Honouring Cypriot martyrs in London

Andros Kyprianou speaking

By New Worker correspondent

The leader of AKEL, the Cypriot communist party, paid tribute to two martyred comrades at an event in north London this week.

Andros Kyprianou joined others in recalling the sacrifice of the two communists at a meeting at the Cypriot Community Centre in Wood Green on Monday, called in honour of Dervis Ali Kavazoglou and Costas Misaoulis who were campaigning to end the sectarian violence that was undermining the island that had only recently broken the shackles of British imperialism. The communists, who came from both sides of the Cypriot community, were killed by reactionary Turkish-Cypriot TMT movement gunmen on 11^th April 1965.

Fifty-four years have passed since their cowardly assassination by these agents of imperialism. In one of the darkest turns of Cyprus’ history when chauvinism and bigotry took up arms to divide the people, when partitionist imperialist plans were drawn up and elaborated one after the other, the Peoples Movement of the Left, which was fighting for genuine independence and the unity of people of the island, stood up and resisted these plans.

Kavazoglou and Misaoulis were devoted to the struggle of the Cypriot people, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots alike, to remain united; to combat the hatred and fanaticism; to forge a wall of resistance to nationalism and strengthen the common struggle of the two communities for the salvation of their common homeland.

Dervis Ali Kavazoglou, a member of the Central Committee of AKEL and Costas Mishaoulis, a cadre in the class-based PEO trade union and a member of the District Committee of AKEL Nicosia, with their sacrifice became the symbol of this struggle. The terrorist murderers of the fascist TMT organisation set up an ambush at a turn on the Nicosia-Larnaca road, killing them in the most barbaric way. The two comrades were murdered but they have never died!

Their final embrace drowned in blood became the banner of the people’s struggle that to this day is raised high and rallies the people under the slogan “One country-One People!”.

Back then, you had to be bold and courageous to be a Kavazoglou. You needed courage to be a Misaoulis. You needed faith and conviction, an uncompromising ethos and dedication to the people’s struggle. Despite constant warnings, the two comrades defied the dangers and death itself. Their murderers ignored the truth: they murdered them because they feared them. The fascists feared what Cypriots, united, would say and do. Today, although dead, they fear Kavazoglou and Misaoulis even more because their murder was a sacrifice that inspires the Cypriot people today.