The Alternate Minister of National Defence Dimitris Vitsas, along with the Defence Minister of the Republic of Cyprus Christoforos Fokaides, attended the inauguration ceremony of the monument to Evangelos K. Loukas (Koutalianos), Salaminian captain of the Merchant Marine (1905-1983), who participated in the National Resistance (1941-1945) and in Cypriots’ liberation struggle (1955-1959), which was held on Salamis island, on Sunday, June 5, 2016.
The Alternate Minister, in his address, stressed that “the remembrance of the heroic resistance and loyalty to freedom are diachronically the bonds that unite, across the centuries, the Greeks with their Cypriot brothers”; and added that “it is a sacred duty and a supreme commitment for us to struggle for the values of dignity, resistance and self-sacrifice. Koutalianos’ words in the criminal Court of Paphos are a proof of it: “As Greek, I did my duty, as I helped you once, I am now helping me Cypriot brothers because I have proved that I am a fan of freedom”. These words made the conquerors themselves to acknowledge his dignity and his fair struggle”. And the Alternate Minister concluded: “We offer the least we can today, we honour his memory and we offer his sacrifice as a heritage to the next generations; because only the peoples who keep their memory and their history alive can move onto the future with firm steps”.
