Cyprus: 62 years since EOKA started the struggle to free Cyprus

It was the effort of the Greek-Cypriots to throw off the English yoke, since then the island was a British colony. Many fighters died, hanged in the British prisons and their names passed in the modern history of Greek Nation.

In the Cypriot capital, the benchmark events took place in the “Imprisoned Graves” -as the cemetery within the Nicosia Central Prison is called. It was created by the British as a small walled area near death row and it is where nine fighters were buried after their execution on the gallows.

In “Imprisoned Graves” rested four other EOKA fighters who died fighting. The British refused to give the bodies of the heroes to their families, fearing popular demonstrations during the funerals. They were buried in the prison cemetery, like hanged.

Finally, in 1959, Cyprus was granted independence but not the union with Greece that was the prime objective of the struggle.