The 19th Son

regarding this incident. He cross examined both of them but allowed their testimonies to stand. These testimonies do not leave any room for the Court to wonder if Chelepina’s death might have been accidental. In his address to the Court, Kleanthis’s lawyer said: “No bad intention when going to Filani. Circumstances may justify a finding that accused’s mind was affected. Infer insanity from circumstances of offence”. C. With regard to the first part of this statement, we know that he did try to remove the premeditation and failed. My father quotes his father’s lawyer as telling the family: “We didn’t manage to remove the premeditation from the case. The witnesses’ testimonies convinced the Court, that he went to Filani to commit a crime”. I can see the difficulty. Kleanthis set off for Filani, on the same morning and very soon after the incident at Pera. I don’t believe that it was a coincidence and clearly, neither did the Court. The Presiding Judge wrote: “The evidence shows that the accused must have decided to take his revenge upon Therapi by killing his only daughter. Before going to Pera in the morning he had heard Therapi tell his daughter Apostolou to go to Filani to make cheese. Accused appears to have gone straight to Filani and arrived at the mandra there carrying an axe”. D. The second part of that statement is, in my view, the critical issue. In saying “infer insanity” the lawyer correctly identified the key issue which, if argued successfully, would have reduced the charge, from premeditated murder, to manslaughter by way of diminished responsibility. Kleanthis would still have gone to prison for a long time, but he would have avoided the death penalty. The lawyer was right to offer it in Kleanthis’s defence. Unfortunately, he did not accompany it with expert testimony or indeed any evidence to support his claim. He only made a half-hearted attempt to argue that a man like Kleanthis, who was the community president for many years, could not have committed such violent acts if he was of sound mind at the time. The Presiding Judge also considered this to be the critical issue. So much so, that he asked questions himself. • Savvas Nicola (Pias, the shepherd) replied: “I have known accused for thirty years; he always appeared to me to be quite normal”. • Costas Pitsillides (the schoolmaster) said: “I often came in contact with the Mukhtar during the seven years I was at Kambia, and I never saw the smallest suggestion that accused was not normal”. Page 301 of 371

I think this line of questioning misses the point. There was no question that Kleanthis was sane before this incident, he clearly was. He was troubled and very angry at the way Therapis had treated him, but there is still a big leap between that and attacking a young woman with an axe. Even if he set off for Filani with that intention, in practice it takes a moment of madness to make that transition. Especially given the fact that he had travelled 5 kilometres to get there and had a 15-minute conversation with her, before he attacked her. Therefore, Kleanthis must have been telling the truth, when he said that Apostolou told him that she wanted his fields for herself. At that moment, all that he suffered and all the injustice done to him, came flooding back and he was no longer in control of his actions. That was the moment his temporary insanity began. Kleanthis himself described it as: “I was seized by a special (extraordinary) excitement and I struck her and after I struck her, I was dragged away by excitement and I ran after her and I produced the clasp knife”. His state of temporary insanity continued when he struck Chelepina and went on to attack Apostolou again, this time with his knife, with the intention of slaughtering her. These are not the actions of a man with a “sound mind”. However, the Court did not accept this argument. The Presiding Judge wrote: “No evidence was called to establish that the accused was not of sound mind, presumably because the value of such evidence would have been nil. There is not a single fact on the Record that would justify the Court in supposing that the accused is not of normal mind.” I am certain, that my narrative does not provide the members of my extended family with any comfort, but I hope that at least it satisfies your curiosity. I accept that I have made some assumptions and that at times, I stated my own opinion, particularly in my conclusion. Please remember that I am not a lawyer or a judge. If you would like to read the Court papers, in order to reach your own conclusions, I would be happy to forward them to you. You only have to ask. I suspect that most of us have been in a situation, in our own lives, in which we are convinced that we have been betrayed, or treated so unfairly, that we want to react violently, I know I have. Perhaps the lesson to be learned, is that it never pays to take the law into our own hands or to seek revenge. Page 302 of 371

Another aspect to the story I have heard the story from my father on several occasions. Over the years, he obviously considered what happened many times in his mind. He told me that, as much as he idolised his father, his conclusion was that his father’s action was an act of self-indulgence, at the expense of his family. In pursuing his quest for revenge or justice, as he saw it, he ignored the fact that he was leaving behind a large family, with young children, who may or may not survive the loss of their father and guardian. He should have known that, even if he did not receive the death penalty, he would still be in prison for a long time and the family would have to survive without him. Anecdote by Telemahos The following is an anecdote from Telemahos’s memoir, about the wife of the lender: “She climbed on a fig tree to collect the figs and not wanting to leave any for the passers- by, she moved on to the outer branches which didn’t bear the weight and broke, and she found herself lying on the ground heavily injured… She was at death’s door for weeks but death, that would have given her comfort from the heavy pains, wasn’t coming. It seems that she was burdened with remorse for the responsibility she had for the events and the misfortune that came into our family. That’s why she sent a message to my sister Helen who was the only one living in the village during that period and she begged her to go and give her forgiveness because she felt she was being punished by God. “I forgive you”, my sister said when she went to see her, “but you have to ask God, he is the one you should beg for forgiveness”. Quite by chance of course she passed away in two days, but in the village, where prejudice reigned, they believed that forgiveness helped her perish…” Page 303 of 371

Irene Kleanthi Hajikyriacou Sidera My Father Life with my father Irene Sidera 3/8/2008 Unfortunately, an act of inhumanity, caused us to lose our father, to become orphans from a young age and to live an unhappy life. A life full of rose petals, turned into a life full of stones. Page 304 of 371

My paternal name is Irene Kleanthous Hajikyriacou. I was born in the village of Kambia, the lower village, because our village suffered a landslide and some of the houses were falling down. It was during the time of British rule. At my father’s suggestion, who was the community president at the time and with the help of the British, we helped people to go up to the upper village which was called ‘Kokkini’ (Red). There were enough fields to enable everyone to move up. Everything was nice, we had clean air and the people were relieved. But my memories are of the old house, at the lower village, because that is where I lived the best years of my life. Our house was a peasant house, but it sparkled with cleanliness, with hospitality and love, for beggars up to the most senior police officers. Our house was high and it had a large veranda outside with 2 staircases. One side had steps and the other didn’t, but it had a large gate, for the animals. Inside, it had a courtyard, which was not very big, because we shared it with Aunt Olympia, who was my father’s sister. A very low wall separated us, which did not prevent us from entering each other’s house. At my aunt’s they had a room which was nice and tidy, which they called ‘siambra’ (Greek: σιαμπρα, which means: the good room) of Archbishop Kyprianos, who was one of our ancestors and who was hung by the Turks in 1821. Our aunt would not allow us to enter his room to play. She considered it holy. He deserved it. The remainder of the inside of our house had 2 rooms opposite, one on the ground floor and one on the first floor, of which one was for policemen and the other for their horses. There was also a ‘stiadi’ (Greek: στιαδι, which means a structure consisting of a roof held in place by four posts, to provide shade and protection from the rain) on the left side. The stable was on one side and the ‘shieronari’ (Greek: σιεροναρι, which means a storeroom for animal feed, mostly hay) on the other. It was the food for the animals. Our house was a peasant house, but it had everything it needed. When entering our house, on the right, was the stiadi, in other words, a covered veranda which my mother used for cooking and for washing our clothes. From there, the door opened into ‘dihori’ (Greek: διχωρη, which means a large room roughly twice the size of a normal room). It was a large room where we all slept, parents and children alike. Page 305 of 371

There, we were all fine, when one day our father was taken ill and he went to Nicosia, to the clinic of Doctor Koureas. He spent a few days there and was charged £30. My father did not have so much money that day and he told my mother to go to his koumbaros and friend Therapis, to ask him for the £30 and when he returned to the village, he would pay him back immediately. Therapis, gave the money to my mother, but he also gave her a piece of paper for him to sign and my father signed it. When he returned to the village, he paid back the money straight away. My father asked for the piece of paper to be returned to him, even though he did not consider it anything important. But Therapis told him: “I don’t know where it is now, but when I find it, I will give it back to you, don’t worry”. My father, because he was honest and good, thought that everyone was like him. He was placated and never asked for it back again. After some years, I can’t remember how many, my father received a paper alleging that he owed Therapis a large amount of money and that he put down a piece of paper at the kafenio to sell all of my father’s best fields and trees and my father could not understand why, because he didn’t owe anyone any money. My father went to Therapis asked him: “Why have you done this thing? Didn’t I give you the £30 straight away? Why are you doing this to me?” And he continued: “What happened to me, is that I received a writ to confiscate my best fields, trees and vineyards”. Then he replied: “It’s a mistake, I sent a bunch of papers to my lawyer and it seems that he received yours by mistake but don’t let anyone bid for them because tomorrow we will go to Nicosia where we will return all your property” The next day they went to Nicosia, but when they reached the lawyer’s office, Therapis came out and told him that whoever has something and lets it go is mad. And then, when my father came back home, he was like death warmed up. He was shouting and crying and saying: “There are no real men left, nor friends or relatives”. And shouted: “I will either kill him or myself, because my excessive goodness and trust brought me to this situation”. That night he didn’t sleep at all, he was crying like a baby and in the morning before dawn he left without saying anything to anyone except for our mother, to whom he said “look after our children” That’s when our relatives heard about it and ran off to find him. They found him two days later, in the forest. “It’s my fault” he kept saying, “I wronged my children”. Page 306 of 371

After a lot of advice from our relatives, he was a little reassured and he was trying with what little he had left to provide for us as best he could. My father was a proud man and he loved his family. He wanted us to have everything we needed. My father went to work like a slave. He cultivated the few remaining fields and he also did other jobs. He made straw baskets and sold them at festivals. My father was the community president for thirty years, he helped whoever needed him, not only in our village but also in the neighbouring villages. A few years later, I don’t remember how many, the government came to the village, bought the forests, and replaced the pines with almond trees. My father owned a piece of land which was part of the forest. He went to sell it to the government and they reached a deal. They gave him £5 deposit until they were able to transfer the Title. Unfortunately, the land was charged to Therapis. My father did not know this, it looked like fraud and they sent a message to him to go and sort it out. So, my father went back to Therapis and told him: “Were you not replete by everything you took from me, you charged the forest as well?” Once again, he gave the excuse that it was his lawyer’s mistake and tomorrow they would go and sort it out. This time it was at the village of Bera, a little further on from our village, at the offices of the company. Once again, my father went to Therapis’s house early in the morning and they set off to walk following the river which was a shortcut and they got to the village of Bera. There, they found a policeman, our village’s teacher and our village’s president. When they got there, Therapis turned to my father and said “you know Kleanthi, I thought that I will sign for the forest, but you must give me your vineyard in exchange”. It was a piece of land with vines and almond trees, at the end of Kokkini (upper village). It was the only one we had left to provide us with some fruit, because my father had prohibited us from picking anything from someone else’s vineyard or tree “whatever is left, is enough” he would tell us. At that moment my father went wild and told him “I will not give you my vineyard even if I end up in prison” and he attempted to strike him, but he was held back. Then, Therapis left. One of the three gave the £5 on my father’s behalf and said to my father: “Kleanthi, don’t worry, you lost so much, you are worried about the forest?” “No, I was embarrassed, because it looked as though I was trying to cheat the government”. Then they put my father in the middle and whilst walking back to the village, they were saying to him “patience, God is great”. They brought him home, talked to him for a long time, they gave him courage, but he did not stop being angry. It was the second time that he made a fool of him so badly. There was no one at home, who could have prevented him. In his anger he remembered that in the morning, when he went to Therapis’s house, he heard his daughter and an old lady agree to go to where they kept their flock of sheep to make halloumia (Cypriot cheese). Page 307 of 371

And then the worst thing came to his mind. To kill Therapis’s daughter, so that there is no one to inherit everything Therapis took from him unfairly. He headed off in the direction of where he thought he could be satisfied, he later regretted it, but it was too late. God did not want it. Therapis’s daughter was not at fault. When she saw him, she spoke to him a little badly and my father ran after her to strike her. Then the old lady grabbed him from behind, held him in her arms to prevent him from continuing, but my father in his efforts to escape from her, struck her with the knife and she fell down dead. My father thought that it was his push that caused her to fall to the ground and he continued running after Therapis’s daughter. He managed to catch her, but luckily, before he could do her any harm a shepherd came along and separated them. Then, my father came to us in the fields where we were. My mother was harvesting with the workers and I was sitting under a tree looking after the children. When my mother saw him, she ran to him and said, “What have you done Kleanthi and you are in such condition?” “Fortunately, I didn’t carry out what I was planning, but unfortunately, I hit the old lady and she is dead”. Then he embraced us and said, “Forgive me wife, I leave you with a great burden”. He kissed us and said, “for you, I am going to surrender myself” and he left in tears. From then on the great torment began. My father in prison and my older brothers running around to find a lawyer who wanted a lot of money. They were forced to sell everything we had left, to pay the lawyer, who unfortunately achieved nothing. They appealed, the lawyer collected signatures that he was a quiet and honest man. From our village and the surrounding villages, they collected thousands of signatures. Because my father was one of very few people. He was moral, good and dignified. The people loved him and respected him. My father was not a murderer, No He was forced by circumstances and what happened was by mistake. It was at the time of British rule. They were very strict. The law of hanging existed. My mother dressed us all in black, we went to the authorities crying, they sent photographs to the Queen of England and we were asking for a pardon for my father. We were twelve children. We achieved nothing and he was held in prison for seven months. I will never forget this period. I was the eldest of the younger children and my mother took me everywhere with her. We walked and cried and begged God and the saints to feel sorry for our father and for us. Unfortunately, we did not achieve anything. They tried him again and they sentenced him to death by hanging and that was the worse time for us. We went to visit in tears and pain. My father would only say “forgive me my children, I wronged you through my goodness and my carelessness”. My eldest brother Kyriakos was holding the iron bars and shouting “come out, so that I can replace you father” “no, my son, I am the one who should be punished because I didn’t pay any attention with what kind of Page 308 of 371

people I was dealing. The only thing I want from you is to watch out for people. Man is the greatest wild beast in the world”. The time of the hanging arrived. No, our father was not a murderer It was a Monday and he was being executed on Tuesday. We all went to see him for the last time and he told us: “Tomorrow, is the dawn of the wretched Tuesday, Perhaps, I will receive a pardon from the great governor” (rhyming) Then he embraced us, all of us one after the other, he kissed us with tears in his eyes, he sang a different song to each of us and asked us to forgive him. For me, this day will remain unforgettable. I was fourteen years old and now I am eighty-six. I remember everything and I say that if our father had lived, we would not have been through so much. When we all left and he was taken back to his cell, there was a guard who liked him and looked after him, because he realised what kind of a man he was. When he was back in his cell, he knelt, he cried and said: “I didn’t want to harm anyone, it circumstances which forced me. May God forgive everyone”. He began calling out our names, each child a separate song with crying and sighing. When he finished he lied down and passed out. The guard who saw him, realising what happened, did not call a doctor or anyone else. Only when he was certain that he had died, did he call someone. Later on, this man explained to my brothers: “I did it on purpose, I let him die so that he wouldn’t have to face the gallows. This man did not deserve to face such a thing”. It was Tuesday and our New Year’s Day, when they brought him and we thought that he was about to speak to us. We buried him and mourned him and then our Golgotha (Calvary) began. We suffered, from the youngest to the eldest. I will not write anything about us, we suffered a great deal, young and all by all accounts. I was born like a jasmine with its flowers And I was proud to be the daughter of Kleanthis But a black cloud came along and turned us all into ash (Rhyming) Page 309 of 371

The Killing An Excerpt from the memoir of Telemahos Cleanthous The following is an excerpt from the English version of Telemahos’s memoir, (my father’s younger brother), describing the events surrounding the killing, without any changes whatsoever (the spelling of his name is not a mistake, he always spelled it with a C). ------------------THE DROUGHT--------- (the cause of misfortune) Father was an honest man, peaceable, hard-working, a model family man, good manager and most of all hospitable sometimes at the expense of the family. The position he was holding as a mouhtaris (chairman) contributed to this. Government employees, inspectors, police officers, who came to the village for government affairs, and also passers-by who happened to spend the night in the village on their way to the city or on their way back carrying their agricultural products from the upper mountain villages on donkeys, all these people were put up by my father in our house to share a plate of food from the resources that were barely enough for our big family. That’s why the inhabitants of the surrounding villages and also of the mountain villages far away who knew my father respected him and had a high opinion of him. The response to my mother’s protests that this happened at the expense of the family, was that “God will give us back twice as much”, a hope that never came true since not only didn’t God give us back twice as much, but on the contrary our income had completely vanished due to the big drought of 1931-32 that stroke the whole peasantry and far more our family. God, that according to what religious says is the creator of all things and He is omnipresent to help those whom He created, was not present for two whole years as long as the drought lasted to give His much coveted help…In the countryside villages, as well as in our village, the financial situation of each household defined its social position; the few people that owned enough landed estates comprised the rich rural class. Their agricultural production exceeded the needs of the family and the excess was disposed in the market creating a capital that helped them enlarge their fortune at the expense of the poorer ones who, in order to cover needs such as diseases, dowry-giving, higher education etc., they sold part of their landed estate. The second and middle class composed of those whose production covered the needs of the family and they were the majority. But there was one more group that, due to the fact that they owned few landed estates, their production was inadequate and they had to work for others in order to survive. This group comprised the third and the poorest class of the rural society. The richer ones of this Page 310 of 371

group engaged workers in their own production with quite low wages, or in exchange for agricultural products, who worked for unlimited hours (from sun birth to sun dive) from sunrise till sunset, and because this work took place mainly in the summer they had to work for about 12 hours and more for one day’s wages, (until the union were founded and put the employment system in order). There was one more very small group that had no place in the sun, as the people say, except for the place of residence. Our household belonged to the middle rural class, but due to the fact that our family had many members, they occupied themselves in two more professions. One of those was the making of hampers and baskets used for collecting and carrying agricultural products. For their manufacture they worked down at the river, as they needed plenty of water to make the material bloated to be able to work on it.. The plays of manufacture were at a distance of about one and a half kilometre from the village and the route went through a narrow path passing through an uninhabited area. My mother sent me there every now and then, when I was in a preschool age, to get my brothers who worked down there, lunch. I followed the route with my heart beating fast from fear of serpents coming out at any moment to attack me. The situation was becoming even worse when a crawling noise sounded coming from the weeds near the path. As far as the return was concerned, I preferred to wait until the evening, because I felt secure with the grownups, with the excuse that I wanted to stay to help without of course convincing anyone … The other profession was wood transport from the forest to the city where it was sold for heating purposes. The transport was made by a donkey a pretty hard work that took unlimited hours. When two of my brothers together with Short-tail (“Kountouris”-this was the name of the donkey we had, because his tail was cut) took the road to the forest, the day hadn’t dawned yet. Up there on the high mountain peaks and the gorges they went up and down all day picking up one by one the dry sticks because if the forest guard found any green twigs during the check, they would be seized the load and a fine would be imposed or even imprisonment (under the forest protection law). Only once I remember going with one of my brothers to help out. Sometimes when the dusk fell before they returned and restlessness was prevalent in our home, the message of the return was sent by Short-tail when he first saw the lights of the village from far away (perhaps out of pleasure because his torments also would come to an end). Village life was a daily routine without means of entertainment except for the very few cases that a travelling showman who performed conjuring tricks or exhibition of strength or Karagiozis (Greek shadow puppet theatre) came to the village to give one or two performances at the village coffee-house. Almost all the members of the community watched these performances and the payment was made voluntarily by giving half or one piastre to the performer when, in the middle of the show, he came along with a plate in his hand to collect whatever they gave him. I remember in a Karagiozis show he took me on Page 311 of 371

stage to help him. When he was leaving he asked to take me with him to the neighbouring villages but his proposal was turned down. The village association put on a play every so often in which the female characters were played by men dressed up as women (it was unmoral for a girl in the village to go on the stage as an actress). But the greatest pleasure of all was when a wedding took place in the village. In these few occasions, all the friends and relatives, all the people living in the village even those in the neighbouring villages were given the chance to launch into the revelry, the feasting and the dances that lasted for four days. And to prolong those few chances, there was one more celebration of the wedding the weekend that followed right off. These feasts as well as the religious ones where the only things that made a kind of change to the routine These where the only things that gave some joy and laughter far from everyday concerns and the agony for the coming day. There were no music halls, cinemas or televisions in the village. The coffee-house of the village was the only place where one could listen to songs on records on the gramophone (“gramophone” was the name of the old model with the big funnel that the movement was made with winding instead of electricity). The greatest satisfaction, however, came with the rich harvest. When God... (this was what they were taught to believe) opened the skies for the beneficial rains to fall, the crops to drink them in and get bigger, the vineyards and the olive trees to drink them in as well, the fruit-bearing trees to give their precious fruit which is the daily food, the grass to grow so that the sheep would graze and give the milk to make cheese, to give the meat and the wool, all these would be the reward to the hard and tireless effort and all would be necessary for their survival… But the skies didn’t open for two years and the drought stroke, two years at row without rains. The drought stroke the people of the land, it stroke them hard, rough and some of them irreparably. The disaster, no matter how big it was, didn’t weaken their religious beliefs; they were just tortured by the question “Why?”. What have they done to deserve such a hard punishment? Has He forgotten them perhaps? They made night-long supplications, prayers and pleadings to forgive them if they had sinned (nobody is sinless), to have mercy on the innocent young ones that didn’t have the time yet to taste the fruits of sin spiritually or physically and their life was in danger from malnutrition… Some people may have sinned, seized with mania for wealth, with arrogance… But those who make the sign of cross with the one hand while with the other hand they count the profits that they will make out of their fellowmen’s misery, they are fine, they have food and drink. They are not punished, the poorer ones are, who are more faithful to His commandments. The weather conditions had to do with the situation in the atmosphere and not with the idealism, that’s why the prayers couldn’t have had any result. The drought erased the joy, Page 312 of 371

the laughter on the lips of the people of the land vanish, the agony, the pain, the misfortune, the misery, and most of all the hunger were spread everywhere. A small mutual help among the villagers had little result. Help from those who had everything was given with ulterior motive the profit and the exploitation. The drought that followed the big worldwide financial crisis of the capitalised system in 1929-1930 with the big power problem was a heavy blow to the farmers. Hunger plagued most of them and us even more. The scanty bread had to be divided into many small pieces so that many mouths could be fed. The piece (of very little bread) got smaller and smaller, the food storage was going empty little by little, the legumes were gone, the olive oil, the olives, everything. Mother fried the egg with water instead of olive oil, until we were out of eggs too as the hens, one by one, came to the table to fill our empty stomach. The soup was made with pieces of hard bread (bread soup) even though they had mould, instead of yellow split peas or rice which we didn’t have. I did liked this kind of soup very much; I enjoyed it with pleasure even though we made it because there was need, just to fill our stomach. One piece of bread getting wet in the water so as to become soft, some weeds from the nearby plain and some dry shrivelled up olives that dropped off the thirsty tree still unripe, were a way to trick the empty stomach, our hunger. And so the loans begin, the fields are mortgaged for some pounds, the takings of taxes my father collected from the villagers for the government been used to by foot (it is breach of trust if they are not paid on the stated date). We will work to pay them back…But in order to work you had to have a job and there weren’t any…The very small income from the firewood business wasn’t enough not even for food, and the other profession itself didn’t go well as there was no agricultural production. So the situation heads from bad to worse and the deadline for the full repayment of the loan hat come, the interest increases the lawn more and more. The usurious system was the worse. Interests and rate of interests, the small amount of pounds becomes tenfold which was a big amount during those years, and the full payment was impossible. The full payment of the taxes, however, was even more serious… Father, as Mother said he did not slept a wink for many nights. This situation became his nightmare; he paced back and forth sighing, not being able to find a solution to the difficult situation he was in. My Mother’s effort to comfort him, “Come to rest, olan (that’s how she called him, “olan” in Cypriot) “and God will help” had no result. The renewal of the mortgage for a bigger loan so as to pay the taxes was a kind of temporary solution. Financially, the situation would get worse instead of better, but the good reputation of hem would be saved as well as the integrity and dignity which were a matter of life and existence for my Father. The loaner who was a fellow villager and was bound with Father by relationship agreed to my Father’s suggestion. “We are only humans and we have to help each other, koumbare (best man)”, he said, but these were words with no honesty at all since his real intentions were revealed when they went far off to the governor’s office, for the settlement of the things they had agreed to beforehand, there he came out completely differently. “If you want Page 313 of 371

me to give you the money you are asking, koumbare”, he said, “you have to transfer the title deeds of the fields that are mortgaged to me. My wife wants them for our daughter’s dowry”. This unexpected change made Father feel thunderstruck; he got upset, he had been deceived, they set a trap Mother said, they tricked him to go to the office and reveal their intentions there…There in the office a fierce quarrel began…Father was insulted, his dignity was injured and this made him go up the wall, he slapped him and he was ready to finish him off if the attendants didn’t step in. My mother says she wished they let him do it…The charges wouldn’t be for premeditated murder and he would get off with imprisonment…and with a deep sigh she curses those responsible for this (they are to blame), and by this she meant the wife of the loaner who was responsible for this frame-up… For this woman I will quote here one paragraph about something that happened some years later, that has something to do with the avarice that dominated her, something that my sister Helen had told me… She climbed on a fig tree to collect the figs and, not wanting to leave any for the passers- by, she moved on to the outer branches which didn’t bear the weight and broke, and she found herself lying on the ground heavily injured…She was at death’s door for weeks but death, that would have given her comfort from the heavy pains, wasn’t coming. It seems that she was burdened with remorse for the responsibility she had for the events and the misfortune that came into our family. That’s why she sent a message to my sister Helen who was the only one living in the village during that period and she begged her to go and give her forgiveness because she felt she was being punished by God. “I forgive you”, my sister said when she went to see her, “but you have to ask God, he is the one you should beg for forgiveness”. Quite by chance of course she passed away in two days, but in the village, where prejudice reigned, they believed that forgiveness helped her perish… Father was deeply insulted by the mockery, as Mother called it, by the trap they set for him. The sneer stroke his ego and thwarted his pride, his mind got blurred, his character was changed and wildness awoke inside him. The good and diligent man was replaced by the fierce man, the revenger. It was impossible for him to bear the sneer, hatred obsessed him and he wanted to take revenge of those who tricked him and deceived him and want to destroy him… The drought, the social injustice on the one hand and the human ingratitude and avarice on the other hand, were the cause of the tragedy that followed. When man feels that he is treated unfairly and his whole existence is in danger, he loses his mind and his self-control. The wildness hidden inside him awakes and conquers, pushing him to irrational actions driven by revenge, the one and only mania, pushing him to the punishment of those who were unfair and made him hurt. This was the situation my Father was in on the whole way back home. He was obsessed with the mania for punishment. A punishment where logic has no place, a punishment which is fierce, irrational and cruel… But the others also acted irrationally and cruelly, without any humaneness and feelings. They condemned a whole family to misery and extinction… Page 314 of 371

He wouldn’t punish them physically but psychologically, they would spend the rest of their lives in pain and loneliness… He would punish them with the loss of their only daughter who was the only heiress and she would inherit his property as well. When he came home, we, the young ones (the brats), were the only ones there. All the grown-ups were working in the fields and our presence didn’t make him change his mind. Mother said that if a grown-up was at home, maybe he would have realised what was going on and would have stopped him. But when the demon sets his mind to something, everything is in his favour (gods and demons are always involved in whatever happens, as people believed). It seems that in this case the gods weren’t…powerful enough…and so the demons found a wide scope of activity… Going downhill towards the lower village where the loaner lived in the old house, since they hadn’t moved to the upper village yet, it seems that he had somehow pulled himself together. As he told Mother later, when he went there and found the daughter alone in the house he explained to her that what was happening was unfair and asked her to try to convince them to stop this unfairness. Her reply was that she wanted the land for herself which showed that she also participated in the whole scheme they had planned. This attitude of hers made him furious and pushed him to go ahead with what he intended to do, telling her that she won’t live to enjoy his own land. He hit her with his axe on her shoulder but it seems that with some kind of movement she managed to escape the deadly hit and she ran out on the street wounded and calling for help with Father running after her with a knife in his hand… If that boor girl, Mother says, treated him differently, he wouldn’t go further with his plans and the terrible thing that came upon us would have been avoided,, She wiped the tears that ran down her face that was now wrinkled, with the black kerchief which she always wore around the head… “If the tears that I shed all these years were collected, they would make a big lake”, she says. I thought that maybe I shouldn’t have asked her to recall those tragic events. But I wanted to know why they happened and how… “You shouldn’t be ashamed for the actions of you Father He did what he did because he was driven by their mockery and the way they deceived him… He was a man with pride and he was hurt by the insult they made…” And she goes on with interruptions and sighs and with her tears running down on her black kerchief. With the knife in his hand he continued running after her to carry out his plan which obsessed him. An old lady that came his way that moment carrying on her shoulder a bundle of sticks to make a fire at home, seeing what was going on she threw down the sticks and grabbed him so as to stop him. “What are you doing, Kleanthis”, she says to him, “do you want to leave your children stranded?”… But these were words of common sense which at that moment was lost…In his effort to get away from her by pushing her away, the knife he was holding wounded her deadly. Free and without realising how serious the hit was, he kept on running after the daughter who, in the meantime, had gained enough ground and had reached two shepherds who Page 315 of 371

grazed their sheep near there asking for their help. When Father got there, tired and exhausted, they managed to take his knife and calm him down. When Father met them later, Mother says nobody could recognize him; his expression, his bloodstained clothes, his whole appearance showed a completely different man. He thought to go hide in the mountain but they all agreed that it would be best to surrender himself to the police. Since the person whom he planned to kill was alive, his clean criminal record and the relations with the organs of the government, all these together, might help him avoid the death penalty. After he put on clean clothes (he packed the blood-stained ones and took them with him) he said goodbye to us and left on foot to go over to the police. He had come round from the terrible situation he was in, he had regretted, he felt like his old self again, but it was too late… What did he gain with his action, Mother asks, what did he gain? Not only the mortgaged land wasn’t saved, but the rest of it was sold so as to cover the expenses of the trial. But most of all, he lost his own life… Mother says that some people in the village (I avoid mentioning names) who were looking out for Father’s position (chairman), paid the two shepherds who were the only prosecution witnesses, to tell that he ran after the old lady and killed her, and so he was accused for premeditated murder… Father left leaving a whole life behind him, a wife with 11 children some of which were still under-aged. He left a family that, from that moment on, would have to work hard in difficult and unfortunate conditions to be able to survive, to hold on to life… The wind passing through will erase the last heavy steps which he left behind on the dirt road of the village as he walked through it on his way to the police… This was the last time he ever saw the village where he lived, loved and created. From this point on I describe the facts as they were engraved in my memory in the decades that passed: When the trial began, we, the little ones, were sitting in the front row, dressed in rugs which Mother managed to retain using multiple patches, always clean, however, with the hope to incite the human feelings of the three judges who comprised the criminal court… I should have been about six years old when these events happened, an age that tragic events like these stay engraved in the memory and the soul no matter how many years pass… During the time he was kept in custody, Father asked for a picture of the family to keep him company in the loneliness of the prison… I remember that when we went to the photographer in Nicosia, the whole family, we sat right across the black box waiting for the photographer to take his head out of the black cloth and give the order “Ready” releasing the lens which would take the picture (a quite old system which seemed quite impressive to me). This was my first contact with the photograph lens and also the last for many years later… This picture, in which one could clearly see the emotional state the family was in during that time, was used later in the grace request… Page 316 of 371

The defence counsel tried to remove the word “premeditated” from the accusation and to replace it with the word “manslaughter”; it was the only way to save Father’s life (one simple word that cost a human life). But that wasn’t achievable due to the false evidence given by the two shepherds… In his final pleading, the counsel tried to gain the leniency of the judges, to incite the human feelings by pointing towards us, asking them in their final verdict to consider our place without our protector… The judges, however, there in the courtroom cease to be human beings with feelings. They are just officers of the law and law has no feelings, law doesn’t care about the consequences and neither does it take into consideration the reasons and the cause which drove an honest man with impeccable and exemplary past to crime (since no matter how much vindication there is, a crime is still a crime). Law doesn’t care if some under-aged children are left without a protector and without resources to live and survive. Law has to be enforced according to the crime, and in this case the crime is presented, even with false evidence, as a premeditated crime… The day that the verdict would be pronounced, several months after the procedure had started and after many postponements, the courtroom was bursting at the seams with people, acquaintances and strangers, relatives, friends and curious people, who had filled the seats very early, and a number of people were standing at the back, all of them waiting anxiously and in total silence for the judges that would announce their decision…The total silence began to be disturbed by the murmur the minute the judges appeared wearing the black kerchief around the head which portended bad news. But the big storm broke out when the chairman announced the decision (guilty of premeditated murder) and the death penalty… Tears, fainting, cries of pain, created a sad picture that even the most stonyhearted person could not hold back his tears… The judges turned their back hastily and disappeared leaving behind them the tragic situation that was created after their decision. Acquaintances and strangers could not hold back their tears of compassion for the drama that was taking place that moment… Father, after the decision was announced and the hopeless situation followed, had a breakdown; he could barely walk and dragged his feet with the policemen’s help who leaded him towards the exit to the prison which would be his last residence. He managed however to raise his hand and wave goodbye to us. A small window of hope was left open by the announcement of the counsel that an appeal would be filed and maybe the decision would change… But this hope faded away with the rejection of the appeal… The last and only hope that remained alive was the grace requests. These were made to the governor and the King of England. During the waiting period, Mother, along with me and my little sister Hermione visited the governor’s office twice with the hope to see the governor for a personal request but they Page 317 of 371

didn’t even allow us to pass through the big wrought iron gate. We spent hours waiting outside and when he passed by in a limousine he didn’t even turn his head to look at us. I remembered that we quenched our hunger with some wild mushrooms which we picked up from the forest in front of the governor’s office and a piece of bread that Mother carried in her apron… We kept visiting churches and monasteries for days, we lit tapers and candles we begged God and saints to give a hand and their strength to save Father’s life, to spare us, the weak young ones, not to be left orphaned without a protector. I remember the words that Mother taught us for our prayer to the Holy Mother, (“Holy Mother Full of Grace, you who are a Mother, you who love and protect the children of the world, give your hand and help to save Father’s life, so as not to be left orphaned without protection”). We made the same prayer every night making the sign of the cross on our pillow before we lay our head down. In that age my believes to God were strong and I hat the filing and hop that my prayers would save my Fathers live.. That’s why later a gap was created inside of me, a doubt in my beliefs that affected my ideological orientation and my religious beliefs… My Father, with all his gifts, his kindness, his hospitality, his love and devotion to religion, when the bad time came, wasn’t helped at all. No help was given to him, neither by human nor by divine hand. The answer to the grace requests was negative. To take the life of your fellow man is violation of God’s order according to religion. Isn’t the hanging according to human laws violation of God’s order? Isn’t the killing of millions of people in wars violation of God’s order? Those, however, who make wars for their financial interests, don’t get punished neither by gods nor by humans, they live and reign undisturbed. But for the man that was driven by the bad social situations to violate God’s order there is no leniency neither human nor divine… And the day of the execution came. A day that was written in pain and tears, in grief and desperation, a day that stayed marked as the worst day in the history of the family… The scenes of the last goodbye are engraved in my memory… He was behind the thick iron bars up to the rooftop and we were on the other side. He was giving his last advice to the older brothers about the responsibilities and obligations that were put on their shoulders regarding the care and protection of the family…Through the bars he hugged and kissed us one by one for the last time with loud cries and infinite pain… In my memory, his last words as he kissed me and his tears wet my face stay indelible. “What will happen to you my son? May God protect you”. Crying hard and perhaps wanting to get away from the tragic situation that was taking place at the moment, I went out of the big room, sat on the step and continued to cry sobbing…The loud and desperate cries that increased, the overflowing pain with words from the bottom of the heart made me go back exactly the time he was waving goodbye with both hands while he was disappearing behind the black prison door… Although I was only six years old, I understood that this was the last time I was seeing my Father alive. I understood that I would lose the paternal love, his affection and protection Page 318 of 371

for ever…I find it impossible to describe the tragic scenes of that moment. There were moments indescribably terrible. With hugs and loud cries, each one tried to comfort the other but they didn’t manage to ease the pain and grief of the last goodbye… They barely managed to keep Mother up on her feet and to drag her towards the exit after successive faints…There comes a time however, that tears go dry, that heart gets exhausted from pain, can’t take the anguish anymore, and total silence comes back with each one absorbed in his thoughts on the whole way back… For the one who is leaving everything will come to an end forever, the pain, the sorrow and the anguish, because here is the end of all things. But those who stay will carry the bad memories with them and the deep wound till the end of their life. And in the rest of their years these will remain like a nightmare in a living dream… December 31, 1935. The last day of the year, the last day of his life for the man who fought hard, fairly, honestly, for whom the inevitable end came due to one bad moment of absurdity, untimely before he managed to complete the task he undertook bringing so many souls to life… He was leaving behind him under-aged children incapable even to support themselves. Gods and humans blocked his way… He was closing his eyes forever… He was leaving behind him a world that gave him pleasures but also bitterness… He was leaving behind him the social unfairness, the human cruelty, the arrogance… He was now resting forever in eternal sleep… He didn’t leave his last breath on the gallows. His heart, old and wounded, couldn’t make it to the end. It stopped before he went to the execution, but even dead he was carried to the gallows because that was what the law imposed, that’s why there was a visible dark scar from the rope around the neck… His face, however, retained a calm expression which in the opposite case would be wild and disfigured… This was what the guards told my brothers when they went to collect his body. In the village where he was carried in a coffin together with the news that he died of natural causes, they crossed themselves saying that God forgave him and delivered him from the torment of the hanging. When the coffin arrived it was placed in the solar of the house. Almost the whole village came to take a last look at the man who served them for so many years and to give the common wish (“…may God forgive him”). When I looked through the small glass window, I discerned a huge difference on his face from the day before in the prison the time of the last goodbye… Then, the pain, the grief, the anguish which reflected the feelings of the heart and thought were written all over his face. Here, there was a calm face delivered from the emotional commotions, indifferent to what was happening all around; it gave the impression that he was sleeping there carefree, only Page 319 of 371

that the face had a pale colour…In the funeral that followed the same day everybody was present (except of course for those who were involved with the incidents). This happened all the time in every funeral. The entire community expressed the support and compassion to the relatives of the deceased…The coffin was carried on the shoulders from the upper village to the lower one where the church and the cemetery were, with cries and lamentations and the religious words of the priest who was walking in front of it… The last goodbye was there, in the burial. There were once again dramatic moments, more of them this time because apart from the family there were also relatives and friends who also expressed their feelings with cries and lamentations…The faints were following one another the wild outbursts and the cries of pain. They barely managed to pull Mother away from the coffin so as to take it down in the grave. She begged to let her follow him to his last residence… To her it was a double blow; not only she was losing the protector but also her companion the only Man who got to know and to whom she was attached till the end of her life… I was crammed in the crowd to take a last look at the one who was going away from our life forever. Through the small glass window one could still see the face calm, indifferent, which also disappeared under the soil that was slowly covering the coffin. The grave was full to the brim and a wooden cross was placed temporarily which would be replaced later by the black iron cross ordered according to Father’s instruction with the chased inscription “FIRST, I FEAR GOD AND SECOND, THE TWO FALSE WITNESSES” which will stay there for decades, reminding the injustice that happened at his expense… Father was gone out of our life, but not out of our heart and thought… “The pillar of the house is gone”, Mother was wailing, “what will happen now, will the house fall down?”. The building had cracks but didn’t fall down. My brothers kept the promise which they gave my Father; they bore it on their shoulders, they supported it and they held it up… Along with the burial, the curtain of a tragic drama was closing; a drama which shook the family from the root and not only the family, because it also shook the outskirts and the entire Cyprus. The poets sang about the drama at towns and villages for a long time…A drama that had its roots much before the years of the drought but also deeper to the social deficiency, without ignoring the religious beliefs either… “God, who sends us children, also sends their fate… It is a serious sin to prevent the child- bearing” was the answer to Mother when she told him to use something to stop the child- bearing… That’s why the family had many members, that’s why there were multiple financial problems, because man doesn’t bring his fate along. It is defined by the course of life, by the events and the circumstances which happen in his life in combination with the family and social situations. The tragic family drama ended with the burial… But the struggle for life and survival begins now, a different kind of struggle with other ways and other means… Page 320 of 371

Footnote no: 23 on page 45 – Koumera and Koumbaros Koumera (plural: Koumeres) and Koumbaros (plural: Koumbaroi). It is tradition in Cyprus, even to this day, that when people get married, instead of a best man and a bride’s maid, they have a large number of ‘best men’ and ‘best women’. From then on, the men are addressed by the couple (and vice versa) as ‘koumbare’ and the women are addressed as ‘Koumera’. The first best man and the first best woman are normally very close friends or relatives of the couple. It is tradition, that the first best man would be godfather to the couple’s first child and the first best woman would be godmother to their second child. These relationships are still important today, but back in the 1930s, they were sacred. In addition, the relationship between the first best man and first best woman and the couple, was even more important, because if something happened to the parents of the child, the godparents had an obligation to take over and raise the child as their own. Page 321 of 371

Footnote No: 54 on page 103: The Fourth Pack Transport Company The Fourth Pack Transport Company, in which my father served, was part of the Cyprus Regiment. The Cyprus Regiment was a military unit of the British army created by the British Government during World War II. It was made up of volunteers from the Greek Cypriot, Turkish Cypriot, Armenian, Maronite and Latin inhabitants of Cyprus, but also included other Commonwealth nationalities. The badge of the Cyprus Regiment was a shield charged with two walking lions upright and ensigned with the Imperial Crown and below the shield was a scroll bearing the title of the regiment. The Cyprus Regiment was founded on 12 April 1940. It included Infantry, Mechanical, Transport and Pack Transport Companies. Cypriot mule drivers were the first colonial troops sent to the Western Front. They served in France, Ethiopia, Palestine and Italy carrying equipment to areas inaccessible to vehicles. They were used to supply and support other troops at Monte Cassino and at Rimini. About 30,000 Cypriots served in the Cyprus Regiment. The regiment was involved in action from the very start and served in the Battle of France, in the Greek Campaign (the Battle of Greece, in which about 600 soldiers were captured at Kalamata in 1941), North Africa (Operation Compass), the Middle East and Italy. Many soldiers were taken prisoner especially at the beginning of the war and were interned in various POW camps, including Stalag VIII-B, Lamsdorf, Stalag IV-C at Wistritz near Teplitz (now in the Czech Republic), and Stalag IV-B near Dresden. The soldiers captured in Kalamata were transported by train to prisoner of war camps. On a brief visit to Cyprus in 1943, Winston Churchill praised the “soldiers of the Cyprus Regiment who have served honourably on many fields from Libya to Dunkirk”. In the post-war years the regiment served in Cyprus and the Middle East, including Palestine during the 1945-1948 period. The regiment was disbanded on 31 March 1950. Page 322 of 371

Footnote no: 56 on page 115 – The Party: Α.Κ.Ε.Λ The political party my father refers to repeatedly, with its various committees, is Α.Κ.Ε.Λ (Ανορθωτικο Κομμα Εργαζομενου Λαου) which means Progressive Party of Working People. It was extremely influential in his life, clearly illustrated by the fact that the story of his life revolves around it, its activities and his role in the party throughout his life. AKEL was founded in 1926, with the name ‘Communist Party of Cyprus (CPC). The communist party set as its aim not only the struggle against exploitation, but also the independence of Cyprus from British rule. The party became illegal in 1931, under Palmerocracy, when the British colonial government, imposed restrictions on civil rights, following a nationalist riot (the Uprising of 1931). On the CPC’s call, even though the party was still illegal, 60 Cypriot anti-fascists fought in the Spanish Civil War of 1936 – 1939, against Franco’s fascism, 15 of them sacrificing their lives. In 1941, leading members of the underground communist party, founded AKEL. It was legal and held its Founding Congress on 14th April 1941. AKEL welcomed all parts of the Cypriot working class including, Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots, Maronites, Armenians and Latins. In the first municipal elections in 1943 (before that mayors were appointed) AKEL candidates became mayors of Limassol, (Ploutis Servas) and Famagusta (Adam Adamantos). In 1943, AKEL issued an appeal and thousands of its members and antifascists in general, joined the fight against Hitler’s fascism. A large number of these joined the British army. The most senior position in the party, is that of General Secretary. The following, is a list of the people who served in that position: • 1936 – 1945: Ploutis Servas • 1945 – 1949: Fifis Ioannou • 1949 – 1988: Ezekias Papaioannou • 1988 – 2009: Dimitris Christofias (6th President of the Republic of Cyprus). • 2009 – present: Andros Kyprianou Ezekias Papaioannou, or Papis’ as he was affectionally known, was the man who followed my father’s plan to escape from the British internment camp in 1956. In 1946, he became the Editor-in-Chief of Democratis, the party’s newspaper and from 1949 he was the General Secretary of the party, a position he held for nearly 40 years, until his death in 1988. Page 323 of 371

Yiannis Sofocli, the man who introduced my father to the party during the war, went on to become a member of the Central Committee of AKEL and served as the District Secretary for the district of Paphos for many years. He and my father remained close friends throughout their lives. When I was growing up in Paphos, until the age of 14 when we left for London, our family was very close to his family. I called him uncle and his wife auntie. His children and I often played together and were more like relatives than just friends. Unlike its predecessor, AKEL was not against Enosis. Instead, AKEL supported a gradual process, starting off with a constitution and self-government, while Cyprus would remain a colony, leading to self-determination and Enosis. After the failure of the consultative assembly in 1949 to grant a constitution acceptable to the Cypriot members, AKEL changed line, supporting immediate Enosis with no intermediate stages. During the 1950s, AKEL was opposed to the violent tactics followed by the anti-British resistance movement of EOKA. EOKA accused AKEL of being collaborators with the British, even though AKEL had also been illegal since 1955. Several AKEL members were assassinated by EOKA at the time for being \"traitors\", including AKEL supporter Savas Menikou, who was stoned to death. AKEL denounced EOKA's leadership as being anti- communist, as its leader George Grivas, had fought against the communist side during the Greek Civil War. Around 1958, a Turkish organisation was formed called the Turkish Resistance Organisation (Turkish: Türk Mukavemet Teşkilatı, TMT). It was a paramilitary organisation formed by Rauf Denktash and others and it was set up to counter EOKA. The objective of TMT was ‘Taksim’, which means partition. The partition of Cyprus into Turkish and Greek portions was a concept declared as early as 1957 by Dr Fazil Kucuk. The name of the organization was changed twice. In 1967 to ‘Mücahit’, and in 1976 to ‘Güvenlik Kuvvetleri Komutanlığı’ (Security Forces Command Centre). The relevance of TMT to AKEL, is that TMT was a right-wing organisation and it started forcing Turkish Cypriot members of AKEL to leave the party. The editor of a workers' newspaper, Fazil Onder, was killed and the head of the Turkish bureau of PEO (Pancyprian Federation of Labour) the left’s Trade Union, Ahmet Sadi moved to the UK to save his life. The last Turkish Cypriot to be a member of the Central Committee of AKEL, was Dervis Ali Kavazoglu, who was killed by the TMT in 1965. In the first presidential elections for an Independent Cyprus, on 13 December 1959, AKEL backed Ioannis Klerides, the father of Glafkos Klerides, against Makarios. Makarios won the election, with the support of EOKA, securing about two thirds of the vote. At the legislative elections on 27 May 2001, the party won 34.7% of the popular vote and 20 out of 56 seats. After this election, AKEL's General Secretary, Dimitris Christofias, was elected as President of the House of Representatives, serving in that post until 2006. His election was supported by EDEK (Movement for Social Democracy) and DIKO (Democratic Party) as well as AKEL. Page 324 of 371

For a long time, AKEL did not put forward any candidates for the presidency, even though, for much of the time, it was the largest political party on the island. Instead, it periodically supported various candidates, whose policies it considered the closest to its own policies and who could not be elected without its support. It justified this position, on the basis that it would cause damage to the unity of the people of Cyprus, during a critical time in the island’s history. Finally, in 2008, Dimitris Christofias, the then General Secretary of the party, was put forward and in the second round of the presidential elections held on 24 February 2008, he was elected President of Cyprus with 53.36% of the vote, against his right-wing opponent Ioannis Kasoulidis, with 46.64%. As a strong supporter of welfare benefits and nationalization, AKEL successfully put into practice several social measures to support the economic welfare of Cypriots during the late 2,000s financial crisis, such as increasing low pensions by 30% and strengthening the welfare benefits given to university students to €12 million per year. Overall, €1.2 billion were spent on welfare benefits during the first three years that AKEL was in power, with various improvements made in social welfare provision. Today, AKEL is one of the two major parties in Cyprus, and it supports an independent, demilitarized, and non-aligned Cyprus, and a federal solution of the internal aspect of the ‘Cyprus Problem’. It places particular emphasis on rapprochement with the Turkish Cypriots. It supported entry into the European Union with certain reservations. Initially supportive of the Annan Plan in 2004, AKEL ultimately opposed the plan because the UN Security Council did not provide guarantees on post-reunification security. The party is now in opposition following the 2013 election. The party's candidate was also defeated in the 2018 presidential election, against the incumbent president Nikos Anastasiadis. Page 325 of 371

Footnote no: 64 on page 141 – The Battle of Cassino There was much disagreement among the allies in World War II, regarding the benefits of invading Italy. Finally, in 1943, when the high command decided to postpone the invasion of France until 1944, the decision was made to invade Italy. The invasion started in Sicily where although the allies succeeded, large numbers of German troops retreated from Sicily, in favour of intrenchment in the Italian mainland. The Allied amphibious landing on mainland Italy, took place on 3 September 1943 during the early stages of the Italian Campaign. The operation was undertaken by General Sir Harold Alexander’s (British) 15th Army Group comprising General Mark W. Clark’s American Fifth Army and General Bernard Montgomery’s British Eighth Army. The main invasion force landed around Salerno on 9 September on the western coast in Operation Avalanche, while two supporting operations, took place in Calabria (Operation Baytown) and Taranto (Operation Slapstick). The allies, encountered fierce resistance from the Germans, including a counterattack, but they eventually prevailed and began moving North. The Germans considered Italy to be of huge strategic importance to them and they committed some of their most senior generals and battle-hardened troops to its defence, under the command of Field Marshall Albert Kesselring. As the allies moved north, they encountered several lines of defence. One of these lines was the ‘Gustav Line’ at Cassino. The Battle of Monte Cassino (also known as the Battle for Rome and the Battle for Cassino) was a costly series of four assaults by the Allies against the ‘Winter Line’. The intention was a breakthrough to Rome. The ‘Winter Line’ was a series of German fortifications commanded by Kesselring. The series of three lines was designed to defend a western section of Italy, focused around the town of Cassino, through which ran the important Highway 6 which led uninterrupted to Rome. The primary ‘Gustav Line, ran across Italy from just north of where the Garigliano River flows into the Tyrrhenian Sea in the west, through the Apennine Mountains, to the mouth of the Sangro River on the Adriatic coast in the east. The two subsidiary lines, the ‘Bernhardt Line’ and the ‘Hitler Line’ ran much shorter distances from the Tyrrhenian Sea to just North East of Cassino, where they would merge into the Gustav Line. Relative to the Gustav Line, the Hitler Line stood to the North-West and the Bernhardt Line to the South- East of the primary defences. Monte Cassino was a historic hilltop abbey founded in 529 AD by Benedict of Nursia and which dominated the nearby town of Cassino and the entrances to the Liri and Rapido valleys. Lying in a protected historic zone, it had been left unoccupied by the Germans, although they manned some positions set into the steep slopes below the abbey's walls. Page 326 of 371

Repeated pinpoint artillery attacks on Allied assault troops caused their leaders to conclude that the abbey was being used by the Germans as an observation post, at the very least. Fears escalated along with casualties and in spite of a lack of clear evidence, it was marked for destruction. On 15 February 1944, American bombers dropped 1,400 tons of high explosives, creating widespread damage. The raid failed to achieve its objective, as German paratroopers then occupied the rubble and established excellent defensive positions amid the ruins. Between 17 January and 18 May 1944, Monte Cassino and the Gustav defences were assaulted four times by Allied troops. On 16 May, soldiers from the Polish II Corps, launched one of the final assaults on the German defensive position as part of a twenty-division assault along a twenty-mile front. On 18 May, a Polish flag followed by the British Union Jack were raised over the ruins. Following this Allied victory, the German ‘Hitler Line’ which was later named the ‘Senger Line’ collapsed on 25 May. The Gustav Line, though ultimately broken, effectively slowed the Allied advance for months between December 1943 and June 1944. Major battles in the assault on the Winter Line at Monte Cassino and the town of Anzio nearby, resulted in 98,000 Allied casualties and 60,000 Axis (Rome, Berlin, Tokyo) casualties. In addition, the casualties in the civilian population of the town of Cassino, were about 2,000 from a population of only 20,000. The Battle of Cassino is considered a key battle in World War II. Page 327 of 371

Footnote no: 65 on page 150 – The Battle of Rimini The battle of Rimini was one of the hardest battles of the Eighth Army. The fighting was comparable to El Alamein, Mareth and the Gustav Line (Monte-Cassino). — Lieutenant-General Sir Oliver Leese, commander of the Eighth Army (El-Alamein is in Egypt and Mareth is in Tunisia. Decisive battles were fought there, by the British Eighth Army, under General Montgomery against German/Italian lines of defence). Another important line of defence by the Germans in Italy, was the ‘Gothic Line’. It was Field Marshall Albert Kesselring’s last major line of defence against the advance of the Allied Forces commanded by General Sir Harold Alexander. On 24 December 1943, General Leese received a telegram ordering him to Italy to succeed Montgomery as Eighth Army commander, as Montgomery was to return to Britain in January 1944, to prepare for the Allied invasion of Normandy. Leese commanded the Eighth Army at the fourth and final battle of Monte Cassino in May 1944 and for Operation Olive (Battle of Rimini) on the Gothic Line later in 1944. Adolf Hitler had concerns about the state of preparation of the Gothic Line. He feared the Allies would use amphibious landings to outflank its defences. To downgrade its importance in the eyes of both friend and foe, he ordered the name, with its historic connotations, changed, reasoning that if the Allies managed to break through, they would not be able to use the more impressive name to magnify their victory claims. In response to this order, Kesselring renamed it the \"Green Line\" (Grüne Linie) in June 1944. Using more than 15,000 slave labourers, the Germans created more than 2,000 well-fortified machine nests, casemates, bunkers, observation posts and artillery fighting positions, to repel any attempt to breach the Gothic Line. Initially this line was breached during Operation Olive (also known as the Battle of Rimini), but Kesselring's forces were consistently able to retire in good order. This continued to be the case up to March 1945, with the Gothic Line being breached but with no decisive breakthrough. The final breakthrough took place in April 1945 during the final Allied offensive of the Italian Campaign. Operation Olive has been described as the biggest battle of materials ever fought in Italy. Over 1,200,000 men participated in the battle. The battle took the form of a pincer manoeuvre carried out by the British Eighth Army and the US Fifth Army against the German 10th and 14th Armies. Rimini, a city which had been hit by previous air raids, had 1,470,000 rounds fired against it by allied land forces. Page 328 of 371

The Greek Connection The battle of Rimini, has a Greek connection and the keen historians among you, may find the following interesting: In addition to the British Eighth Army and US Fifth Army, many other allies participated in the Battle of Rimini, including Canadians and New Zealanders. The Greek connection is as follows: Just south of Rimini, attached to 1st Canadian Division, was the 3rd Greek Mountain Brigade (Greek: Ελληνική Ορεινή Ταξιαρχία, ΙΙΙ Ε.Ο.Τ.), a unit of mountain infantry formed by the Greek government in exile, on 1 July 1944 in Lebanon, under the command of Colonel Thrasyvoulos Tsakalotos. The Greek brigade played a decisive part in the Battle of Rimini and earned the honorific title ‘Rimini Brigade’ (\"Ταξιαρχία Ρίμινι\"). Its commander, Thrasyvoulos Tsakalotos, (Greek: Θρασύβουλος Τσακαλώτος; 3 April 1897 – 15 August 1989) was a distinguished Greek army Lieutenant General who served in World War I, the Greco- Turkish war of 1919-1922, World War II and the Greek Civil War of 1946-1949, rising to become Chief of the Hellenic Army General Staff. He also served as Greece’s Ambassador to Yugoslavia. After the liberation of Greece from the Axis (also known as Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis), he was transferred, with the 3rd Greek Mountain Brigade, to Athens. He was a strong anti- communist, who actively participated in the Greek Civil War, against The Greek People's Liberation Army (Greek: Ελληνικός Λαϊκός Απελευθερωτικός Στρατός (ΕΛΑΣ). Therefore, depending on one’s political views, he was either a hero or a villain of the civil war. However, following ‘Metapolitefsi’ of 1974, Tsakalotos became a supporter of Andreas Papandreou and his socialist party ‘Panhellenic Socialist Movement’ (PASOK). In the elections of 1985, he published a statement encouraging people to vote for PASOK and saying that he felt Andreas was like a brother to him. The Metapolitefsi (Greek: Μεταπολίτευση), translated as policy/regime change, was a period in modern Greek history after the fall of the military junta of 1967–74 that includes the transitional period from the fall of the dictatorship to the 1974 legislative elections and the democratic period immediately after these elections. The long course towards the metapolitefsi began with the disputed liberalisation plan of Georgios Papadopoulos, the head of the military dictatorship. This process was opposed by prominent politicians, such as Panagiotis Kanellopoulos and Stephanos Stephanopoulos. Papadopoulos’s plan was halted with the Athens Polytechnic uprising, a massive demonstration of popular rejection of the military junta, and the counter coup staged by Page 329 of 371

Demetrios Ioannides. Ioannides's failed coup d'état against the elected president of Cyprus, Makarios III, and the subsequent Turkish invasion resulted in the fall of the dictatorship and the appointment of an interim government, known as the ‘National Unity Government’, led by former prime minister Konstantinos Karamanlis. Karamanlis, legalised the Communist Party (KKE) and founded New Democracy, a centre- right party which won, by a landslide, the elections of 1974 (the first elections in Greece after the fall of the junta). On 23 March 1984, as a symbolic gesture of reconciliation and healing of the divisions caused by the Civil War, Tsakalotos publicly met and shook hands with his former adversary, Markos Vafiades, the commander of the communist forces during the Civil War. Thrasyvoulos Tsakalotos died in Athens on 15 August 1989. If the name seems familiar, but you cannot place it, it is because you heard it repeatedly in the News. Tsakalotos's first cousin's grandson, or first cousin twice-removed, Euclid Tsakalotos was a Syriza MP and served as Minister of Finance, in Alexis Tsipras’ second cabinet, from 2015 to 2019, during the time of the economic crisis in Greece. Page 330 of 371

Footnote no: 68 on page 162 – The Feudal System There is no universally agreed definition of the ‘Feudal System’. However, most historians agree with the following very general description: The feudal system was a political, military and social system, which existed in the middle ages. Under this system, a peasant or worker, known as a vassal (definition: a holder of land by feudal tenure on conditions of homage and allegiance), received a piece of land in return for serving a lord or king, especially during times of war. Vassals were expected to perform various duties in exchange for their own fiefs (definition: an estate of land, especially one held on condition of feudal service). The term feudal system wasn't used until 1776, and it came from the Latin word ‘feudum’, or ‘feudal estate’. Page 331 of 371

Footnote no: 72 on page 174 Athalassa, Gerolakkos and the Airport Athalassa is an area South/East of Nicosia, which consists mainly of a forest and a lake. It is now the ‘Athalassa National Park’. The capital has expanded over the years, joined up with the village of ‘Latsia’ and as a result, the park is now within the city. Gerolakkos, (in Greek: Γερολακκος and in Turkish Alaykoy) is a village North/West of Nicosia. It is under Turkish occupation since 1974 and near the green line. The Nicosia International Airport, which has not been used since 1974, is about 2 kilometres to its South/East. The distance between Athalassa and Gerolakkos is about 20 kilometres. Nicosia International Airport was the principal airport of Cyprus from its initial construction in the 1930s as the Royal Air Force station ‘RAF Nicosia’ until 1974. At first, it acted principally as a military airport, and is still owned by the British Ministry of Defence. The landing strip was constructed in 1939 by the Shell Company and Pierides & Michaelides Ltd. Services were provided by Misrair with four-engined DH.86 aircraft (known as the de Havilland express). The facilities were limited, with three ‘Nissen Huts’ (prefabricated steel structures for military use, especially as barracks) used as the Terminal Building and housing: Immigration, Civil Aviation, Signals, Traffic and Operational Services. Restaurant services were provided by the NAAFI. The NAAFI is the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes, which is a company created by the British government on 9 December 1920, to run recreational establishments needed by the British Armed Forces and to sell goods to servicemen and their families. During the Second World War, the airport's facilities and runway were extended by local contractors Stelios Joannou & George Paraskevaidis. American bombers used the runway in 1943 – 4 when returning from Allied bombings of the Romanian Plojesti oil fields. The period my father describes would have been around 1946 - 47. The use of dynamite would suggest groundwork and it would seem that the works being carried out by Joannou & Paraskevaidis during the war, were still ongoing for a while after the end of the war. Following the war, commercial services were reintroduced, and by 1948, Misrair, BOAC, Cyprus Airways and MEA were providing regular services. In 1949, the first terminal building was designed and built by the Public Works Department at a cost of £50,000 and was opened in May of that year. The building was then extended together with the aircraft apron in 1959. The building was vacated in 1968 with the opening Page 332 of 371

of the new terminal. The Nicosia Flying Club and other flying organisations continued to use the old building. The RAF withdrew from the airfield in 1966 due to limited space brought on by vastly increasing civilian aircraft movements. On 27 March 1968 a modern new terminal, designed by a West German company Dorsch und Gehrmann from Wiesbaden, and built by Cybarco was opened at a cost of £1,100,000, of which £500,000 was contributed by Britain. The new terminal could accommodate 800 passengers at any one time and the parking apron could handle eleven aircraft. In June 1974 plans were in place for the terminal to be extended and the apron to be enlarged to 16 aircraft, of which two places were to be for widebody aircraft. But this was never to happen. On 15 July 1974, right wing Greek nationalists overthrew the democratically elected president of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios. Nicosia Airport was briefly closed, by the coupists, then used on 17 July 1974 to ferry troops from Greece to Cyprus to support the coup against Makarios. Only on 18 July was it allowed to reopen to civilian traffic, becoming a site of chaotic scenes as holidaymakers and other foreign nationals tried to leave the island. On 20 July 1974, Turkey invaded Cyprus bombing the airport heavily and forcing its permanent closure. Following the Turkish invasion, the airport was the scene of some of the heaviest fighting between Cypriot and Turkish forces, which led the United Nations Security Council to declare it a United Nations Protected Area (UNPA) during the conflict. This required both sides to withdraw at least 500 metres (1,600 ft) from the perimeter of the airport. With the ceasefire signed on 16 August 1974 Nicosia Airport became part of the ‘United Nations Controlled Buffer Zone’ separating the two communities on the island, (known as the Green Line) and it has been inoperable as a fully functioning airport ever since. However, active United Nations helicopters are based at the site, which is used as the headquarters for the UN peace keeping mission in Cyprus, UNFICYP and is used as one of the sites for intercommunal peace talks. It is also the home to a number of recreational facilities for UN personnel. Page 333 of 371

Footnote no: 73 on page 175 - Paliomilos Paliomilos (formal name Paleomylos), is a small village on the Troodos mountain range and belongs to the Limassol district. It takes its name from the Greek words ‘παλαιο’ (Paleo) meaning old and ‘μυλος’ (mylos), which means mill. Cyprus has two mountain ranges. The main one, in the centre of the island, is called Troodos. The range’s summit, from where it takes its name, is Mount Troodos. It is also known as Mount Olympus and ‘Shionistra’ and at its summit, it reaches an elevation of 1,951 metres (6.401 feet) and is the island’s highest point. The highest built village is well known in Cyprus and is called ‘Prodromos’. Paliomilos, lies about 3 kilometres lower and south/west of Prodromos, on the west side of Mount Troodos. The road from Prodromos to Paliomilos was a winding downhill dirt track, until it was paved in recent years. The main way to approach the village is from Lemithou on one side and Agios Demetrios on the other side. As a result of its geographical position, there is no passing traffic and therefore it is isolated. The village was blessed with crystal clear streams of mountain water running through it. The villagers took advantage of this, by establishing water mills, from where the village takes its name. Paliomilos was always a small village. In addition, like many villages in the Troodos mountains, its population has declined during the ‘Urbanisation of Cyprus’ which began at the end of World War II in 1945. Young people left the villages of Cyprus in search of employment and a better future in the towns and cities, or even by emigrating, mostly to the UK, but also to Australia and the US. As of the 2010 census, only 20 people permanently reside in the village, including the immigrants that take care of the aging population. In summer the population is significantly augmented by descendants of village residents, who spend their holidays in their family homes and to be with elderly relatives. Nevertheless, I can personally confirm that in the late 1950s and early 1960s the village, although small, was still thriving. I remember well, spending many summers in my mother’s village, where I was also born and where the family went to get away from the heat of Paphos, whilst my father remained at work and visited at weekends. I remember a lively village, with a couple of ‘kafenia’ (coffee shops), an old water mill converted to a restaurant with music and at weekends many people coming up to the village from the towns below. They would buy their lamb from animals slaughtered in the village square and find shaded areas, by a stream, to cook and eat their traditional souvla (barbecued meat). Beer and wine and soft drinks would be placed in the stream and by the time their Page 334 of 371

food was ready, their drinks would be very chilled from the ice-cold water coming out of the depths of the mountains. My maternal grandmother would take me with her to the apple and cherry orchards (the main produce of the village) to collect the fruit, put it in large wicker baskets (kofinia) lined with ferns to protect the fruit from bruising and then load it onto the donkey, for the long journey back to the village. The journeys were difficult for a small boy, because invariably, they were up and down steep mountains. Most of the villagers, including my grandmother, had their own goats. The goats would graze on aromatic herbs which grew in abundance on the mountain sides and as a result, their milk would have the smell of these herbs. When my grandmother made her ‘halloumia’ (the traditional cheese of Cyprus), this smell would permeate in the halloumia. She would take the halloumi out of the large cauldron she used and give me some to eat whilst it was still soft. I remember eating it from a bowl with a spoon. She would place the rest on wicker trays to dry and set. I have never forgotten it. Later, for some reason, most of the streams dried up and found their way to the opposite side of the mountain, enriching villages such as Kakopetria. Some villagers, blamed the mines of the Troodos mountains, claiming that the extensive network of tunnels caused the water streams to be diverted. Nevertheless, the village still has plenty of water and remains lush green even in the summer, unlike most of Cyprus. Paliomilos has not benefited from the extensive development which has taken place in Cyprus in the last forty or so years, particularly in the tourist sector. This is both its misfortune and its blessing, depending on your point of view. Page 335 of 371

Footnote no: 77 on page 183 – The Earthquake of 1953 The earthquake which took place in Cyprus on 10 September 1953 was a destructive double earthquake, mainly in the district of Paphos, which registered 6.1 on the Richter magnitude scale. It killed 40 people and injured 100. In addition to those killed and wounded, it left 4,000 people homeless. Damage was reported from all of the 158 villages of Paphos. The villages of Stroumpi, Axylou, Kithasi, Lapithiou and Phasoula were totally destroyed. Within a few seconds, 1,600 houses were totally ruined and 10,000 buildings suffered serious damage. Casualties were limited because most people were out in the fields at the time the earthquakes occurred. The earthquakes caused a small tsunami along the coast of Paphos. The shocks were strongly felt in Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Kastellorizo, Rhodes and Turkey. About 26 aftershocks continued for over a year. The earthquakes were also felt all over Cyprus. There was some damage in Limassol, in the villages of the Troodos mountains and even as far as Nicosia, but minor compared to Paphos. Page 336 of 371

Footnote no: 79 on page 189 – EOKA The notion of ‘Enosis’ which means union, began as the ‘Megali Idea’ meaning the ‘Great Idea’. It dates back to the years following the Greek War of Independence of 1821 against the Ottoman Empire, when the idea was embedded in the Greek psyche. It was the desire to unite all of the mainly Greek populated areas into an independent Greek State, with Constantinople as its capital. It did not appear officially, until 1844, but from then on, it dominated Greek politics for more than a century. The ‘Great Idea’ started to fade after the defeat of Greece in the Greco-Turkish War of 1919- 1922 and the ‘Great Fire of Smyrna’ in 1922, followed by the ‘Population Exchange between Greece and Turkey’ in 1923. However, it was by no means abandoned. I think it is fair to say, that the Greeks no longer realistically expected to unite Asia Minor with Greece, but the Great Idea continued to be an aspiration in relation to Cyprus and became known as ‘Enosis’ (Union with Greece). After World War II, a delegation from Cyprus submitted a demand for Enosis to London. The demand was rejected, but the British proposed a more liberal constitution and a 10-year programme of social and economic development. In 1948, King Paul of Greece, declared that Cyprus desired union with Greece. In 1950, the Orthodox Church of Cyprus presented a referendum according to which around 97% of the Greek Cypriot population wanted the union. The United Nations accepted the Greek petition and Enosis became an international issue. In 1952 both Greece and Turkey became members of NATO. Led by Archbishop Makarios, the Greek Cypriot demand for Enosis emerged with new force in the 1950s, when Greece began to accord it support on the international scene. This attempt to win world support alerted Turkey and alarmed the Turkish Cypriots. When international pressure did not suffice to make Britain respond positively, violence escalated with a campaign against the colonial power. This was called ‘The Cyprus Emergency’ by the British, but it is known as The Greek Cypriot War of Independence by the Greek Cypriots (Greek: Απελευθερωτικός Αγώνας της Κύπρου 1955-59). The National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters was formed (Greek: Εθνικη Οργανωση Κυπριων Αγωνιστων: Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston - EOKA) under the leadership of Colonel George Grivas (also known as Digenis). Grivas was born in 1897 in Cyprus to Greek Cypriot parents but moved to Greece to attend military school. He served in the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922, World War II and the Greek Civil War of 1946-1949. He was a stridently anti-communist military leader. He retired from the Greek army and tried, unsuccessfully, to enter politics. He then focused on the idea of ridding Cyprus of British colonial rule and annexing it to Greece. As a member of the secret Committee for the Cyprus Struggle he took the oath of Page 337 of 371

Enosis together with Archbishop Makarios III, with whom he collaborated in preparing the armed struggle. He arrived secretly in Cyprus in November 1954 and immediately began the formation of his guerrilla organisation EOKA. The first bombs were set off on April 1, 1955 followed by leaflets. Attacks on police stations started on June 19. The British Governor, Sir John Harding, proclaimed a State of Emergency on 26 November 1955. For the next four years EOKA attacked British or British-connected targets and those Cypriots it accused of collaboration. Archbishop Makarios and other Cypriot clergy and political leaders were forced by the British into exile in the Seychelles. 371 British servicemen died fighting the independence movement during the Cyprus Emergency. Easily infiltrated by Greek Cypriot sympathisers working for them in various ancillary tasks, the British security forces had to exert great efforts under Field Marshal Sir John Harding to supress the independence movement. They were much more successful than is often recognised, though the attacks on British personnel never quite ceased. From mid-1956 onwards there were constant discussions in NATO, but all efforts to create an independent Cyprus which would be a member of the Commonwealth of Nations were futile. The Turkish Cypriot response to the challenges posed by the prospect of decolonization and the breakdown of the colonial order was to adopt the call for partition (Taksim). ‘Taksim’ became the slogan which was used by the increasingly militant Turkish Cypriots in an attempt to mirror the Greek cry of Enosis. The opposition to Enosis from Turkish Cypriots and to counter EOKA, led to the formation in 1958, of a Turkish organisation called the Turkish Resistance Organisation (Turkish: Türk Mukavemet Teşkilatı, TMT). It was a paramilitary organisation formed by Rauf Denktash and others. The partition of Cyprus into Turkish and Greek portions was a concept declared as early as 1957 by Dr Fazil Kucuk. The name of the organization was changed twice. In 1967 to ‘Mücahit’, and in 1976 to ‘Güvenlik Kuvvetleri Komutanlığı’ (Security Forces Command Centre). In the meantime, the British withdrawal from Egypt in April 1957, following the Suez Canal debacle, led to Cyprus becoming the new location for their Middle East Headquarters. In the new conditions, the British government accepted that bases in Cyprus were an acceptable alternative to Cyprus as a base. This produced a much more relaxed British attitude to the problem. It was now to be solved in conjunction with Greece and Turkey, the latter thoroughly alerted to the dangers of Enosis for the Turkish Cypriot population. Violence was renewed in Cyprus by EOKA, but it increasingly drew in the Turkish community when a new plan for unitary self-government, of British Governor Sir Hugh Foot, incited Turkish Cypriot riots and produced a hostile response from the Turkish Page 338 of 371

government. Violence between the two communities developed into a new and deadly feature of the situation. In the few years that existed before the Zurich and London Agreements of 1959/60 Greece tried again to win international recognition and support for the cause of enosis at the U.N. against a background of renewed and continuing EOKA violence directed against the British. It was to no avail. Eventually Greece had to recognise that Turkey was now a vitally interested party in the dispute. In 1958 the British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan prepared new proposals for Cyprus, but his plan which was a form of partition, was rejected by Archbishop Makarios. At that time, Makarios was living in Athens and was in close contact with the Greek Prime-Minister Constantinos Karamanlis. He came under a great deal of pressure from the British, as well as from Karamanlis, to abandon his aspiration for Enosis in favour of independence. He succumbed to the pressure and declared that he would only accept a proposal which guaranteed independence, excluding both Enosis and Taksim. Grivas and EOKA also had to accept the changed situation. Makarios could see no way of excluding Turkey from participating in any solution. It was widely believed by the Greek Cypriots that Britain had promoted the Turkish Cypriot case, thus preventing the achievement of Enosis. This was a key moment for Cyprus and Makarios himself. As with most Greek Cypriots, he had grown up believing in Enosis. He supported Grivas in his armed struggle against the British for self-determinations and union of Cyprus with Greece. There is no doubt that he came under pressure from Karamanlis and Britain, but his pragmatic decision to abandon Enosis in favour of Independence, acknowledged two things. Firstly, that the Turkish Cypriots, although a minority, had to be accommodated and that the Independent State of Cyprus, would be for all its citizens, both Greek and Turkish. Secondly, that Turkey, which was lurking in the background, should not be given an excuse to intervene. On February 19, 1959 the Zürich agreement attempted to end the conflict. Without the presence of either the Greek or the Turkish sides, the UK outlined a Cypriot constitution, which was eventually accepted by both sides. Both Greece and Turkey along with Britain were appointed as guarantors of the island's integrity. In March 1959, Grivas came out of his hideout and departed (in exile, requested by the UK as part of the ceasefire agreement) for Athens where he received a hero's welcome as the liberator of the Greek Cypriots and was subsequently decorated with the highest honours by the Greek Parliament and the Athens Academy and promoted to the rank of General. In the first Presidential elections in Cyprus, which took place on 13 December 1959, Makarios won with the support of EOKA. Only two candidates contested the election; Makarios, and Ioannis Klerides, a member of the Democratic Union who was also supported Page 339 of 371

by AKEL. Makarios received 66.8% of the vote. Voter turnout was 91.2%. Makarios did not take office until 16 August 1960. A separate election for Vice President of Cyprus took place. Fazil Kucuk was the only candidate and was elected unopposed. I think it is important to note, that the majority of EOKA fighters, supported Makarios’s position. When Makarios went to the polls in 1959, calling for an independent Cyprus for all its people, instead of Enosis, undoubtedly, some would have voted for him, irrespective of his policies. However, the majority of the Greek Cypriots, voted for him because they recognised the reality of the situation. A small minority, including Grivas, found this unacceptable. In fact, they considered it a betrayal of the ideals for which they fought and they viewed Makarios as a traitor. Grivas reluctantly ordered a cease-fire. On August 16, 1960 Cyprus was declared an independent state with Britain retaining control of two Sovereign Base Areas, at Akrotiri and Dhekelia. Some of the major points of the Zurich agreement were: • Cyprus to become an independent state. • Both Enosis and Taksim, to be prohibited. • Greek and Turkish military forces, at a ratio of approximately 3:2, are to be present at all time in Cyprus. Both forces are to answer to all three foreign ministers: of Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus. • The President is to be a Greek Cypriot, elected by the Greek Cypriot population, and the Vice President a Turkish Cypriot, elected by the Turkish Cypriot population. • The Cabinet is to include seven Greek Cypriots, chosen by the President, and three Turkish Cypriots, chosen by the Vice President. • Decisions will need an absolute majority, but both the President and the Vice President have the right of Veto. • The United Kingdom is to remain a guarantor and keep both of its military bases. The Zurich agreement, however, did not succeed in establishing cooperation between the Greek and the Turkish Cypriot populations. The Greek Cypriots argued that the complex mechanisms introduced to protect Turkish Cypriot interests, particularly the power of veto by the Vice-President, were obstacles to efficient government. Furthermore, a small number of Greek Cypriots still harboured the hope of Enosis. Page 340 of 371

In November 1963, President Makarios advanced a series of constitutional amendments designed to eliminate some of these special provisions. The Turkish Cypriots opposed such changes. The confrontation prompted widespread intercommunal fighting in December 1963, with casualties on both sides, reported to be 364 Turkish Cypriot deaths and 174 Greek Cypriot. On 23 December 1963, all Turkish Cypriots, from the lowest civil servants to ministers, including the Turkish Vice-President Dr Fazil Kucuk withdrew from the government. Makarios ordered a cease-fire and again addressed the issue to the United Nation. With the government no longer functional, following the forced withdrawal of Turkish Cypriot politicians, UN peacekeepers were deployed on the island in 1964, effectively recognising the Greek Cypriots as the government. The force, UNFICYP, included Canadian, Irish and Finnish troops. Its mandate was to prevent fighting and maintain law and order. In 1964 the UK Prime Minister, Sir Alec Douglass-Home, met with the American Attorney General, Robert Kennedy to explain why international intervention was required, stating that \"If they had not done so, there would probably have been a massacre of Turkish Cypriots\", who were confined in enclaves totalling little more than 3% of the island. The same year the Turkish parliament voted in favour of intervention in Cyprus but the lack of support that Turkey faced from both the UN and NATO prevented it. Grivas returned to Cyprus in 1964 after the outbreak of intercommunal violence between the two communities, to take over the Supreme Command of the Greek Cypriot forces organised under Makarios's National Guard as well as the Greek military division sent to Cyprus by the government of George Papandreou to assist in the island's defence against a possible Turkish attack. He directed the construction of defence forts and complexes aiming at withstanding a Turkish invasion. On 15 November 1967, Greek Cypriot National Guard under his direct command overran two small villages on the critical Larnaca, Limassol, Nicosia intersection, resulting in the deaths of 27 people, mostly armed Turkish Cypriot civilians as well as Turkish Cypriot paramilitaries at Kophinou and Agios Theodoros. The immediate result of this event was Turkey's ultimatum, which prompted the Greek military government to recall both the Greek Division and General Grivas to Athens. Following the outbreak of inter communal violence in 1967–68, a Turkish Cypriot provisional administration was formed. In the years between 1967 and 1974, various representatives of the United Nations (UN), as well as the governments of Britain and the United States, began initiatives and put forward plans for the resolution of the ‘Cyprus problem’ but all efforts failed. In 1974, the small minority of Greek Cypriots who still harboured the dream of Enosis, formed a terrorist organisation called EOKA-B, under the leadership of Grivas who returned to Cyprus in Page 341 of 371

secret. With the help of the junta in Greece, they staged a coup d’état against president Makarios and the legitimate government of Cyprus. This provided Turkey with the excuse it had been waiting for, to invade Cyprus and led to the great calamity which still keeps the island divided today (see further chapters below for more information). In January 2019, the British government agreed to pay £1 million to a total of 33 Cypriots who were allegedly tortured by British forces during the uprising. They included a woman, aged 16 at the time, who said she was detained and repeatedly raped by soldiers, and a man who lost a kidney as a result of his interrogation. The pay-out, followed the declassification of government documents in 2012, although Foreign Office minister Alan Duncan stated that \"the settlement does not constitute any admission of liability\" but that \"the government has settled the case in order to draw a line under this litigation and to avoid the further escalation of costs\" Below is the official document declaring the creation of the Republic of Cyprus, which I obtained from its State Archives: Page 342 of 371

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Archbishop Makarios III Makarios III (Greek: Μακάριος Γ΄) was born Michael Christodoulou Mouskos (Greek: Μιχαήλ Χριστοδούλου Μούσκος) on 13 August 1913 and died on 3 August 1977. He served as Archbishop and Primate of the autocephalous Church of Cyprus from 1950 to 1977 and as the first President of the Republic of Cyprus, from 1960 to 1977. In his three terms as president, he survived four assassination attempts and a coup d’état. He is widely regarded by Greek Cypriots as the Father of the Nation, or Ethnarch. Michael Christodoulou Mouskos was born in the village of Panagia in the district of Paphos. In 1926, aged 13, he was admitted to Kykkos monastery as a novice. At age 20 he was sent to the Pancyprian Gymnasium in Nicosia, where he completed his secondary education in 1936. He spent some of the difficult years of World War II studying theology and law at the University of Athens, graduating in 1942. He took up the duties of a priest in the Cypriot Orthodox Church while sustaining an interest in academic theology; he received a World Council of Churches scholarship to undertake further studies at Boston University in Massachusetts, USA. In 1948, while still studying at Boston, he was elected Bishop of Kition, against his will. Mouskos adopted the clerical name Makarios and returned to Cyprus. Like many public figures in the Greek Cypriot community in Cyprus, in the 1940s and 1950s he was an active supporter of Enosis, the union of Cyprus with Greece. On 18 September 1950, Makarios, only 37 years old, was elected Archbishop of Cyprus. In this role he was not only the official head of the Orthodox Church in Cyprus, but also became the Ethnarch or de facto national leader of the Greek Cypriot community. This highly influential position put Makarios at the centre of Cypriot politics. During the 1950s, Makarios embraced his dual role as Archbishop and Ethnarch with enthusiasm and became a very popular figure among Greek Cypriots. He soon became a leading advocate for Enosis and during the early part of the decade he maintained close links with the Greek government. In August 1954, partly at Makarios' instigation, Greece began to raise the question of Cyprus at the United Nations arguing for the principle of self- determination to be applied to Cyprus. This was viewed by advocates of Enosis as likely to result in the voluntary union of Cyprus with Greece following a public referendum. However, the British government was reluctant to decolonise the island which had become their new headquarters for the Middle East. In 1955, a pro-enosis organization was formed under the banner of National Organization of Cypriot Fighters, or EOKA. This was a typical independence movement of the period. Makarios undoubtedly had common political ground with EOKA and was acquainted with its leader, the soldier and politician George Grivas, but the extent of his involvement is unclear and disputed. In later life he categorically denied any involvement in the violent resistance undertaken by EOKA. Page 347 of 371

On 20 August 1955, Greece submitted a petition to the United Nations requesting the application of the principle of self-determination to the people of Cyprus. After that, the colonial government of Cyprus enforced the anti-sedition laws for the purpose of preventing or suppressing demonstrations in favour of union with Greece, but the archbishop defied them and continued demanding self-determination for Cyprus. In October 1955, with the security situation deteriorating, the British Governor, Sir John Harding, opened talks on the island's future. By this stage, Makarios had become closely identified with the insurgency, and talks broke up without any agreement in early 1956. Makarios, vilified in the British press as a crooked Cypriot priest and viewed with suspicion by the British authorities, was abducted by Special Branch officers while attempting to board a flight at Nicosia airport. The joint police/military plan, codenamed Operation Apollo, saw Makarios exiled to Mahe Island in the Seychelles, on 9 March 1956, as a 'guest' of Sir William Addis, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Seychelles. The Archbishop and his staff were flown to Aden and then on to Mombasa. At the Kenyan port the party were embarked in the East African Naval Vessel Rosalind, escorted by the frigate HMS Loch Fada. The flotilla arrived in Port Victoria on 14 March. In the latter years of the 1950s, the Turkish Cypriot community first began to float the idea of ‘Taksim’ or partition, as a counterweight to the Greek ideal of Enosis or union. Advocates of Taksim, felt that the Turkish Cypriot community would be persecuted by the Greek Cypriots and that only by keeping part of the island under either British or Turkish sovereignty could the safety of the Turkish Cypriots be guaranteed. In this way the ‘Cyprus Dispute’ was born and became increasingly polarized between two communities with opposing visions of the future of the island. Makarios was released from exile after a year, although he was still forbidden to return to Cyprus. He went instead to Athens, where he was rapturously received. Basing himself in the Greek capital, he continued to work for Enosis. During the following two years he attended the General Assembly of the United Nations where the Cyprus question was discussed and he worked hard to achieve union with Greece. However, Makarios came under pressure from Constantinos Karamanlis, who was the Prime Minister of Greece and the British, to abandon Enosis in favour of Cypriot independence. Negotiations in 1958 generated the ‘Zurich Agreement as a basis for a deal on independence, and Makarios was invited to London in 1959 to fine-tune the plan. Makarios at first refused to accept the plan. The reversal of his pro-enosis stance, and his eventual agreement to sign the conditions for the independence of Cyprus, have been attributed to moral persuasion on behalf of the Greek and British governments. On March 1, 1959, the archbishop returned to Cyprus to an unprecedented reception in Nicosia, where almost two-thirds of the adult Greek Cypriot population turned out to welcome him. Presidential Elections were held on 13 December 1959, in which Makarios defeated his rival, lawyer Ioannis Klerides, father of future president and Makarios ally Page 348 of 371

Glafkos Klerides, receiving two-thirds of the vote, even though AKEL supported Klerides. Makarios was to become the political leader of all Cyprus as well as the communal leader of the Greek Cypriots. After his election Makarios, together with the Vice-President-elect, Dr Fazil Kucuk, continued to draw up plans for Cyprus’ future. By now, Makarios had accepted that Enosis was not to be, and that the only outcome which could secure harmony in Cyprus was robust independence. Taking office on 16 August 1960, the day the Union Flag was lowered in Nicosia, Makarios moved towards the moderate centre of Cypriot politics and now pursued a policy of non-alignment, cultivating good relations with Turkey as well as Greece and becoming a high-profile member of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). In March 1961, Cyprus was admitted as member of the Commonwealth of Nations and Makarios represented the island at the Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference. He attended the Belgrade NAM conference in September 1961 and troubled the governments in London and Washington DC with his lukewarm policy towards the West. This was seen in the U.S. as demonstrating a tendency towards communism. Makarios was now being vilified in the American press as the “Castro of the Mediterranean” an accusation which had no basis in fact. However, he had by now been rehabilitated in the British press and was affectionately nicknamed \"Black Mak\" on account of his clerical garb. But the idea of an independent path for Cyprus had not taken root among the general public at home. There was increasing acrimony between Greek and Turkish Cypriots about the workings of the constitution, and Makarios was forced to act to salvage the machinery of state from imminent collapse. In November 1963, Makarios proposed thirteen amendments to the Constitution, which would free many public offices from the ethnic restrictions agreed in London and Zurich. This, he argued, would allow the government to operate more efficiently, and bring together the communities by dissolving rigid inter-ethnic legal boundaries. However, the amendments were seen by many Turkish Cypriots as threatening constitutional protections against domination by the majority Greek Cypriots. In response to Makarios' proposals, all Turkish Cypriots in public office, including Vice- President Küçük, resigned. Large numbers of Turkish Cypriots moved out of ethnically mixed areas into villages and towns where the population was already largely Turkish Cypriot. There is still dispute over the motives for this, some arguing that it was made necessary by the intimidation of the Turkish Cypriots by the Greek Cypriots; others suggest that the Turkish community was sabotaging the Cypriot settlement and already preparing for partition by Turkey. By the end of 1963, intercommunal violence had broken out. The political landscape in Cyprus remained intractable. UN peacekeeping operations (UNFICYP) commenced in 1964 and helped to soothe, but not solve, the situation. Makarios continued his high-profile neutrality, but ultimately failed either to reassure the Turkish Cypriots that they were safe in an independent Cyprus, or to convince all of the Greek Cypriots that independence was a satisfactory alternative to assimilation within a Greater Greece. Page 349 of 371

President Makarios, seeking a fresh mandate from his constituency, announced in January 1968 that elections would be held during February. Makarios received 220,911 votes (about 96%) and his opponent, Takis Evdokas, who ran on a platform for unification with Greece, received 8,577 votes. Even though there were 16,215 abstentions, Makarios' overwhelming victory was seen as a massive endorsement of his personal leadership and of an independent Cyprus. This was another key moment because it clearly illustrated to Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots, as well as the Greek Cypriot nationalists who still dreamed of Enosis, that the overwhelming majority of Greek Cypriots had abandoned Enosis in favour of independence. At his investiture, the president stated that the Cyprus problem could not be solved by force but had to be worked out within the framework of the UN. He also said that he and his followers wanted to live peacefully in a unitary state where all citizens enjoyed equal rights. Some Cypriots nationalists opposed Makarios' conciliatory stance and there was an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate him in 1970. In the meantime, in 1967, a military junta seized power in Athens and the relationship between the regime and Makarios was tense. Makarios held that the regime undermined his authority by supporting paramilitary organizations committed to Enosis. During the summer of 1971, tension built up between the two Cypriot communities, and incidents became more numerous. Sometime in the late summer or early autumn, Grivas (who had attacked Makarios as a traitor in an Athens newspaper) returned secretly to the island and began to rebuild his guerrilla organization, which became known as the National Organization of Cypriot Fighters (Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston B, aka EOKA-B). Three new newspapers advocating Enosis were also established. All of these activities were funded by the military junta in Greece. In its effort to resurrect the notion of Enosis, the junta would have agreed to some form of partition to settle the Cyprus question, but it faced rejection by Makarios. The overthrow of Makarios became the primary objective, and the junta backed Grivas toward that end. From hiding, Grivas directed terrorist attacks and propaganda assaults that shook the Makarios government, but the president remained both a powerful and popular leader. Relations between Nicosia and Athens reached a new low. Another element working against Makarios was the fact that most officers of the Cypriot National Guard, were Greek regulars and the junta ensured that only its supporters were sent to Cyprus. These officers embraced the junta’s desire to remove him from office and achieve some degree of Enosis. The veteran Grivas also continued to be a threat to the archbishop. He remained powerful and to some extent was independent of the junta that had permitted his return to Cyprus. While the Greek colonels were at times prepared to make a deal with Turkey about Cyprus, Grivas was ferociously opposed to any arrangement that did not lead to complete Enosis. Page 350 of 371