"We must continue our efforts to find a solution to the Cyprus problem that ensures the sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of Cyprus," said Defense Minister Vasilis Palmas, who represented the President of the Republic at the memorial service for those who fell during the Turkish invasion in the community of Kampos, on Sunday.

Noting the unfulfilled debt owed to the homeland and to the heroic fallen, Mr. Palmas said that “we have a historical and national duty to continue the just struggle we are waging until we achieve the long-awaited liberation and reunification of our homeland.”

As he said, “we must, with prudence and wisdom, continue our efforts until we reach a solution to the Cyprus problem that ensures the sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of Cyprus. A solution that will safeguard human rights and fundamental freedoms and ensure, in conditions of peace, prosperity, and progress, the future of the entire Cypriot people.”

Referring to the heroes Ioannis Achilleos, Andreas Giorgalidis, Aris Mavroskoufis, Christos Kalaitzis, Christakis Christodoulidis, Themistoklis Drako, Evangelos Evripides, Charalambos Fantaros, Theocharis Kimi, and Charalambos Antoniou, the Minister said that the battlefields where they fought and gave their lives “stand as irrefutable testimony to their fighting spirit and great heroism.”

He also emphasized our responsibility to determine the fate of the missing residents of the community: Andreas Christodoulides, Andreas Christoforou, and Theofanis Orfanou, as well as all our missing compatriots, so that this tragic aspect of the Turkish invasion may finally come to an end.

As the Minister said, “with their bravery and fortitude, under dramatic and adverse conditions, in a homeland that was trying to rebuild itself after the coup of July 15, 1974, and the Turkish invasion that followed, they emerged as models of self-denial and self-sacrifice”.