By George Koumoulli
The decision of DIKO and EDEK to support the creation of the “Grivas Museum” and the sponsorships to the Grivas Foundation is a black page in the history of Cyprus. Until recently, only DISY and ELAM were in favor of this idea, and this should not be surprising.
After the disaster of 1974, all the Eokabetadjis found shelter in their native Right, who lovingly opened her bosom to them and forgave all their crimes. At the memorial services for Grivas, his “manhoods” are displayed by official lips, while the president of DISY lays a wreath and the Minister of Education stands in an attitude of caution in front of his statue.
It seems surreal in a religious country, in the year 2022, where as a member of the EU we are supposedly committed to universal and timeless values and ideals, to honor crime.
I have no hesitation in saying that we have sunk to the bottom rung of humiliation.
This is mainly a moral rather than a political issue. It doesn’t matter that Grivas was far-right. What matters is that Grivas, in the conscience of the vast majority of the Cypriot people, is a criminal – he was the founder and leader of the criminal EOKA II.
Nevertheless, the Parliament decides to honor him with the creation of a “Grivas Museum”, which is an extreme example of a cult revival of crime. Once again we will be humiliated internationally, just as the Germans, the Italians, the Greeks would have been humiliated if they had made museums about Hitler, Mussolini, Ioannidis respectively.
No foreign observer can understand why the founder and leader of a criminal organization, EOKA II, who turned their arms against the Republic of Cyprus, should be honored by – oh, what an irony – the “fathers” of the Republic of Cyprus!
Of course, the change of attitude of the DIKO and EDEK parties regarding the establishment of the notorious museum, for which until recently they were negatively displaced, is surprising.
I will not comment on the change in DIKO – after all, no one can explain exactly what this party stands for. What is shocking, however, is the mutation of EDEK. When this party was founded (in 1969) it was the rival to the junta and EOKA II.
He honoured Cyprus with his resistance against the colonels’ dictatorship. It was the only party to hold demonstrations against the “national government”, as the junta was then called.
But where can we then imagine that the EDEKites would turn from tyrannists who were in the five years 1969-1974, to tyrannists half a century later? This is the conclusion that one can come to when EDEK votes, together with ELAM, to become the Grivas Museum.
A museum that will symbolize fascism, crime, dictatorship, the swastika, the skulls, the magic pedals. In summary, EDEK has greatly simmered, both morally and politically, the visions of ELAM and the navel-gazing of DISY. It has become unrecognizable!
But what is shocking to an unimaginable degree is that EDEK has mysteriously “forgotten” the brutal murder, at the behest of Grivas, an influential member of it in April 1973, Kokos Fotiou. Surely Photius’ bones will creak.
With what vigour does he vote in favour of the establishment of a museum, someone who was the instigator of Photius’ murder? With what vigour does EDEK vote when it knows that the criminal organization EOKA II, the founder of which was Grivas, attempted to assassinate Vassos Lyssaridis?
So far I have not heard the rationale for this rant from the official EDEK – no announcement came out.
A Latin saying says “Qui tacet consentit”, that is, the silencer consents. Two things happen: either the party leadership has suffered a total eclipse of memory and lust, or the ideology of ELAM has penetrated deeply into EDEK. Whatever the case, it is a sad conclusion of this party that now identifies with the far right.
I refuse, however, to believe that all the members of EDEK have been grafted by the fascist virus. Unquestionably, many members will disagree with their leadership’s decision. For example, just last January, the municipal councilor of EDEK Famagusta Dimitris Demetriou (Savoullis) said at the memorial service of Fotios: “At critical moments for the homeland and for Hellenism in general, lads such as Kokos Fotiou are impossible not to be honored, certainly anniversary, as they deserve.
The first martyr of the Cypriot resistance against the treacherous junta’s attempt at constitutional aberration, against the elected government of Archbishop Makarios, this first resistance lad of the honored faction of EDEK, was brutally murdered, 47 years ago, by the criminal fascist organization of EOKA II”.
As you can see, it is a rhetoric radically different from that of the extreme right, which makes one suspect that the EDEK MPs have not caught the pulse of the party members before approving the establishment of the notorious museum.
In conclusion, EDEK’s stance fosters and encourages grivism and fascism. As a socialist – as it boasts – party, not only does it not open any front against far-right perceptions and fascism, but on the contrary it offers provocative political cover to their actors.
*Opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of CypriumNews.
