed into the cave only to be repelled by a burst of gunfire. One of them, a corporal, was killed. The British immediately requested reinforcements and continued to assault the cave with gun fire and tear gas. Seeing that this brought no result, they next told one of the companions, Avgoustis Efstathiou, to walk into the cave and convince his leader to give up. Instead, Efstathiou remained in the cave and fought alongside Afxentiou.
The battle lasted ten hours. Finally, at 02:00 AM of March 3, 1957, The British poured a large quantity of petrol into the cave and set it alight. Efstathiou managed to escape and was captured. Afxentiou was burned alive. He was 29 years old at the time of his death.

http://wiki.phantis.com/index.php/Battle_of_Machairas

Battle of Spilia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Battle of Spilia was fought on December 12, 1955 in the EOKA campaign against the British in Cyprus.[1]
Acting on information provided by an informant[2] 700 hundred soldiers of the British Army,[3] attempted to encircle the headquarters of EOKA General Georgios Grivas on the Troodos mountains near the village of Spilia.[4] As they ascended the mountain, EOKA guerrillas spotted them. Grivas divided his troops in two, keeping half with himself to fight the units coming from the north side while sending his second-in-command Grigoris Afxentiou to fight the rest of the British who were ascending on the south side. Both EOKA units retreated to the summit of the mountain after engaging the enemy and then proceeded, in heavy fog, to escape towards the west. Soon, the British units from the north and the ones from the south reached the summit and, unable to see clearly in the fog, and in the belief that they were surrounded by EOKA fighters, started shooting at each other[5] with some 50 casualties.[6]
(note from Kimon: The British admitted 15).

This was a renowned battle in the EOKA campaign to unite Cyprus with Greece (1955–1959). It was significant in that a British victory at Spilia would have ended the campaign in its very first year since General Grivas had concentrated his guerrilla fighters, nearly thirty of them, there.[7] Instead, the struggle went on and led, if not to union (Enosis), to the independence of Cyprus.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Spilia

The Battle at the Barn of Liopetri
On 2 September 1958 at the Barn at Liopetri EOKA fought one of its most epic battles. The humble barn was dubbed “A New Inn at Gravia”.
Read about it here:
http://www.liopetri.org/english/liopetri_barn.shtm

Kyriakos Matsis

Kyriakos Matsis was a Cypriot fighter during the EOKA struggle of 1955 - 1959.
…………
On January 9, 1956, Matsis was arrested by the British. As he was an important EOKA member, he was questioned, among others, by Cyprus Governor Sir John Harding himself. At one point Harding offered Matsis £500,000, a new identity and relocation if he would reveal the whereabouts of EOKA leader Georgios Grivas-Digenis. Matsis replied: "Ου περί χρημάτων τον αγώνα ποιούμεθα, αλλά περί αρετής" ("This struggle is for virtue not for money").
While imprisoned, Matsis organised his fellow prisoners and, through his leadership, kept their morale high. He managed to escape from Kokkinotrimithia Prison, with six fellow inmates, on September 13, 1956 and rejoined the struggle as area-leader of Kyrenia. The British placed a £5,000 price on his head.
Finally, on November 19, 1958, Matsis and two companions - Kostaris Christodoulou and Andreas Sofiopoulos - were surrounded at their hideaway in Kato Dikomo, Kyrenia province. Matsis ordered his comrades to surrender but refused to do so himself. When the British commanded him to come out, he answered: "I'll come out shooting!". At this, the British firebombed the hideaway. When the smoke cleared, they removed the dismembered body of Kyriakos Matsis. He was buried in the Imprisoned Tombs in Nicosia.

http://wiki.phantis.com/index.php/Kyriakos_Matsis

THE ACTIVITY OF EOKA From NOVEMBER 1957 To JUNE 1958.

An EOKA sabotage at Akrotiri Base- Huge damages- EOKA succeeds in infiltrating even the English Bases
“EOKA carried out a very serious act of sabotage in the Akrotiri Base on 26 November 1957. Members of the Organisation who were employed at the base managed to perform a very difficult task with the help of Panikos Soteriou, a fifth-form student of Limassol’s Lanitio Gymnasium.”
“Andreas Vassiliou, an Akrotiri Base employee and the protagonist of this most daring sabotage action, placed two time bombs against two airplanes on November 25. They were detonated the next day. Such a bold enterprise by a teenager demonstrated the spirit of persistence and self-sacrifice of EOKA members. This is his personal account of how the operation was carried out:”
……..
"The bombs, two of them, were placed inside the engines of two 'Canberra' bomber jets. At about 16.15h the fuel tanks of the planes blew up. In a matter of seconds the flames engulfed the tin-made hangar, which was 130 metres long 20 metres high and housed 4 'Canberra" jets and one 'enom.' The whole structure collapsed and was completely destroyed, together with all the planes and other material, consisting of plane motors and lathes. None of those who carried out this sabotage was ever arrested. This was the most destructive act of its kind in the history of the island and of England. The damage caused was estimated at 4.5 million pounds."

Dighenis raises the banner of passive resistance

“In the beginning of March 1958, Dighenis issued a proclamation to the Cyprus people by which the banner of passive resistance against the English was raised. The passive resistance by the people aimed at drawing the attention of international public opinion to the struggle it was waging and to demonstrate its firm determination to fight for freedom with all the means at its disposal.
………….
The economic boycott against the English caused the Cyprus Government damages amounting to around ten million pounds. The psychological and economic consequences were also felt in Britain, as newspaper articles of that time clearly showed.”

EOKA activity in March 1958

“On 4 March 1958, Dighenis ordered the section commands to resume action, initially confined to attacks on material targets. He even applied a novel pattern, whereby all the sections would not take action simultaneously but successively.
The new EOKA activity caused concern to the military in Cyprus and to the British Government in London. Governor Foot held a meeting with his political and military advisers on 21 March to consider how to deal with the situation.
Dighenis by a new order on 31 March left the initiative to the section commands, but stressing again that they should attack targets that would spare human casualties.”

http://ermis.lib.ucy.ac.cy/gsdl/cgi-bin ... 1a3d64f.10

[Get Real!]

Kimon,

Britain could’ve deployed another 20-30,000 soldiers to Cyprus and subdued the EOKA uprising if they really wanted to but instead they came up with the “independence for SBAs” plan in the form of the 1959 Zurich agreements, because they knew that this historic international event was coming up very soon…

http://untreaty.un.org/cod/avl/ha/dicc/dicc.html

Unfortunately, the Cypriot, Greek, and Turkish politicians were half asleep as per usual…

[GreekIslandGirl]

The real reason the Brits tried to separate us from our brothers:


"Britain sees Cyprus as an important strategic military base and fears union with Greece would lead to a military withdrawal."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/date ... 745505.stm

[supporttheunderdog]

There was little moral about British Foreign policy in the 1950's. it was (and largely remains) about self interest, but that goes for the Foreign policy of most countries.

Britain saw Cyprus as a strategic base: this was particularly so in the late 50's following Suez and Hungry, and with growing Arab nationalism and, above all the cold war.

With the middle east situation the UK still sees Cyprus as an important base: as I said inothing moral about it: it is realpolitik.

[GreekIslandGirl]

So, stud, do you now accept how and why Britain denied the majority of Cypriots their legal/moral right to have their desired enosis with Greece?

Can you see that what the Cypriots, understandably, wanted in the 50s was contrary to what Britain, the colonial subjugator, wanted - and so Makarios was deported and his followers silenced and telephone calls to Greece banned - all in order for her majesty to continue her empire?

[Get Real!]

So, stud, do you now accept how and why Britain denied the majority of Cypriots their legal/moral right to have their desired enosis with Greece?

Can you see that what the Cypriots, understandably, wanted in the 50s was contrary to what Britain, the colonial subjugator, wanted - and so Makarios was deported and his followers silenced and telephone calls to Greece banned - all in order for her majesty to continue her empire?

Anyone who wants enosis with Greece should be locked up and the key thrown away for their sake. Of course, euthanasia should also be an option.

[Paphitis]

The real reason the Brits tried to separate us from our brothers:


"Britain sees Cyprus as an important strategic military base and fears union with Greece would lead to a military withdrawal."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/date ... 745505.stm

One again, it is all too easy to write such nonsense bereft of common sense.

Greece is a NATO member and a British ally. It may have been an important strategic island in the 50s but it's status as such is diminished in today's reality but still important enough nonetheless.

Even if Britain was to grant ENOSIS then I am sure that Greece would sign over some bases to Britain. Afterall, Greece was only too happy to sign over half of Cyprus to Turkey when it made plans for Double Enosis!

[GreekIslandGirl]

So, stud, do you now accept how and why Britain denied the majority of Cypriots their legal/moral right to have their desired enosis with Greece?

Can you see that what the Cypriots, understandably, wanted in the 50s was contrary to what Britain, the colonial subjugator, wanted - and so Makarios was deported and his followers silenced and telephone calls to Greece banned - all in order for her majesty to continue her empire?

Anyone who wants enosis with Greece should be locked up and the key thrown away for their sake. Of course, euthanasia should also be an option.

Are you able to tell the difference between a discussion on the facts of the past and your, random, present day opinions?

[Paphitis]

So, stud, do you now accept how and why Britain denied the majority of Cypriots their legal/moral right to have their desired enosis with Greece?

Can you see that what the Cypriots, understandably, wanted in the 50s was contrary to what Britain, the colonial subjugator, wanted - and so Makarios was deported and his followers silenced and telephone calls to Greece banned - all in order for her majesty to continue her empire?

Anyone who wants enosis with Greece should be locked up and the key thrown away for their sake. Of course, euthanasia should also be an option.

Are you able to tell the difference between a discussion on the facts of the past and your, random, present day opinions?

Are you saying that you are discussing the facts?

[kimon07]

The real reason the Brits tried to separate us from our brothers:


"Britain sees Cyprus as an important strategic military base and fears union with Greece would lead to a military withdrawal."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/date ... 745505.stm

One again, it is all too easy to write such nonsense bereft of common sense.

........It may have been an important strategic island in the 50s but it's status as such is diminished in today's reality .......

What a genius. And I suppose that the strategic importance of Cyprus diminished now that the island may soon become the major provider of energy to the EU? And now that the Mid East is in general turmoil once again and Israel looks upon an axis with Cyprus and Greece as the best way to safeguard it's interests?