I'm not sure if we all want to remember the details of August 15, 1974...
But the reminder is not up to us. Because, every August 15, the whole of Cyprus acquires the smell of the envelopes of St. Memnon, acquires a golden sandy beach and becomes Famagusta...
What follows are not memories. They are events, indelibly engraved in the hearts and minds of those who were unfortunate enough to experience them.
Events that changed the way we think and led each of us to our own «Tama of Life» ....
15η July 1974
The Greeks in name only are stabbing Cyprus with a thousand knives, slaughtering it and offering it on a plate with its blood, so that the enemies of Hellenism can enjoy it at their leisure and for as long as they decide that the feast will last.
And the gluttony goes on for 10 years...
Η 1η phase of the Invasion
On 20η July 1974 the Turks begin the «chicanery of the invasion».
A mockery of conscription in Famagusta, almost non-existent means, confused and ridiculous staffs of the Military Command, with an erratic Commander - Colonel Konstantinos Zarkadas - wandering around monologuing «whatever is to be done will be done, we don't need to be provocative...»!
An exception in the chaos was the anxious look of the Cypriot permanent and reserve officers and soldiers, who realized the betrayal and began to organize Battle Groups among themselves.
A sad exception among the Greek Officers was Lieutenant Colonel Andreas Mouzakis, who led the only attack of ours for the occupation of the polyvalue in the Turkish Lyceum.
There, outside the walls of Famagusta, Anchis Mouzakis was killed. At noon on the 20thof July 1974.
The Turkish stronghold was captured, the Turks were taken by surprise by the attack and, retreating inside the Walls, they spread panic throughout the entire -for years- Turkish- occupied old city of Famagusta.
The reservists asked for reinforcements, explaining to Commander Zarkada that «the gates are open, the panic among the Turks is widespread and - with a few more fighters - the operation to capture Famagusta within the Walls will be victorious».
The reservists also explained to the Commander that «if the old city is occupied and the Turks are now among us, the risk of bombing Famagusta is removed, without excluding the possibility that the invaders will no longer consider Famagusta as a priority target».
The reservists explained this to Colonel Zarkada, in order to get the most treacherous order ever heard from a Greek Officer:
«Immediate retreat, the occupation of old Famagusta is not your business...»!
Did the reservists dare to ask «Whose job is it to liberate Famagusta, if not the Famagusta defenders...», to get the same cold response:
«I order you to retreat immediately.».
With this order, the opportunity for the occupation of Famagusta within the Walls was finally lost...
Unable to act as they should have done, the reservists retreated to the Woods of the Courts and the surrounding buildings, where they began to receive - now defending themselves - the Turkish fire from the Walls. Soon the Turkish air force began to bomb the centre of Polis, Famagusta beach and our positions.
The Commander of the Famagusta Military Command, Colonel Zarkadas, had taken care to complete his part of the betrayal in time:
He betrayed Famagusta from the first hour, the first day, the first phase of the Invasion, executing with absolute precision the orders he had received and that only he knew...
Η 2η phase of the Invasion
The fact that the role of Colonel Zarkada and his people was over from day one was demonstrated as soon as the temporary ceasefire was announced, for the sake of the so-called «Geneva talks».
On the pretext that «they ought to visit the GEF», Commander Zarkadas and his staff disappeared for good, leaving all Departments and Famagusta without a Military Command...
For the city of Famagusta, the second phase of the invasion began in the early afternoon of 13 August 1974, with bombardment and two sections trying to defend it:
A detachment of 32 reservists in the Forest of the Courts and a second detachment in the Hospital of the City, headed by Captain Stelios Katssios.
The reservists in the woods without command. The most senior of the officers had to take command. It happened to be the reserve Lieutenant Panos Ioannidis.
Hostilities continued until noon on Thursday 15of August 1974. On the afternoon of that day:
- The bombing intensified,
- the Turks intensified their fire from the Walls,
- a portable radio reported that «Turkish tanks are heading towards Famagusta, moving without resistance, without infantry escort and at maximum speed on the Nicosia-Amohostos highway».
The city is deserted. The only sign of resistance was the shooting by the men at the Hospital and the reservists at Dasaki. Shots that began to thin out, for ammunition was now in short supply...
With looks more than words, I exchanged some quick thoughts with the next Reserve Lieutenant Giannakis Arrestis (now Brigadier General (retired)). We knew that orders had to be given...
Order One: «We remain on the defensive. Economy in ammunition».
Order Two: «Have lookouts go out to St. Luke's Lake and report the movements of the tanks - Use the gasoline from the warehouses of the Command House to make Molotov cocktails - If the tanks move into the city, they will be dealt with.».
Order Three: «An effort should be made to communicate with the General Staff and the Government to request reinforcements - Tanks on their own, without infantry, can only seek a line of confrontation, obviously along the road to the port - Famagusta town can be held».
They were the first substantial orders, after the treacherous ones of Colonel Zarkada. The discipline of the reserve officers and riflemen towards the 29-year-old Coal Commander was astonishing.
In the conditions of hell, all of them, on their own, raised their morale and did as they were ordered. We began to feel that «maybe not everything was lost»...
But the betrayal of Famagusta was not written to be overturned. The then Captain Stelios Katsios recounts these last hours:
«...Around 4:30 in the afternoon I set off (from the Hospital) in an attempt to regain contact with my Battalion... On the way I found the detachment of the reserve Lieutenant Panos Ioannidis, defending the area near the LUKIA clinic and the Turkish Cypriot Lyceum. I also met my colleague George Hadjikonstantinou, with whom I exchanged some views, which led me to the conclusion that my Battalion had moved.
With no way to communicate, I returned to the hospital, where the last great battle began. The planes were bombing constantly and the tank fire was torrential. And while everything looked like hell, an order came by messenger from the Battalion to concentrate my section in the Deryneia area, which was done.».
The Hospital Department was indeed reconstituted in Deryneia and kept the familiar to this day, extreme line towards Famagusta.
On the way to Deryneia, Captain Katsios passed by our own Department and informed us of his movements. We wished him «good luck» and we begged him to leave us all the ammunition he had left. He had nothing left...
August 15, 1974, at 6:20 in the afternoon:
The only Greeks that we knew were left in Famagusta were the 32 reservists in the Dastiraki of the Dikastiria.
Much later we were informed of another group of Reservists, who had also been abandoned, betrayed by their own leadership, in Famagusta Harbour. They were the reservists, who eventually had to throw themselves into the sea to save themselves by swimming.
In the meantime:
- The chariots had reached St. Luke's Lake and were constantly beating.
- The petrol we were looking for, for the manufacture of the -perhaps life-saving- Molotov bombs, had been taken away by Colonel Zarkadas.
- No hope of securing aid through the GEF or the Government. The General Staff did not answer the calls, and the President of the Republic and the Council of Ministers had left Nicosia.
- And, most critically, the ammunition of the reservists in Famagusta was exhausted.
The «silence of fire» from our side gave the final signal to the Turks....
The only option was: Either we get lost SINGLE or we retreat.
As we lay on the ground, I turned and looked at Coal Arrest, wanting to share my anguish with him. I knew, of course, that the responsibility for any decision belonged to the senior person in command...
I don't remember if we were in tears, but it doesn't matter. What matters are only the three words that Yannakis said to me: «Panos, the flag.».
Without waiting for an answer, he got up in hell and walked towards the flagpole with the flag of 1of Higher Ordnance Command, Famagusta Command Post. I stood up behind him.
Order Four: «Lowering the Flag».
Those who could hear - almost all of them - were found «at attention to salute the Blue and White». The Flag of Famagusta was lowered, folded and handed over to the senior Officer.
Everyone now knew the Order that would follow.
Order Thursday, the last one: «Gather the weapons - Immediate retreat - We are abandoning our positions, Famagusta is lost....»
The epilogue of 15 August 1974 was written in Derynia, where we received the relief of Captain Katsios who saw us alive, and in Frenaros, where we had a bad encounter with the unpunished traitor Colonel Zarkada, to listen to his sarcastic question:
«Baa, Lieutenant, you're all saved!»
I felt I wished I had one last bullet left...
Η 3η phase of the Invasion
It is the «long struggle» of unknown duration that slaughtered Cyprus must wage. Helpless and constantly betrayed.
Because, IF CAN NEVER
- through the ironic applause of the enemy, when naive Greeks dance before him,
- or through the philosophies and smiles of shallow Greek politicians, when foreign MPs and other barbarians acquire the stolen property of the Greeks of Cyprus at bargain prices,
- or through business activities with the conqueror who invaded, slaughtered, raped and uprooted our sacred and sacred places,
- or by banishing the strengthening of our defenses,
- or by inviting with our behaviour miserable «Solution Plans»,
- or by engineering - we ourselves - the economic impoverishment of the country,
- or, even by acknowledging with our actions the crime of Invasion and Occupation, neutralizing our European conquest and humiliating the dignity of the Republic of Cyprus,
- when, that is, the main pursuit of the so-called leaders of Hellenism is «how to please the Enemy in order to maintain power»,
- when, our only concern and condition is «how much we will take with nothing to give to our land»,
- when, we are ready to beg from the enemy «leave, to walk on our own soil and to visit our own homes», but also discuss «to allow the enemy to allow some of us to settle UNDER OCCUPATION in the incarcerated area of betrayed Famagusta, without caring about the fate of the other uprooted»,
- and when we have completely forgotten that «Not for money, but for Virtue, Honor and Dignity we owe the Struggle»,
so if, with these data, any so-called «WAR FOR FREEDOM» -however long it may be- CAN NEVER BE SUCCESSFUL, will have to be explained by every Greek of today, when asked by his children and grandchildren:
«WHY have you so easily forgotten what you have experienced and WHY do you not resist now that you can? If, after so many years of alleged «Struggle», you, European Greeks of Cyprus and Greece, would have ended up HERE, WHY did you not complete the betrayal in ‘74? Or, were all these years needed to engineer the ALTERATION for the Foreign Barbarians and the Local Ephialtes, so that the FINAL DELIVERY is now considered an act of national wisdom»?;
But one's grandchildren will have the right to ask one more question:
«WHY did you keep the flag, grandfather? Just for the sake of it... to weep on the 15th of every August? And isn't that hypocrisy?»
This grandfather wishes that he could at that time answer with dignity:
I resisted to the end...
Panos Ioannidis
Lawyer, Independent Politician
Refugee from Famagusta
Date: Each 15η August after 1974.
