By George Koumoullis
My last article, published on August 15, (Roads should be named for the worthy) elicited a response from the President of the Association of Eoka Fighters Thasos Sophocleous in Politis, in which the article was also published. Reading his response, under the headline ‘The shamelessness about Dighenis’, I was reminded of the classic book The Open Society and its Enemies by renowned Austrian philosopher Karl Popper. Popper would never have imagined that 76 years after the publication of his best-known book the enemies of open society in Cyprus would not just be the supporters of totalitarianism and racism but also ‘leaders’ of society or high-standing personalities.
An ‘open society’ puts in place liberty, humanity, democracy, equality and encourages critical thought. In short, such a society incorporates all the principles on which the civilisation of all democratic countries was built, with ancient Athens as the starting point. In contrast, ‘closed society’ is that which relies on the exclusion of the ‘other’ (race, ideas, faiths, sexual orientations, etc, on suppression, the prohibition of criticising and doubting which are the features of illiberal regimes. These are the causes of our under-development (as we are reminded by the reaction of Mr Sophocleous), but also the reasons preventing us overcoming them.
In my article about the renaming of avenues, I expressed the view – which I firmly believe is shared by many Greek Cypriots – that the renaming of Avenue was a matter of urgency. I said the name of the most-used road in the capital conjured negative thoughts – fascism, crime, dictatorship, Eoka B. I pointed out that it was paradoxical to honour the founder and leader of a criminal organisation like Eoka B, which turned its guns against the Cyprus Republic and was responsible for many killings. I also stressed there was no country in the world in which the criminal code allows the acquittal of criminals for a prior honest and celebrated life. These views were labelled by Mr Sophocleous as “shamelessness”, as would have happened in any closed society in which someone dared to utter a ‘heretical’ view. And as if this were not enough, he christened me “wretched” for my “audacity” in doubting the “legend” of Grivas.
What surprises in Mr Sophocleous’ response is the complete absence of any reference to the criminal activity of Eoka B. He avoids any comment on this aspect of Grivas’ activity. There is not a paragraph, a sentence, a word about Eoka B. I consider it futile to discuss the matter with him given his refusal to respond on the substance of what I wrote. Why has he not clarified his position on Eoka B? Could he have been a member? Or perhaps he does not agree that it was a criminal organisation? Given that he persistently refuses to answer these questions, we could conclude he is a secret apologist of the gang that contributed to the destruction of Cyprus.
Selectively, the President of the Association of Fighters refers to the “brave feats” of Grivas in 1943 in occupied Greece. Skilfully, though, he avoids saying anything about the close cooperation of Grivas’ ‘X’ organisation and the Security Battalions of the Nazis. I quote from the book Inside Hitler’s Greece by Mark Mazower, Professor of History at Columbia University in New York. “The gunmen of ‘X’ exchanged fire with the patrols of ELAS and took part in important operations, on the side of the Security Battalions.” In other words, Grivas cooperated with the German occupiers, which qualified him as a collaborator.
We were also reminded by Mr Sophocleous that the House of Representatives declared Grivas a “worthy son of the country.” He refers, of course, to a House with a dubious record. In 1967 flouting the pledge of deputies to show faith and respect for the Constitution and laws and to safeguard the independence and territorial integrity of the Cyprus Republic, the House unanimously voted in favour of Enosis, that is in favour of the dissolution of the Republic. We should also not forget that most deputies pandered to the Greek Junta. They elevated the miserable agent of the CIA Georgios Papadopoulos to the status of national saviour. They elevated the semi-literate Stylianos Patakos and his cronies to teachers of wisdom. They elevated the immoral Junta officials to paragons of virtue. So these same deputies elevated Grivas to a “worthy son of the country.” Big deal!
I should remind Mr Sophocleous that the criminal activity of Grivas was publicly censured by political leaders, not just of the Left, but also of the Right. In January 1974 Glafcos Clerides condemned in the House the “despicable acts of violence” ordered by the general. He noted that Grivas, “acting in this way, he never weighed or took into account the consequences of the illegality on our national issue… he armed the other community with unassailable arguments on matters of internal security.” On January 17 of the same year, in comments to the newspaper Eleftheria, Tassos Papadopoulos said “the builder Dighenis has now become Grivas the destroyer,” adding: “There is no room today for a dilemma on lawfulness between Dighenis and Grivas, because the legend of Dighenis of Eoka, has been shattered and obliterated by Eoka B.”
*Opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of CypriumNews.
