The Minister of Defence of the Republic of Cyprus, Mr. Vassilis Palmas, attended the annual commemoration of the fallen of the 3rd Company of the 211th Infantry Battalion. Here is his eulogy:

“It’s not Nicosia tonight

the city of sweet summer,

[…] Tonight in the straits they play death,

every corner fire and struggle.

Nicosia is fighting tonight

and it falls […]” .

“The lyrics of the poem “Nicosia, evening 15.7.74” by our poet Michalis Passiardi inevitably recall the most tragic and turbulent summer experienced by our homeland in the short history of its modern history. 

Through the images of a city on fire and fighting, the lyrics bring back the images of death and destruction, capturing with shocking immediacy the climate of the coup and the deadly conflicts between brothers, which shook our island. 

Nicosia, from a city of sweet summer, was transformed into a field of fire and struggle, without the protagonists of the crime feeling the worst suffering and the destruction that would follow.

A little over twenty-four hours later, Turkey, seizing the opportunity, put its long-term planning into action and barbarically attacked the island. 

Turkish troops on July 20, 1974, began to spread death and destruction in Cyprus.

With profound respect and appreciation, but also pain of soul, we came today to the Holy Church of Agia Varvara in Kaimakli, in the area where fifty years ago the honored fallen of the 3rd Company of 211 watered with their salty blood, to pay the due tribute that it is appropriate to their sacrifice and to pray to the highest for ascertaining the fate of all our missing persons.

Today, we mentally go back half a century and relive with awe the devastation brought to Cyprus by “Attila” in 1974. 

The 211th Infantry Battalion was responsible for protecting the capital, with the 3rd Company defending its northern suburbs. In the location that surrounded Neapolis, Trachona, Omorphita, the North Pole, and Kaimakli. The Company was organized into three Rifle Platoons, a Support Platoon, and a Command Group and manned a total of thirty-three outposts in an arcuate line of approximately five kilometers, as provided for in the Defense Plan.

When the calm dawn of July 20, 1974, was torn apart by the roar of Turkish warplanes invading the Cypriot sky, the people of Kyrenia watched with horror the warships conquering their beloved sea. 

Before the start of the Turkish landing on the “Five Mile” coast, Nicosia was subjected to heavy air bombardment. At the same time, hundreds of Turkish paratroopers flooded the plain in front of the districts of Trachona, Neapoli, Kaimakli, and Omorfita. 

In the area of ​​responsibility of the 3rd Company, before the dawn of the second day, at 4:40 in the morning, a surprise Turkish raid was carried out against the “1096” outpost, which was located on the “Choirostasiou” hill.

By 05:30, the entire area of ​​the suburbs of Trachona and Neapolis and the outposts of the North Pole were being bombarded by heavy machine gun, mortar, and artillery fire. 

Black smoke covered the entire front of the Company’s sector. 

The area had turned into an inferno of fire.

In the first critical twenty-four hours after the Turkish invasion, the Levantine defenders of the capital, nurtured with the threads of the Greek ideal and the principles and values ​​of the tribe, faced history head-on and, without a second thought, found themselves fighting at the front in an unequal war conflict.

They were young people, full of enthusiasm and anticipation for the future, some family heads and young fathers leaving their homes and children. 

They were lads who were called upon to shoulder the burden of history. 

Responding positively to the call of the motherland, they rushed to the front line. 

During the first day of the fight, with steely morale and entrenched in their positions, despite the strong pressure they were under, they did not allow the enemy to gain any substantial advantage. The exchange of fire continued throughout the night of July 20. 

From the dawn of the next day, the Turkish forces, now reinforced with paratroopers, with continuous attacks sought to break the front lines. The 3rd Company’s area of ​​responsibility was attacked with heavy weapons. The outposts of the 3rd Platoon, in the area of ​​Omorfita, and especially outpost 1103, received particularly heavy fire. 

In the evening, the efforts of the invaders intensified with merciless, furious pounding. Nevertheless, the young, inexperienced defenders of the outposts put up a proverbial resistance and did not allow the enemy to achieve their goal. 

On July 22, and until the ceasefire, the suffocating pressure exerted by the superior Turkish forces and the attacks they launched against the positions of the 211th continued unabated, without succeeding in breaking the defense lines.

Despite all the losses and the penetration achieved by the Turkish army, the fighters of the Company were determined to continue to vigorously defend the homeland.

Tooth and nail, they made every effort to hold their defensive line. 

Although this was not possible in the end, with the self-sacrifice and self-abnegation they demonstrated, they wrote pages of admirable levity and resistance. 

On their side they had the local population, who during the battles reinforced them with food and other materials and encouraged them to continue fighting for the defense of the fatherland.

In the period that followed, until 13 August, the Company was engaged in organizing a new defensive location by digging new trenches and building other fortified positions.

During the second phase of the Turkish invasion, the men of the 3rd Company continued to fight over the top to prevent the enemy from taking over the capital.

They fought with heroism and self-sacrifice in a largely betrayed and unequal struggle, offering their lives on the altar of duty to the country and watering the tree of its freedom with their blood. 

Ladies and gentlemen,

The 3rd Company of the 211th Infantry Battalion suffered heavy losses in the shocking struggle to defend the northern suburbs of the capital.

Fifty-one dead and missing. They sanctified the sacred lands that gave birth and raised them and became an example to follow for the coming generations of Greeks of Cyprus. 

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“The motherland is the cause and teacher of all that people regard as respectable and divine,” the orator Lucian teaches us throughout time, “since she gave birth to them, raised them, and educated them.” For this holy homeland, the men we commemorate today fought until the end and died heroically. 

The honored blood-stained battlefields, where the freedom fighters of Cyprus breathed their last, are eternal and indisputable witnesses to their militancy and unsurpassed heroism.

Today, from this sacred space, commemorating the heroic fall of the 3rd Company of the 211th Infantry Battalion, we simultaneously renew the promise that we will continue the sacred struggle to defend the values ​​and ideals bequeathed to us by our ancestors. 

We pledge that we will continue to strive by overcoming every adversity and facing every challenge. We do not ignore the objective difficulties, limitations, and scopes. 

We have received the honored blood-stained baton, and we renew the oath to maintain the struggle we are waging until the final vindication of our long-suffering homeland.

We owe this to those who, faithful to the call, defended the freedom and territorial integrity of our homeland. We owe this to those who mourned the loss of their children, grandchildren, husbands, and fathers. 

This is our debt to those who to this day seek, with pain and anguish, answers to the fate of their loved ones. This is our debt to those who “left” with the plague of liberation and returned to our occupied territories. We owe this to our history.

The combativeness shown by the soldiers of the 3rd Company of the 211th Infantry Battalion steals our endurance and faith in the effort to lift the prolonged occupation, liberation, and reunification of our homeland.

May the memory of the fallen fighters that we commemorate today and of all the heroes of our country be eternal, and may the almighty listen to our prayers and supplications for the redemption of our country and ascertain the fate of all our missing brothers.

Thank you.”

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