The Minister of National Defence Panos Kammenos, accompanied by the Chief of HAGS Lieutenant General Vassilios Tellidis, in the context of his visit to Cyprus for the celebrations on the occasion of the Cypriot National Anniversary of April 1st 1955, visited the 1st and 2nd Mechanised Battalion of the Hellenic Force in Cyprus (ELDYK).  

Afterwards he attended the literary memorial service of the murdered, on March 20 1994, Theofilos Georgiadis at the headquarters of the Cyprus’ Commando Reserve Officers Association. The service was also attended by the Minister of Defence of the Republic of Cyprus Christoforos Fokaides.

The Minister of National Defence stated in his speech the following, among other things:

“Those were the times when the establishment of a Kurdish state was brought up publicly for the first time. Unfortunately, there were some people, and I believe that history will not simply obliterate them, who characterized as terrorists all those who referred to the liberation of the Kurdish people, the establishment of a Kurdish state and the right of Kurds to self-determination; to their right to speak their language, honour their values and their nation. Of course, things have changed now and they all help the Kurd fighters establish a Kurdish state. And, since I want to be fair, even those who had shut their doors when Abdullah Öcalan needed to be taken in. Naturally, there was treason from Greece too, from those who handed over Abdullah Öcalan, severely harming the struggle that Theofilos had started”.

“The Kurdish fighters, who had trusted us for their national struggle for liberation, even reached a point to trust the Greeks no more and consider them to be traitors; of course they were right, since it was a Greek minister who handed him over, Theodoros Pagkalos, in cooperation with Prime Minister Simitis”.

“Theofilos was the one who deconstructed the myth of an omnipotent Turkish state. He was the one who assumed a very hard task, to help the ethnic groups, whom Turkish propaganda had managed to put to conflict one to another, approach each other. Because Turkey, as Theofilos always used to say, made the nations it conquered massacre each other, so that Turkey would dominate”.

“If, in the following months, we will have the establishment of a Kurdish state, I want you to know that his soul will rest in peace even more after today’s political memorial service. May his memory be eternal”.