The Minister of National Defence Panos Kammenos accompanied by the Chief of HNDGS Admiral Evangelos Apostolakis and the Chief of HAGS Lieutenant General Alkiviadis Stefanis, attended the ceremony of the handover of the remains of 17 Greek soldiers, fallen and initially declared missing in Cyprus, which was held in Nicosia.

The Minister of National Defence made the following address:

“I bow down before the respectable relatives of the heroes. With feelings of awe, deep emotion and national pride, we gathered here today, with the healthy respect, to pay the due tribute to the heroic soldiers from Greece who fell during the notorious Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, as well as the fallen of the guard ship PHAETHON in 1964.

Everybody was performing a national mission and participated in a war. They were not participating in an exercise or in a secret mission, as some people said today. This is the truth and our country is proud of them.

We genuflect before the heroes:

Lieutenant Colonel Vasileios Panagopoulos
Colonel (INF) Vasileios Papalamprou

Reserve Warrant Officers (INF)
Athanasios Karageorgos
Argyrios Sinnis
Ioannis Konstantakopoulos
Georgios Chamouriotakis
Konstantinos Brodimas
Georgios Zervomanolis
Vasileios Triantis
Manousos Triantafyllidis
Nikolaos Kritikos
Nikolaos Athanasiou

Reserve Warrant Officers (Raiders)
Sotirios Kourounis
Stefanos Tsilivakis

Reserve Warrant Officer (Engineer)
Eleftherios Anthis

Reserve Warrant Officer of the Hellenic Navy (Guard ship Faethon)
Nikolaos Niafas.

We bow down, once more, before those heroes who fell in the battle against the invaders; those who continue the glorious history of the Armed Forces through their example, which has been written with the blood of known and unknown Greek soldiers. Words are not enough to describe their contribution to our nation.

43 years ago, our honoured heroes, together with other meritorious young men of our Land reinforced the unequal combat of the Greek Cypriot forces in Cyprus, remaining loyal to the oath they had taken and respecting the principle of lying here “obedient to their words”.

They were not afraid to die and they gave this example to the next generations of Greeks who believe in the value of freedom; who believe that there are principles and notions for which it is worth giving the last drop of our blood and our last breath. They fell for our land and they define our mission and our duty.

Many brave men of Greece and Cyprus have been buried in the sacred land of Cyprus, in the sacred Greek land of Cyprus; they were killed bearing the burden of History; of a history that has always been bearing heroes and continues bearing heroes even in peace time.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Our Cypriot brothers have assumed the burden to contribute actively to the vindication of Cyprus, to the consolidation of peace and the reunification of this island.

I convey you their message of solidarity and I declare you straightforward that Cypriot Greeks have the continuous support of the entire Greek people.

Our view that a constant cooperation and full coordination of our two governments is required for Cyprus to be free and united, for the invasion and occupation troops to withdraw and for the anachronism of guarantees to be abolished, has not changed.

With my presence here, I honour the devotion, respect and interest of all of you in the history of Greek Cypriots which underlines the common history of the Greek people and forms an example of the unity and the cooperation and stresses the importance of our common effort once more.

Dear relatives of the fallen heroes,

We are very grateful to you. I would like to thank you and express my deep appreciation, and I assure you, being aware of the sorrow and anxiety you have been living all these years – I met some of you back in 1994 – that we will continue to fulfil our duty towards the heroes and their families. This was my top priority when I took office as Minister of National Defence in Greece.

Honour and glory to those heroes who gave their lives for our country!

Officers of the Hellenic Armed Forces, of the Hellenic Army and the Hellenic Navy who return to your land today, we will accompany you with the military leaders of the Hellenic Armed Forces with all the due respect. You fell for our land on the Greek soil of Cyprus and today you come back to mainland Greece.

We will receive you as we ought to have received you many years ago. On behalf of the Greek state, I can say only one thing to you; that I apologize for all these years that passed, I apologize because some people believed that your sacrifice should have been hushed up for the sake of good relations; when the animals of the opposite side were killing, without respecting even the rules of war.

Today they violate our national air space at the same time when we pay respect to our heroes. Some people believed that we should not react and wait for the situation to ease. No. Our land’s duty is to make your sacrifice a legacy for the next generations and this is what it does today.

I am grateful to the President of the Republic of Cyprus, to the Cypriot government and the Committees that gave their souls all these years for the truth to be revealed.

I promise you, your Excellence Mr. President, that we will honour this confidence. We receive the heroes and take them back to their land, we pay them tribute, yet we will continue until the very last hero who gave his soul for tormented Cyprus, comes back.

We acknowledged the sacrifice of commander Mitsatsos of the guard ship FAETHON, who fought for Greece in 1964 here in Cyprus. Some people thought that admiral should no longer be acknowledged as hero. He lived amputated for several decades and some people did not give him priority in hospital services because this mission should not be revealed.

This is the truth that we restore today, with the support of the President of the Republic of Cyprus, the Greek President, the Greek Prime Minister, and the assistance of the Ministers of the Cypriot Government.

We genuflect before the heroes and let us all pay the due tribute to those immortal heroes.”