•• • • • • The Child Heroes of Cyprus • • • • • • • • I ii . • "i.. ,..•.. \1·· . . .. ~1... I .·~I • ··~ ·111 • • • • by Shannon Nakamoto Undergraduate Senior Thesis • History Department • California State Polytechnic University, Pomona • June 9, 2009 • Advisor: Dr. Amanda Podany • • • • • It was a tense morning in Nicosia in 1956. The people of Cyprus were in a state of • emergency according to the British government, with the growth of a nationalist guerrilla • organization known as EOKA, led by General Georghios Grivas. The new Colonial • Governor, Field Marshal Sir John Harding, had called for the surrender of EOKA and • General Grivas, and the allotted time window was soon to come to a close. 1 • Everyone was waiting to see what would happen, when laughter cut the air on the • streets of Nicosia. A lone mule was walking the streets of the capital city loaded with • wooden swords and toy guns, carrying a sign that said "My Marshal, I surrender." Even • Harding's men laughed at the animal as it passed. It was not long before the mule became • • something of a national joke.2 Other than that lone mule, not a single person surrendered; • not exactly the response Harding had been expecting. • The mule was a brilliant publicity move on the part of EOKA. It assured the • people of Cyprus that EOKA was doing well and there was no cause to worry. Who had • It • come up with this idea? made the very thought of surrender to the British something to • be laughed at. Neither Grivas, nor any of his loyal assistants could take credit for the • idea. Renos Lyssiotis, a student and the leader of the nationalist youth in Nicosia, came • up with the idea the idea through one of the young girls in his group. She had boasted that • only a donkey would be stupid enough to surrender. He immediately got a group together • to set the mule free in the main street ofNicosia.3 • Soon alter this event, Harding's men were desperately trying to find General • Grivas. They felt that, if they could capture EOKA's leader, the entire movement would • • 1 George (Georghios) Grivas, The Memoirs ofGeneral Grivas, ed. Charles Foley (New York: Frederick A. Praeger Inc., 1965), 89. • 2 Ibid. • 3 Ibid. • • '• • • collapse. Security forces, acting on a tip, moved in on the home of Niki J\rtemiou, • arresting her and confiscating documents in her possession. She was one of the mail • couriers for EOKA, located in Nicosia. Worried about what would happen if J\rtemiou • were to give any information to her captors, Grivas acted immediately, changing • everyone from the current system of communication to a back-up one in order to protect • his and his men's whereabouts.4 • To Grivas' great surprise, Artemiou would be interrogated for some time, but • would not say a word. Artemiou even had a letter smuggled out to Grivas. It was written • in lemon juice and looked to the naked eye like a blank piece of paper. The letter told • Grivas valuable information about what the British knew and the kinds of questions they • were asking her. Niki Artemiou was eighteen years old. 5 • In November 1956, Harding announced new emergency regulations, making it a • mandatory death sentence for anyone found carrying weapons. It was not until March • 1957, however, that the colonial government would convict anyone of carrying weapons. • On the morning of March 14, 1957, Evagoras Pallikarides was the first man to be hanged • 6 7 • under this new statute when he was discovered with a gun hidden on his pack donkey. • Just before Pallikarides' execution, the inmates of the Nicosia Central Prison protested by • banging on the walls and singing the Greek national anthem. Other protests spread across • the island.8 To this day, Pallikaridcs is considered a martyr. His childhood home in • • • 4 Ibid., 124. 5 Ibid. • 6 "Cyprus Fighters Propose a Truce," New York Times, 15 March 1957, p. 4. • 7 Grivas, Merno;rs, 121. • '"Cyprus Fighters Propose a Truce," p. 4. • 2 • • • • Tsada, in the hills overlooking Paphos, is now a memorial site, with events held there in • his honor. 9 Pallikarides was only eighteen years old when he was hanged. 10 • Stories like these abound in the history of the nationalist movement of Cyprus. • Through them we can see that the children of Cyprus threw themselves into the battle • against British rule. It can be fairly said that the movement was successfol largely due to • their participation, ingenuity and sheer determination. At times inspiring, shocking, and • even funny, the story of the youth involvement in the nationalist movement of Cyprus is • largely untold. • The youth of Cyprus would help the movement in many ways. Foremost among • these was that they would act as a pool for EOKA to recruit its fighters from. Moreover, • they kept up the morale of the Cypriot people, incited patriotic demonstrations, and • gained international attention. When someone was injured or killed in the fight against • the British forces in Cyprus, it was easy to overlook. When that person was a teenager, or • worse, a small child, Britain would immediately receive international scorn for barbarity. • The Cypriot students are frequently underestimated in the analysis of their • activities in the nationalist movement. Scholars are quick to blame General Grivas or • Greek education for the growth of violence among the youth of Cyprus. There was an • incredible amount of initiative on the part of the youth, however. The role of Grivas and • of Cypriot education can not be completely disregarded, but also can not be correctly • called the sole factors behind the massive youth cry for enosis, or union with Greece. • The children of Cyprus fought for enosis with such fervor that it took everyone by • surprise. "Our first major demonstration was on 24 May 1955, when some 700 pupils • 9 The writer attended a concert at his childhood home in the summer of2008. 0 • ' "Cyprus Fighters Propose a Truth," p. 4. • 3 • • • • threw themselves into the struggle with such determination that the police bolted before • them, pursued by a hail of stones, and the army had to be called out. Atler that, nothing • could hold the schools back." 11 Surprises for the British continued; in the words of • General Grivas, "The British were baffled to find that the enemy throwing bombs was a • sixteen-year-old schoolboy, or that those distributing revolutionary leaflets were ten-year­ • olds from the primary schools. They tried to frighten children away from the movement • 12 • and persuade parents to keep them indoors." • It is incorrect to blame General Grivas for the students' nationalist fervor. It can • also be argued that their education, though an influence on all children, is not to blame • for the growth of violence on the part ofthe youth of Cyprus. Their education, in the • early years of British rule certainly promoted eventual union with Greece, but there is • evidence that the many students hoped for this union passively. Students primarily • pursued diplomatic means in the formative years of the nationalist movement. While • there was a certain level of nationalist violence among the students in the earlier years of 1 • the 20 h century, it could hardly be compared to the strength of the youth in the 1950s, • when the situation became classified as an emergency by the British government. • Historical Background • The history of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus has been one of successive • occupations. The people of the island have been subject to Assyrian, Egyptian, Persian, • Greek, Roman, Ptolemaic, Arab, Byzantine, Templar, Lusignian, Venetian, Ottoman, • Turkish and even British rule. Each of these groups has leti an indelible stamp on the • culture of Cyprus. The most influential of these is certainly Greek. Modern Cypriots 11 Grivas, Memoirs, 34. • 12 • Ibid., 34-35. • 4 •• • • • speak Greek, follow Greek culinary customs and cultural norms, claim Greek history and • descent as their own, and profess themselves to be children of"Mother Greece." It is this • fact that led to a sort of Greek nationalism which came to a head in the 1950s, in which • the people of Cyprus called for enosis. • Starting in 1878, Cyprus was given to England by the Ottoman Empire for • administrative purposes. It was not until 1923, 13 with the Treaty of Lausanne, that • 14 • complete control of Cyprus and the Dodecanese was given to the British and they • became Crown Colonies. The rise of nationalism and anti-colonialism worldwide made • the growth of interest in enosis something that should have been expected. Equally • expected was Britain's reluctance to acknowledge it. The British were on the verge of • losing their Middle East strongholds in Egypt and Britain hoped to retain Cyprus as their • last major Middle East post. When Britain granted the Dodecanese to Greece in 1947, • despite Turkish objections, the enosis movement in Cyprus was further strengthened. • There were more than just British interests in the retention of Cyprus as a colony. • The largest enterprise on the island, the Cyprus Mines Corporation, was owned by the • Mudd family of Los Angeles, California. The company annually produced • $25,000,000.00 in copper and pyrites. K.J. Hendrick, manager of the Cyprus Mines • Corporation, told the New York Times, "if they had enosis we would be kicked out on our • ear and the place nationalized."15 • In 1950, the Cypriot Orthodox Church held a referendum to discover if the people • truly desired enosis, since the colonial government refused to perform one when the • • 13 Ibid., 44. 14 A group of Greek islands, located off the southwest coasts of Turkey • 15 • Homer Bigart, "Cypriote Pupils Bedevil British," New York Times, 7 February 1956, p. 3. • 5 • • • • church challenged their position that the Cypriot people preferred British rule. The result • of this referendum was overwhelmingly in favor of enosis. • The British authorities took no official notice of the plebiscite held in • 1950, their argument being that it was an unofficial polling, instigated by a seditious body, the Church of Cyprus or Ethnarchy, and without validity in • any case [...] Greek communal leaders reply that the Church held the • plebiscite only after the British Governor had been asked to do so and had • refused. 16 • When Britain continually showed itself unwilling to release Cyprus to Greece, the • enosis movement gradually turned violent. It was at this time that two great leaders came • to the rescue of the Greek people of Cyprus. The first of these was Archbishop Makarios • who became ethnarch of Cyprus and the official representative of the Greek Cypriots. • The second was General Georghios Grivas. retired officer of the Greek army, who • returned to his native land of Cyprus to launch a guerrilla campaign against the British. A • central factor in this attempt would be the youth of the island. • The struggle ended, not with enosis as the students of Cyprus had hoped, but with • independence. The reasons for this did not lie in any shortcomings within EOKA itself, • but from the very violent reaction from the Turkish community and from the British • government's willingness to exploit the growing tensions between the Greek and Turkish • communities in Cyprus in order to retain power. 17 The people of Cyprus felt that enosis • would still eventually be a possibility now that they had self rule. This would of course • prove impossible with the vocal Turkish minority and the eventual invasion of Turkey in • • 16 A.C. Sedgwick, '"Anti-British Tide Rising in Cyprus," New York Times, 6 March 1951, p. 14 . • 17 Kyriacos C. Markides, The Rise and Fall ofthe Cyprus Republic (New Haven: Yale University Press, • 1977), 19. • 6 • • • • 1974. Still, it is argued that calling for anything short of enosis would have never • captured the hearts of the youth in the same way. • It must also be remembered that enosis was not just a chimera, impossible • of attainment, since the ceding of Cyprus to Greece had been actively • considered by Britain on more than one occasion, and the Dodecanese had become part of Greece. The notion of independence had not yet emerged • as a cause worth fighting for, and could certainly not have replaced enosis • in the hearts of the people or fired the patriotic imagination of the youth on • whom the waging of the struggle would depend. 18 • Historiography • Few scholars on the topic deny the significance of the youth involvement in the • independence movement. Fewer still, however, discuss the reasons why this is true or go • into any level of detail regarding the activities of the younger members of the movement. • Very little has been written on youth involvement in the Cypriot nationalist movement. A • British publication affirms this fact when it asserted, "there is one aspect of the Cypriot • terrorist organization, E.O.K.A., which has received but little attention : the use by the • organisers of violence of young people, including boys and girls of school age to do their • 19 • dirty work." Though this was written 50 years ago, this fact still proves true. • One of the major issues facing this study is a lack of definition. Sources that • mention youth involvement rarely give an exact age, or even an age range. Terms • typically include "schoolchildren," "youth" and "students." Where ages are given, these • "youth" can range in age anywhere from children to young men and women in their early • to mid-twenties. Newspaper accounts are particular problems on this count. Many • • 18 Stella Soulioti, Fettered Independence: Cyprus. 1878-1964 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2006), 26. • 19 British Govern1nent of Cyprus, Corruption of Youth in Support o.fTerrurism in C'yprus (Cyprus: • Government of Cyprus, 1957), 3. • 7 • • • • headlines utilized the words "youth" or "students" but more often than not gave no • specific age ranges. • Though many scholars have written about the Cyprus struggle for independence, • there are none who have extensively looked at the involvement of the youth. Nearly all • 1'he • the scholars gloss over the student activities. Nancy Crawshaw, in her 1978 book • Cyprus Revolt, does not deny the significance of youth involvement in the nationalist • movement. She lays most of the blame for their actions, however, on General Grivas and • his organization, EOKA. She writes that teachers were forced to foster nationalism in • 20 • schools or face the wrath ofEOKA. Teacher accounts that can be found in the book • Cyprus Guerrilla: Grivas, Makarios and the British by Doros Alastos, tell a different • story, though. It is clear in Crawshaw's descriptions of Grivas that she considers him to • be a militant fanatic who managed to capture the youth for his organization. While this • can be argued as truth, the youth showed their interest in the cause long before Grivas' • arrival. • Another book that should be examined in the study of Grivas and his movement is • 21 • Grivas: Portrait ofa Terrorist by Dudley Barker. It should be noted that Barker was not • a scholar, British official, or eyewitness to any of these events. He was a fiction writer • and a longtime London journalist. His account should be considered simply as a view • into the opinion of many British citizens in regards to the press for enosis in Cyprus; an • opinion most likely shaped by British policy in the area. • In contrast, Charles Foley takes a different view of the situation in Cyprus during • the 1950s. He was a journalist for the Times ofCyprus newspaper; the only English • 20 Nancy Crawshaw, The Cyprus Revolt: An account o.lthe struggle for union with Greece (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1978), 280. • 21 • [)udley Barker, Grivas: Portrait aj·a Terrorist (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1960), • 8 • • • • speaking Cypriot newspaper at the time. He was editor of this Cypriot paper during the • nationalist struggle. After a settlement had been reached, he met with General Grivas and • discussed the tactics used by EOKA and the hidden history of the organization. • Impressed with the ingenuity used by General Grivas, he wrote several books on the • Cyprus issue and translated and edited the memoirs of General Grivas. • This leads us to one of the most valuable sources for this topic and these are the • words of General Grivas himself, as translated by Charles Foley. Utilizing Grivas' • memoirs comes with its own complications. Some of these include an obvious bias and a • lack of references, which can be argued about any eyewitness accounts. His credibility is • questionable on many issues, but many of his stories are backed by historical references • in British sources and contemporary newspapers. Grivas' account of youth involvement • is essential in the study, as Grivas applauds the youth and uses many anecdotes in his • writing. He admits that their help was necessary for the success ofhis movement for the • liberation of Cyprus. • Doros Alastos, a Cypriot who lived in England, wrote a book called Cyprus • 22 • Guerrilla: Grivas, Makarios and the British. His account was written after Cypriot • independence about his encounters with people on the island who had lived through the • liberation movement. His accounts are also essential to the study of the motives of the • youth. He recounts the stories of school administrators in Cyprus, vital evidence against • the idea that teachers were another root cause of youth involvement in the independence • movement. • 22 • Doros Alastos, C'yprus Guerrilla: Grivas, Makarios and the British (London: Willia1n Heinetnann Ltd., • 1960), • 9 • • • • Robert Holland's account of the liberation struggle is the most recent and among • the most thorough, comprehensive accounts of the Cypriot movement for independence. • Entitled Britain and the Revolt in Cyprus, 195.:/-1959, Holland's 1998 book recounts the • entire situation in Cyprus.23 His references to the youth in his book are minimal. • However, he references a document written by British colonial officials called • "Chronological Record of the Part Played by Students of Cypriot Schools in • 24 • Disturbances, 1 August 1954-31 January 1956." Other writers on the independence • movement, though neglecting to include much analysis of the youth, include W. Byford • Jones and H.D. Purcell. A book which is particularly insightful in the study of youth • involvement is The Rise and Fall ofthe Cyprus Republic, written by Kyriacos C. • Markidcs, in which a numbers analysis of the age ofEOKA members is presented. • Most of the information presented in the case of the youth comes in the form of • anecdotes. The seeming lack of scholarly research in this area makes this necessary. • Anecdotal evidence can be found in the memoirs of those who were in Cyprus during the • struggle, contemporary newspaper articles and interviews or personal accounts, such as • those found in Doros Alastos' book, Cyprus Guerrilla: Grivas, Makarios and the British, • and Lawrence Durrell's famous book Bitter Lemons.25 In this book, Durrell recounts his • experiences as an English teacher in Cyprus in the 1950s. These primary sources tell • stories of young people and their activities in the enosis movement. Many of these • stories, particularly the ones found in memoirs, can be vague. Frequently, names or dates • are not given, making cross referencing difficult, if not impossible. • 23 Robert Holland, Britain and the Revolt in Cyprus 1954-1959 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998) • 24 Holland, 108. (Unfortunately, I was unable to attain this document, though it probably would have proven invaluable to this study, particularly given that this document begins its record of student activities a • year before the arrival of General Grivas in Cyprus.) • 25 Lawrence Durrell, Bitter Lemons (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1957) • 10 • • • • Significance • Youth involvement in the nationalist movement of Cyprus was a significant factor • in its success. One of the main reasons this is true is because of the sheer numbers the • youth offered to EOKA. There is little reference to the fact that the vast majority of • EOKA members were very young. Evidence that this is true, however, can be found • everywhere. For instance, a New York Times article from November 1956 discusses a • new, island-wide curfew. All individuals between the ages of 12 and 26 were confined to • their homes, following a series of violent attacks on the part ofEOKA.26 There would be • no logical reason to confine children so young if they were not part of the perceived • security threat. Conversely, ifthese attacks were being perpetrated by men in their 30s, • they would have been included in the strict curfew. Many of these curfews were not • merely during nighttime hours, as some of them stretched for days at a time. • The New York Times reported a massive demonstration in Nicosia in May 1956. • "Hundreds of youngsters ranging in age from 8 to 18 staged violent street demonstrations • today protesting Britain's remaining in control of the island."27 It is shocking to many to • hear of such young children joining in the violent demonstrations, but this article shows • the depth of the movement. The cause of enosis spoke to even the youngest citizens of • Cyprus. • A study by Kyriacos C. Markides, a scholar from Nicosia, gives the numbers • analyses of EOKA, which fought in the 1950s, and EOKA B which fought the • independent Makarios government in an attempted coup and fought the Turks in the • 26 "Curfew in Cyprus," New York Times, 18 Nove1nber 1956, p. 3. • 27 • "Youths on Cyprus Urge British Exit," New York Times, 25 May 1955, p. 8. • 11 • • • • l970s.28 The number of young people who fought against the British greatly • outnumbered those who fought against the Turks subsequently. For instance, in the • • 1950s, 77% of Cypriots outlawed by the police were between the ages of 15 and 25 . • 87.2% ofEOKA members who were brought to trial were under the age of25 and the • average (mean) age of the 361 people tried was 21. Finally, 32.1% of these were high • school students.29 Analysis of the backgrounds ofEOKA members shows that most of • them were unmarried and the primary occupation of the members was students or young •• technicians.30 • By contrast, the average age of those accused by EOKA of being traitors to the • struggle was 35. The study oftraitors shows that most of them had families; they were • generally government employees. Some traitors were taxi drivers and coffee shop owners •• and were probably recruited because of the fact that their jobs lent themselves to hearing • a lot of gossip. 32.6% of those assassinated during EOKA's operating years were part of • the colonial bureaucracy and half of these were police officers. 16.8% were shopkeepers • and coffee shop owners, since they saw the flow of information and 13.6% were taxi •• drivers since they could watch the movement ofpeople.31 It was, in fact, a taxi driver • who tipped off the authorities about Niki Artemiou. That driver was subsequently • 32 • executed on EOKA's orders. Only two of the traitors executed by EOKA during the • • entire struggle were students.33 • • 28 Markides, 192 . • 29 Ibid., 18. JO Ibid., 20. • 31 Ibid., 19-20. 32 Grivas, Memoirs, 124. • 33 •• Markides, 20. • 12 • • • • It is interesting to note the difference between the analyses of the EOKA of the • 1950s versus EOKA B of the 1970s. While the average age of EOKA members was 21, • the average age of an EOKA B member was 29. 74% of all EOKA B members were over • the age of26. While 32% ofEOKA members had been high school students, there were • only two high school students who would fight in EOKA 13. In a startling contrast, 25% • of the EOKA B fighters would be police, military or other government employee.34 • Markides is quick to point out that the majority of EOKA B participants could not • have participated in the EOKA activities of the 1950s. Therefore this earlier political • socialization could not have been a factor in the creation ofEOKA B. Only 16% of those • involved in EOKA B were at an age that they could have been part of the original

• 35 • EOKA. • Early Involvement • For several years before the arrival of General Grivas, youth clubs all over the • island had been cropping up, pressing for enosis. Most notable among these were· • PEON36 and OXEN,37 labeled Orthodox Christian youth movements. Created under the • auspices of Makarios, the man placed in charge of PEON was Stavros Poskottis and the • leader of OXEN was Father Stavros. 38 The young men of these organizations led • demonstrations against British rule. Youth action on the island was sporadic and • fragmented, though it still became a serious threat to the British as these groups began to • • • 34 Ibid., 115-117. 35 Ibid. • 36 Pancyprian National Organization of Youth • 37 Orthodox Christian Union of Youth • 38 Grivas, Memoirs, 19. • 13 • • • • grow. Doros Alastos said "its fPEON's] main purpose was to act as the armed spearhead • of the liberation movement when the show-down came."39 • Around the time of Queen Elizabeth's coronation celebrations in 1953, PEON 40 • planned several student demonstrations for enosis in Paphos , some of which evolved • 1 • into full-11edged riots when the boys from the local gymnasium' began instigating • serious clashes with security forces. "PEON, which has initially in belligerent terms • declared the [coronation] celebrations incompatible with the national struggle, now had • second thoughts and promptly disassociated itself from the riots."42 The police had to be • called in to break up the riots and PEON was declared illegal. This did nothing to stop its • members, however. as they simply went underground and transferred most oftheir • activities to OXEN.43 • In December of 1954, the United Nations was set to debate the right of sel t~ • determination in the case of Cyprus. 44 The issue was ultimately shelved for future • discussion. This was a huge disappointment for the people of Cyprus, who had been • optimistic that their demonstrations, which had caught the attention ofthe United • Nations, would lead to a resolution in their favor. Thousands of people, primarily • students, flooded the streets of all the major towns in Cyprus chanting, "Enosis." The • crowds were so determined, that the police had to resort to batons and tear gas to disperse • them.45 In Limassol,46 three "young people" were wounded in a clash with the military; • • 39 Alastos, 48. 40 A coastal city in southwest Cyprus. • 41 The equivalent of high school in Greece and Cyprus. • 42 Crawshaw, 54. 43 Barker, 65 . • 44 Charles Foley and W.1. Scobie, Island in Revolt (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1962), 11 . 45 Alastos, 57. • 46 • A coastal city (in the district of Limassol) in southern Cyprus • 14 • • • • these boys were shot at with ritles. 47 "Gangs of schoolboys roamed the streets shouting, • 'Enosis' and using bottles and stones against the police. Rioting also broke out in • Limassol; a mob surrounded the police station and replaced the British flag with a Greek • one. Troops opened fire to restore order."48 • The British accused the students involved in the demonstrations of being • "hooligans."49 Doros Alastos pointed out, however, that the Greek-Cypriots disagreed • with this analysis. Alastos wrote that "the bishops answered by extolling their [the • students'] youthful courage and sacrifice and accused the government of being • 50 • ruthless." Barker accused Archbishop Makarios of trying to manipulate the Cypriot • youth through "religious clubs," which were meant to be diametrically opposed to both • the British rule as well as the growth of communism in Cyprus. 51 Ile called these clubs • "cells for subversion," with "secret rules and oaths which, of course, are the kind of thing • to appeal to schoolboys anywhere."52 • General Grivas and ANE • General Georghios Grivas, a retired ot1icer of the Greek army and a Cypriot • native, returned to the island in 1955 to help his people achieve enosis, by whatever • means necessary. Grivas was born in May 1898 at Trikomo,53 a village in Famagusta. 54 • He was educated first at the Pancyprian Gymnasium and then at the Athens Military • Academy when he became a Greek citizen and joined their army. 55 He also attended

• 17 · Alastos, 57 . • 48 Crawshaw, 89. 49 Alastos, 57. • 50 Ibid. • 51 Barker, 60-61. 52 Ibid. 64. • 53 Crawshaw, 90. • 54 A district of Cyprus, located on the northeastern tip of the island. • 55 Crawshaw, 90. • 15 • • • • several French war schools% Afterwards he became a part of the fight for the Meghali • Elladha or Greater Greece in 1921 in the Asia Minor Campaign. It was in this war that • Grivas first saw the potential for guerrilla warfare, when it was used against him by • Ataturk's men. 57 • General Grivas traveled secretly into Cyprus and remained hidden there until after • Cyprus achieved its independence. He was never caught and even after being promised • safe passage back to Greece, opted to leave stealthily, only to reappear in Athens, much • to the shock of the British, who had remained on the lookout for him in Cyprus. He • 58 • adopted the nomme de guerre "Dighenis," and his actually identity was unknown to the •• British during the primary stages of his movement. General Grivas was a very dark • character, though acclaimed as a hero in Cyprus and Greece. He seemed to live by the • philosophy that the ends justify the means. His memoirs show this very clearly, but they • also show that in spite of this, he was a very proud man. Honor meant everything to him • and he always kept his word, even when that word was a frightful one. It should be noted, • however, that despite his violent and almost heartless nature, he was a military genius • with many noble qualities, who rallied the people of Cyprus around him to earn their • freedom. His ruthlessness and fanatical nature should not be underestimated, however. • Nancy Crawshaw described him in this manner: "'Once he had made a decision he was • pathologically incapable of reconsidering it, however much circumstances might dictate a • • 56 Grivas, Memoirs, 3-4 • 57 Crawshaw, 90 . • 58 General Grivas took on the alias "Dighenis" after the legendary Byzantine Greek hero, further affirming • the Greek character of his 1nove1nent • 16 • • • • change of course. And, given the inspired leadership which he was convinced he could • 59 • prov1"d e, no problem was msurmounta. ble." • In H.D. Purcell's book, Cyprus, Grivas is introduced in the following manner: • 60 George[ ] Grivas has been described as a 'fanged dynamo' (Byford­ • Jones) and as 'the little man who looks like a cross between Groucho • Marx and Adolf Hitler' (Lord Caradon). As in the case of Makarios, such • descriptions hide the reality. They hardly fit the man who continued to collect postage-stamps while directing the activities of EOKA. Ruthless he • certainly is, though he does not order killing without an end in view; he is • not a comedian, nor, curiously enough, is he gilled with outstanding • po11t1ca. . l acumen. 61 • In their booklet, EOKA 's Campaign of'Terror, the British government asserted • that EOKA was largely to blame for youth actions. Blaming EOKA for the students • losing their education is partially correct at best. Shutting down these schools, even as a • security measure, is just as much to blame for the children's loss of education and simply • left the students free to roam the streets and cause more disturbances. The booklet reads • as follows: The exploitation and demoralisation of the Greek Cypriot youth of • Cyprus, however, is the greatest crime of EOKA and its sponsors. As a • result of the disturbances, a generation of Greek Cypriot children have • largely lost their education. They have been trained in indiscipline and violence. They have been taught to defy authority to such a degree that on • occasions, even the archbishop could not control them. But this does not • worry Grivas. In one of his leaflets addressed to schoolchildren he said: 'The cause is more sacred than your teachers, your father or your • 62 • mother.' • • 59 Crawshaw, 94. 60 Georghios is so1netimes changed to George, the English version of the na1ne, in British publications • 61 H.D. Purcell, Cyprus, Nations of the Modern World Series (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, Inc., 1968), • 256. • 62 British Government, Cyprus: EOKA 's Campaign ofTerror (London: Central Office of Information, • 1956), 19 . • 17 • • •• • General Grivas knew from the very first day that he was going to need the full • support of the Cypriot youth in order for his movement to be successful. Grivas • recognized the fact that public support and a strong youth movement were going to be the • most crucial factors in his victory, saying "I knew that with these on our side, applied • 63 • with proper strategy, the size of the material forces against us would be irrelevant." • Grivas had already smuggled most of the necessary arms into Cyprus and had laid the • 64 • foundations for his organization, the Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston (EOKA). • General Grivas inherited an impassioned but fragmented youth. The students of • Cyprus were engaged in small efforts all over the island. General Grivas' arrival gave • them a rallying point. It was not long before groups like PEON and OXEN had given up • most of their own plans and opted instead to follow those of General Grivas as their • members joined his movement. Markides notes the fact that Grivas did not force anyone • into his movement, but instead attempted to appeal to the Cypriot sense of patriotism and • honor.65 • PEON members gave their complete loyalty to Grivas and other student • 66 • organizations soon followed suit. Though the students were fervently in favor of enosis • and had already proven themselves to be a potent force on the island, it did not • necessarily mean that they were easy to organize at first. Their actions up until the arrival • of General Grivas had been disjointed. Grivas had a lot of work to do to organize these • children into the force that would win Cyprus' right to self determination. • The Greek secondary schools were hotbeds of Hellenic nationalism, yet • progress in the organization of a militant youth movement was 63 Grivas, Memoirs, 28 . • 64 National Organization of Cypriot Fighters '" Markides, 19. • 66 • A1astos, 52. • 18 • • • • unexpectedly slow. In the spring Grivas had ordered the local leaders to • submit reports on individual schoolboys giving particulars of character, • age and availability frir duty. Rules for the formation of each sector were • also laid down by him. Each group was to be composed of four of five members, but in areas likely to produce opposition provision was made for • the establishment of larger sectors with the help of reinforcements from • outside. The duties covered demonstrations, leaflet and slogan writing, • incitement of the population and liaison work with the fighter groups. Grivas adopted the communist procedure of setting up watertight cells; all • contact between the sectors was forbidden for security reasons. Several • schoolboys refused to accept the responsibilities of group leadership, and a • report submitted by the chief organiser (sic) in early spring was • disheartening. Only three groups had been formed in the Pancyprian Gymnasium and the Commercial Lyceum. And in the Samuel School, • which was regarded by the British authorities as the most unruly in the island, no headway had been made at all apart from the discovery of a • 67 • keen boy in the fitih form. • It was not long, however, before the youth of Cyprus became an organized unit, • prepared to act at a mere word from their leader. • Some of the most capable were sent to work in the villages and organize • mountain groups. for the most part they were youngsters, who the day • before had been sitting behind their desks at school or just beginning to • make their way in the world. They had grown up in an utterly unmilitary climate: bombs and explosives, machine-guns, pistols, fuses and • detonators, tactics and the preparation of ambuscades were things you read • about in a comic strip.68 • 69 • Jn 1957, a group was founded called the ANE (Alkimos Neolaia Tis EOKA), • which means EOKA Young Stalwards or Valiant Youth ofEOKA. Their main task • initially was to locate and enlist potential new recruits for EOKA. In order to be a • member of ANE, one had to be between the ages of 14 and 25, and married men were • ineligible for membership. With the development of ANE, recruitment in EOKA grew • quickly. 70 This proved invaluable because Cyprus was a small island and there needed to • 67 Crawshaw, 108-109. • 68 Alastos, 52 . • 69 Crawshaw, 255. • 70 Ibid., 256. • 19 • • • • be a body ofpeople willing and ready to take a place in the ranks where holes had • appeared. As was the case in other areas ofEOKA, communication between different • cells was strictly prohibited. "ANE's wide range of duties included surveillance and • intimidation. Children began with leaflet distribution and slogan painting. Later, on • demonstrating proficiency as gunmen, they were promoted to foll membership of • EOKA."71 • This creation of the ANE was not arbitrary, designed simply to give a sense of • importance to these young people. In May 1955, General Grivas gave th_e order that both • male and female students should enroll in the ANE. 72 Their tasks would include • distributing leaflets, joining mass demonstrations, rousing demonstrations of Greek • loyalty and patriotism and gathering information on British agents and the police for • EOKA. • For the young members, leaflet distribution was one of two primary tasks; one • that they took very seriously. Some leafleters, such as a sixteen year old girl from • Nicosia, were caught with as many 2,500 EOKA leaflets. One high school was even • found to have a printing station set up in its basement, which prevented the danger of • being caught making large transfers of leaflets to the distributors.73 Tasks like handing • out leaflets could be just as dangerous as any other task for these children, but this was no • deterrent. There was at least one case of a leafleter being killed on the job. On May 12, • 1956, a nineteen year old boy was shot and killed by security forces in Nicosia while • trying to escape after having been caught handing out EOKA leaflets. 74 • • 71 Ibid., 255 . • 72 Grivas, 34 . • 73 British Government, Corruption, • 74 Joseph 0. Haff, "Cypriotes Urged to Kill Governor," New York Times, 13 May 1956, p. I. • 20 • • • • ANE also began circulating its own periodical, named Reveille. Nancy Crawshaw • calls the paper, "Inflammatory, abusive, fanatically pro-Enosis, the first issue contained • an appeal for members, Hellenic poems and slashing attacks on the Communists and the

• 75 • British[...] ANE's authors saw Turkey as the spoilt child of Britain." Grivas' opinion • of the paper was obviously very different from Crawshaw's. He described the articles as • be patriotic and informative to the public. 76 • The secondary task for the younger members of the ANE was to incite • demonstrations, riots, strikes and forms of passive resistancen These activities were • frequent and powerful. Students stoned policemen, bombed the police station in • Morphou,78 set fire to British military vehicles and set fire to government offices, most • 79 • notably the British Institute ofNicosia. There was one case in which a parading • demonstration of school girls acted as a lure, drawing a British patrol into a position in • which bombs were thrown down onto their heads from waiting schoolboys on nearby • rootlops. 80 Grivas wrote in his memoirs, "The youth of Cyprus, in its nationalist ecstasy, • defied clubs, tear gas and bullets. During a huge demonstration in Metaxas Square, the • centre of Nicosia, in September 1955, army trucks were stoned, overturned and set • ablaze; the doors of the British Institute were broken open and the building burned to the • ground." 81 • The next step in joining the ranks of Grivas' fighters included tasks of • surveillance and intimidation. Trusted young people were made part of the complicated 75 Crawshaw, 257. • 76 Memoirs, Grivas, 167 . 77 • British Government. (."orruption, 11. " Ibid., 12 . • 79 "British on Cyprus Battle New Riots," New York Times, 18 September 1955, p. I. 80 British Govern1nent, C~orruption, 13 . • 81 • Grivas, Memoirs, 44. • 21 • • • • courier system, passing on messages to and from Grivas and his groups across the island. • Some were also set to watching those people that were to be assassinated and keeping • EOKA members informed of their habits, whereabouts and other pertinent information. • These students were also part of the chain of supply for the hidden fighters nearby. 82 • The next level of engagement for the youth was bomb-throwing and acts of • sabotage. In April 1955, a fifteen year old boy was caught trying to sneak gunpowder into • a gas depot in the coastal city of Larnaca. On December 4, 1955 the Letkoniko Post • Office was burned to the ground by a group of schoolboys; ten of them were apprehended • by the police. A seventeen year old was arrested for having a hidden bomb in his bicycle • bag in June 1955. On April 5, 1956, two schoolboys were caught throwing a small bomb • made out ofa light bulb; these boys were age 9 and 12.83 • The ANE became a well-oiled machine, with a central committee operating in • Nicosia. This committee had no actual power, but advised General Grivas and oversaw • uniformity in training and operations. The bulk of the ANE was divided into sectors that • took their orders from the local EOKA commanders.84 This way, the student organization • remained cohesive, while remaining flexible enough to suit the needs of a particular area. • Each sector of ANE had three separate youth sections; these were schoolboys, boys • 85 • above school age, and girls. • Crawshaw writes that, "By 1958 ANE's hold over the secondary schools was • formidable[ ...] Teachers were ordered to foster nationalism by means of patriotic songs • and to allow their pupils to take part in political processes and strikes. Those who put 112 • British Government, Corruplion, 15 83 Ibid., 15 . • 84 George (Georghios) Grivas, General Grivas on Guerrilla Warfare, trans. A.A. Pallis (New York: • Frederick A. Praeger Inc., 1965), 26-27. • " Ibid. 27. • 22 • • • • education and discipline before politics were first censured by EOKA and later threatened • 86 • with dire penalties." There is some evidence, however, that this was not the case. • Teachers claimed that they did what they could to prevent their students from going out

• 87 • to join the demonstrations. • Those ANE members who proved themselves in the tasks assigned to them would • be later set to more serious jobs, like forming saboteur groups, making explosives and • 88 • supervising and executing acts ofpassive resistance. The best among the young boys • could eventually graduate into Grivas' mountain guerrilla groups or town execution • 89 • squads. Grivas interviewed and trained many young men from PEON and OXEN to • find his initial guerrilla groups. One of these young men was Markos Drakos, who was • 22 at the time. • Any young men that met the standards of discretion, loyalty and ability were • 90 • administered an oath ofloyalty by a priest, inside a church. These new recruits were • taught that this oath should be made with the same amount of reverence as the Holy

• 91 • Communion. The oath of the youth organization ofEOKA read as follows: • "I swear in the name of the Holy Trinity that: • ( 1) I shall work with all my power for the liberation of Cyprus • from the British yoke sacrificing for this even my life; • (2) I shall perform without objection all the instructions of the organisation which may be entrusted to me and I shall not bring • any objection, however difficult and dangerous these may be; • (3) I shall not abandon the struggle unless I receive instructions • from the leader of the organisation and after our aim has been • accomplished; • 86 Crawshaw, 280. • 87 Alastos, 65. 88 Grivas, Guerrilla, 14 . • 89 Grivas, Memoirs, 34 . 90 W. Byford-Jones, Grivas and the Story of£OKA (London: Robert Hale Ltd, 1959), 56. • 91 • Crawshaw, 280. • 23 • • • • (4) I shall never reveal to anyone any secret of our organisation • neither the names of my chiefs nor those of the other members of • the organisation even if I am caught and tortured; (5) I shall not reveal any ofthe instructions which may be given • me even to my fellow combatants. • If I disobey my oath, I shall be worthy of every punishment as a traitor and • may eternal contempt cover me."92 • W. Byford Jones claims that, "many secondary-school boys interrupted their studies and • went into the mountains to act as orderlies for EOKA but not to carry out executions."93 • Grivas would allow these young men to be guerrilla fighters after they had reached an • appropriate age, before which they had other tasks. • Dudley Barker, a contemporary British journalist, wrote, "it was of vital • importance to his [Grivas'] plan that he should have available a militant and fanatical • youth movement from which he could later recruit, not only his messengers, his slogan- • writers and his pamphlet-distributors, but also his saboteurs and his gunmen.''94 W. • Byford Jones even went as far as to compare General Grivas to Adolf Hitler and the ANE • to the Schtilerbund (Hitler Youth). This comparison was based on the information that • teachers and parents who spoke against the movement were reported to the AN E and • 95 • these people were often later attacked by masked pupils. Markides, however, notes a • different factor in youth recruitment into EOKA by saying, "it must be pointed out that • the harsh measures the British applied to suppress the underground activities, such as the • imposition of martial law, the hanging of nine youths, including a teenager, and partiality • • 92 Bnt1s.. h Govemment, Corruption, I0 • 93 Byford-Jones, 57 . • 94 Barker, 64. • • 95 Byford-Jones, 82 . • 24 • • • • toward the Turkish community, intensified resentment against the colonial government

• 96 • and enhanced the prestige of the guerrilla organization." • Young Children • General Grivas once proudly boasted, "Thus we showed the world at large that • the whole of Cyprus, from the smallest schoolgirl to the Archbishop himself, was in the • battle with EOKA.'m This statement was not far from the truth. The participation ofvery • small children became rather common. Young girls were involved with assassination • squads and schoolchildren occasionally engaged soldiers in their demonstrations, and • they showed their staunch patriotism in the infamous "Battle ofthe Flags." • In an attempt to stem enosis growth in the Cypriot nation, British officials enacted • a law that made it illegal to fly foreign flags, including the Greek flag. The law • specifically forbade flying Greek flags outside of elementary schools.98 Officials had • already recognized the lyceums, or high schools, as breeding grounds for enosis agitation • and felt that elementary school children were also at risk of being influenced, so in 1936 • the British government had taken control of all Cypriot primary schools.99 The law • forbidding the Greek flag in schools enraged many Cypriots, who saw the Greek flag as • their own. General Grivas admitted in his book Guerrilla Warfare, that this situation • could be exploited by him in his efforts to further excite the children's for the cause of • enosis. 100 • January 29, 1956 marked the beginning of one of the most famous movements of • the children of Cyprus, which became known as the "Battle of the Flags." It was on that • 96 Markides, 21. 97 Grivas, Memoirs, 62 . • 98 Grivas, Guerrilla, 15 . • 99 British Govern1nent, ('orrupliun, 4. • 100 Grivas, Guerrilla, 15 . • 25 • • • • day that General Grivas issued an order, under his nomme de guerre, Dighenis. This • order was worded as follows: "See that the Greek flag is flown from all elementary • schools and is kept flying. This will certainly mean that these schools will be closed, but • it will also show our unshakeable will to fight to the final victory." 101 This "battle" was • initially a nuisance to the British soldiers, who had to remove the flags wherever they • were found. It quickly turned dangerous, however, when adults became involved. • Following the initial order from General Grivas to fly the Greek flag over all • elementary schools, British soldiers went through the cities and towns, removing the • flags. Much to the annoyance of these men, the flags were put back up immediately after • the soldiers moved on. This led to minor clashes between soldiers and small children, • who tried to prevent the soldiers from taking the flags down. Impressed and emboldened • by the strong response to his order, General Grivas formed a schoolgirl group 102 to join in • the demonstrations with the children at the elementary schools. 103 All of this made the • soldiers' job much more difficult; not only did it serve to distract the men from more 104 • important tasks , but the demonstrators were children, so effectively breaking up the • crowds was tricky. • This situation, a nuisance to the British army, turned dangerous when local • villagers got involved with the situation. To send a message, villagers began planting • mines under the flagpoles. When the unfortunate soldier sent to remove the flag stepped • up to the pole, it would explode. Soldiers later attempted to force villagers to remove the • 101 Grivas, Memoirs, 62. • 102 no average age is given for these "schoolgirls" • 103 Grivas, Memoirs, 62. • 104 Grivas, Guerrilla, 15 . • 26 • • • • flags, or face imprisonment. 105 Teachers, as government employees, were frequently • ordered to remove the flags that went up around their schools. Some tried to follow this • order but they were quickly threatened, many times openly, by their own students. The • rest, seeing the risk it was, decided it was none of their business and the police should • handle it. 106 • The "Battle of the Flags" was not the only contribution to the cause made by the • young children of Cyprus. Frequently, very small children were used to carry weapons • for members of execution squads. These squads were made up of men who followed a • particular target, either a traitor or a British otlicial, and planned and carried out • executions of these men. This happened quite often in broad daylight in crowded public • places. A young girl would keep the weapon in her undergarments, which would be • specially reinforced for the task, until it was needed; after all, who would think to search • a little girl for a gun? As soon as the shots were fired, however, police and nearby • soldiers leaped to action, sectioning off the area for a few blocks and searching everyone • to find the weapon. The gun, however, had already been passed to a waiting young girl, • 107 • who hid it in her undergarments and quickly fled the scenc. These girls were rarely, if • ever, caught. The small children of Cyprus were frequently part of the older students' • demonstrations and were instructed to tell the older students anything they heard that • could prove useful to their cause. • In February 1956, the New York Times published a piece called, "Students on • Cyprus Join in Violent Demonstrations Against British." The article features a moving • photograph of a group of small boys in school uniforms, the smallest of whom appears to

• 105 Grivas, Memoirs, 62 . • 106 Alastos, 67. • ro 7 Grivas, Guerrilla, 66. • 27 • • • • be crying. The boys have their arms up and are surrounded by armed British soldiers. 108 • The article discusses elementary school children joining the demonstrations for union • with Greece. "They damaged school buildings, destroyed British flags, smashed portraits • of the royal family and hoisted Greek flags." All of this was apparently in protest against • the shooting of l8 year old Petrakis Yiallouris during a riot in Famagusta. 109 Yiallouris • immediately became a martyr in the eyes of the people of Cyprus. His death incited • island-wide demonstrations; for instance students in Famagusta threw a bomb at British • soldiers and began throwing bottles and stones at them. 110 It was further noted that in • some districts, children stoned forces as they arrived to break up the demonstrations. • British officials closed most elementary schools when they received reports of incidents

• 111 • involving the young children of more than 30 villages. General Grivas once proudly • boasted of these facts: "I doubt whether there was a single boy above the age of twelve • who did not take part in some mission during the Cyprus campaign." 112 • Cypriot Education • The British officials, having seen the growth of favor for enosis, looked to the • Cypriot school system for the cause. Students had been involved in pro-enosis • demonstrations as early as the l 920s. 113 They saw the system as being inherently pro­ • enosis. For one thing, since there were no universities on the island, Cypriot high schools • followed the same curriculum as those in Greece. As a result, students from Cyprus could • 108 See appendix . • 109 "Students on Cyprus Join in Violent Demonstrations Against British," New York Times, 9 February • 1956, p. 3. 0 " "Slain Student Becomes A Martyr to Cypriotes," New York Times, 8 February 1956, p. 3. • 111 "Students on Cyprus Join in Violent Demonstrations Against British," p. 3. 112 Grivas, Guerrilla, 15. • 113 • British Government, C'orruption, 4. • 28 • • • • enter Greek universities as easily as if they were Greek citizens. 114 Dudley Barker felt • that Grivas' job was made easy because he thought most school teachers were advocates • of enosis; this was a common belief among British officials. 115 Markides, however, points • out that only a fraction of Cypriots actually attended high school in the 1950s. So only • this small portion could have even been exposed to this supposed nationalist propaganda • in school. 116 • Cypriot children were taught from a young age, that Cyprus was a lost daughter of • Mother Greece. Children learned of the "slavery of the Greek people of Cyprus" and the • 117 • need for deliverance from British rule. The Greek character and substance of Cypriot • education was undeniable. It was this that British officials pointed to in their search for a • 118 • cause for the powerful youth movement. The opinion of the British was that these • young people were pushed into the fight by overzealous mentors, teachers, priests and • sometimes parents. This is evidenced in a booklet published by the British government • entitled Corruption ofYouth in Support ofTerrorism in Cyprus, which reads as follows: • "These children were the ideal demonstrators, even if they needed the encouragement of • their teachers and pastors from the sidewalk." 119 • The Central Office of Information in London put together a booklet on EOKA, • entitled EOKA 's Campaign o{Terror. In it they asserted that "EOKA propaganda has • been helped in the schools by the fact that the British have long permitted Greek Cypriot • school lessons to be based on Greek curricula, and also allowed many Greek nationals to • 114 Barker, 60. • 115 Barker, 65. 116 Markides, 119. • 117 Barker, 59. 118 Bnt1s.. h Government, Campaign, 14. • 119 • Bnt1s.. h Government, Corruption, 3. • 29 • • • • teach in Cyprus. As a result most young Greek Cypriots have been brought up to regard • as their supreme heroes the 'patriot-bandits' of the Greek War of Independence against • the Turks in 1821."120 • The argument blaming teachers and the school system for the growth ofthe youth • enosis movement makes sense if taken at face value. There is some evidence that shows • that this was not the case, however. The education system and the attitudes of the • teachers in Cypriot schools do seem to show a tacit approval of the idea of enosis. • However this is not enough to blame the school system for the level of violent activity • that resulted from involvement with EOKA and ANE. Frequently the teachers would not • even be informed of a brewing plan. They would simply return from a mid-morning • 121 • break to find all the classrooms empty. • The teachers tell a different story from the one judiciously propagated by British • officials. They felt that the students were unstoppable. Most teachers deny encouraging • their students to press for enosis. Dr Spyridakis, headmaster of the Pancyprian • Gymnasium said, "'The youth, in its generous impulse, threw itself wholeheartedly into • the fight. As far as they were concerned, the national struggle came first, lessons • second. "'122 These students could not be deterred. Even punishment, such as arrests of • their fellow students and the expulsion of their teachers was ineffectual in the face of • their determination. 123 Often these acts led to further demonstrations; batons, 124 tear • 125 d 126 d d" h d • gas an even guns were use to try to isperse t e stu ents.

• 120 British Government, C'ampais;n, 14. • 121 Alastos, 64 . 122 Ibid., 65. • 123 Ibid., 64 . • 124 Ibid. 125 "Tear Gas Routs Cyprus Students," New York Times, 20 November 1955, p. 23 . • 126 • Haff, "Cypriotes Urged to Kill Governor," p. I. • 30 • • • • The students responded to the British tactics against them in kind. Children were • 127 • known to throw stones and bottles, use catapults, and in many more extreme cases, • guns, 128 grenades and other explosives. This was the case when a fifteen year old boy was • injured by a grenade that detonated too soon as he attempted to throw it at security forces. • I!is classmates called him a hero. Another fifteen year old was discovered carrying . 129 • dynam1te. • 'There was no holding them back,' declared Mr Michael Constantinides, • assistant headmaster of the Samuel School in Nicosia. 'Immediately you • entered the classroom you could sense the atmosphere. They'd read the morning papers and had already made up their minds. News of a • demonstration being stopped, a teacher exiled, a new repressive law-and • they felt the need for action. They were feverish to do something. They • literally seethed with indignation [.° .. ] No, perhaps indignation is • wrong ....Exalted militancy is nearer the mark...as if the moment they'd longed for had arrived. You could not argue or reason. One of them would • stand up and say: "Sir, we've decided to abstain from lessons today"-and • the school would be empty in no time. Sometimes they would send • messengers to other schools to come out too, or other schools sent them to • us.'130 • These demonstrations were certainly a force to be reckoned with; they not • sporadic or isolated incidents. In Nicosia there were several schools and, between them, • they could easily amass 5,000 students in the streets of the capital city. 131 A group of this • size faced with tear gas or worse, could easily break off into smaller splinter groups. It • was very difficult for the security forces to deal with. "'It was laughable,' somebody • mused, 'to see a dozen policemen chasing a bunch ofjeering, grinning boys of twelve or • 127 • (Students used catapults "so effectively that these were decreed offensive weapons and were prohibited") Alastos, 64. • 128 "Briton Shot Dead By Cypriotc Youth," New York Times, 25 October 1958, p. 2. • 129 Alastos, 63. 110 Ibid., 64. • 131 • • Ibid., 65 . • 31 • • • • thirteen and not being able to catch them. They disappeared like smoke. "'132 Homer • Bigart once wrote in the New York Times, "control of students is a formidable • undertaking. For example, Nicosia's four big high schools hold a potential teen-age • crowd of more than 4,000, which could pour out on the streets at any moment and • become the focal point of a mass demonstration." 133 • The New York Times reported one major incident in which student demonstrators • hoisted Greek flags outside the Phaneromeni Cathedral. The police came and chased the • girls and boys into the church. Once inside, the children yelled and screamed until the • police agreed to let them out, under the condition that no stones were thrown. Once • outside, the boys began throwing rocks again. The military police responded by shooting • over the heads of the children. This was met with a hail of stones, bricks, bottles and • sticks. The police had to resort to tear gas to finally break up the riot. 134 • The teachers tried to compel their students to stay in class, warning them of the • risks they ran. In one case in Nicosia, on December 18, 1954, teachers even locked their • female students inside the school to prevent them from joining the boys in their • demonstrations outside. The boys returned to help the girls break out of the school to join • them in throwing stones and bottles at the policemen standing guard outside of the British • lnstitute. 135 "'We used to warn them of the risks they ran,' continued Mr Constantinides a • little sadly, 'but once their minds were made up, we knew we could do nothing~except, • • 132 Ibid., 65. • 133 Bigart, "Cypriote Pupils Bedevil British," p. 3. 4 • D "Tear Gas, Shots Scatter Rioting Cyprus Students: Police Disperse Marching Teenagers Shouting Slogans Against Government," Los Angeles Times, 8 December 1957, p. 24. • 135 • "British Units Fire at Rioters As Cyprus Protest Spreads," New York Times, 18 December 1954, p. I. • 32 • • • • that is, admire their spirit and secretly applaud them ....You see, whether we wanted it or

• . h" rn136 • not, they were mak mg istory. • Many Cypriot teachers tried to scare their students away from EOKA. These • teachers were ridiculed by their students, being called "cowardly or unpatriotic---or • worse."137 General Grivas warned many of teachers to stay out of it or be killed as traitors • to the cause. 138 Grivas, ever a man of his word, no matter how grim, followed through on • these threats. He claims that it was regrettable but necessary. He claims that he later • received many letters from Cypriot educational institutions, showing their appreciation • for "saving the youth of the island, and placing them on the path of honour, duty, • prosperity and progress."139 • It should be noted that the teachers and school administrators had more to fear • than just the threat of General Grivas. Those school teachers and administrators who • came out against the student activities too strongly were also at risk from their own • students. On November 20, 1955, both the principal and vice principal of the Pancyprian • Gymnasium were attacked in their homes by their own students, after they had received • threatening letters. "In other schools teachers and members of governing bodies were • called on to resign. One teacher made an abject apology to a senior class and was • thereupon 'permitted' to continue at his post for the time being." 140 Under all these • circumstances, it is understandable that teachers eventually stopped trying to fight the • student movement, though there is no concrete evidence that they actively supported the • movement. 116 Alastos, 65. • 137 Ibid. • ns Grivas, Memoirs, 35. 9 B Jbid. • 140 • B nt1s.. h G overnment, Corruption,' 12 . • 33 • • • • Lawrence Durrell, a British expatriate in Cyprus in the 1950s and English teacher • at the Nicosia Gymnasium, could sense the growing nationalist sentiment in his older • pupils. 141 His account shows the development of nationalism in the hearts of his students • in Nicosia, without his or General Grivas' influence. Durrell wrote of his students in the • years before the violence began: • one could feel the true temperature of nationalist feeling among the older students, who hardly a year later were to be among the terrorist groups. • They could not foresee this, as yet, however, and their vociferous • enthusiasms led them no farther than public demonstrations of faith in • UNO. The thought of violence in Cyprus was far from everybody's mind. [... ] if one suggested it [fighting] oneself as a question a look of deep pain • would appear on the nationalist countenance, the voice would fall • reproachfully as it replied: •Fight? Against Britain whom we love? • Never!' 142 • Durrell is one of very few, if not the only writer to examine the development of • the students towards becoming the fighters of General Grivas' campaign. He wrote in his • memoirs about his students when they studied Lord Byron, the famous British poet who • fought in the Greek War for Independence. One of his students wrote in an essay that • "England 'sent her greatest poet to help them [the Greeks] raise the flag. He died for • Greece and England-they are both not countries, but symbols ofliberty incarnate."'143 • Byron was so meaningful to the students that Durrell, once saw a classics student recite • Byron , s wor k wit . h tears m . h'1s eyes. 144 • Durrell once made an observation of the near religious nature of his students' • attitude towards enosis: • They were admirable children, each wrapped in the bright silken cocoon • of a dream; sleepwalkers who were awakened only by the crash of a pistol

• 141 Durrell, 125. • 142 Ibid., I25. 141 Ibid., 127. • 144 Ibid., 128. • • 34 • • • • or a bomb, and who then gazed about them wonderingly to find that all • these brilliant words and thoughts had a resonance only in death [... ] Union with Greece meant something not unlike the mystic's Union with • 145 • the Infinite. • When the students began to be more demanding in their quest for enosis it was • not unnoticed by Durrell. On Independence Day, 146 He came to class to find all the girls • in the class seated tensely with the words "WE DEMAND OUR FREEDOM" on the • blackboard, which they had draped with fabric. One ofhis female students then • approached him and handed him a petition, which had been signed by the entire class, • calling upon Cyprus' right to self-determination. "You understand us, sir," she said by • way of explanation. "We do not wish to be impolite or embarrass you.... We love • ,,147 • E ng 1an d.... • Durrell must have seen the situation becoming direr when one of his male • students, an orphan named Paul stayed after class to speak with Durrell. Paul was always • a very studious boy, who took great pride in his work. It surprised Durrell very much to • hear the boy ask him: • 'Will England force us to fight for our freedom here? [...] I have been • reading an essay,' he said, 'in which it says that freedom has never been • given, but always taken, always earned at the cost of blood. A people that • is not willing to accept the price is not ready for Freedom. Perhaps England understands this and is waiting for us to prove ourselves ready to • die for freedom?' 148 • These cases show the initiative shown on the part of the students in the struggle. It • is certainly true that education in their formative years was a major factor in their belief • that Cyprus was rightfully part of Greece and that the Hellenic roots of their education 145 Ibid., 128. • 146 Durrell does not note the year. 147 Durrell, 131. • 148 •• Ibid., 134. • 35 •• • • • gave them a sense of pride in this fact. It is incorrect though to say that the Cypriot • educational system was completely to blame for the growth of violence among the youth • in their demands for enosis. • The Case for De-Hellenization • A major issue that arose when the British attempted to move in on the schools • was "De-Hellenization." Cypriots accused the British government of taking steps to take • away the sense of Hellenic culture in the school systems. British officials denied these • accusations vehemently, however, calling it a "myth."149 The official stance of the British • government was that there were no de-Hellenization plans in action. The British cited the • necessity of closing schools that were turning violent, and noted that warnings were given • after the 1954-1955 school year that any farther violence on the part of the students • would result in their school being shut down. After two days of serious rioting, the

• 150 • Samuel School in Nicosia was the first to be closed under this new law. Officials said • that the teachers and administration of the school had been repeatedly warned to stop the • students from their activities. 151 The British claimed their warnings were ignored by the • teachers, 152 but the accounts of the assistant Headmaster at the Samuel School told the • side of the teachers, who felt rather helpless to stop their students. 153 • The British claimed that most elementary schools that closed were not actually • shut down, but had been forced to temporarily suspend activities while there was the risk • of the children being exposed to violent or dangerous incidents. The "Battle of the Flags" • was cited by the British authorities as simply being used as an excuse to involve small • 149 B ntts.. h G ovemment, C orrupt1on,. 19. 150 Ibid., 19. • 151 Ibid., 20. 152 Ibid., 20. • 153 • Alastos, 64 . • 36 • • • • children in clashes with the military, and closing the schools was meant to foil Grivas' • 154 • attempts to do so. The accusations about de-Hellenization in schools, however, had • little to do with the closing of schools. There would have been no "Battle of the Flags" • had the British not made the Greek flag contraband in elementary schools, which was the • point of conflict in the eyes of those who participated in these demonstrations. • "The schools were allowed to follow the curriculum, and teach with the school • books, used in Greece. Their maps represented Cyprus as a part of 'unredeemed Greece' . 155 • Portraits of King Constantine, Queen Sophia, Venizelos[ ] and of the heroes of the • Greek War of Independence decorated the walls.[ ... ] They were taught that Greece was • their mother-country." 156 This did not last long, however. Maps that depicted Cyprus as • part of Greece were outlawed in 1936. 1,050 portraits of the king and queen of England • were donated to the island for distribution in schools. 157 Greek history, Greek songs and

• 158 • Greek portraits were all banned as early as the l 930s. This can not be interpreted as • anything other than pressure to show loyalty to the British culture and a denial ofthe • Cypriot's belief in their Greek culture. • British attempts to stem the growth of the youth movement were strong. They • arrested and detained the most active pupils in detention camps. The British also arrested • and held any teachers that were thought to be encouraging their students' involvement, • and expelled many teachers that hailed from Greece. They temporarily closed down • 159 • many schools and permanently closed others. 154 British Government, Corruption, 21 . • 155 A near Iy 20'" century revo Iut1onary. . Ca Iled the "Maker of Modern Greece." • 156 Sir George Hill, The Otloman Province, The British Colony, 1571-1948, A History of Cyprus, vol. 4, ed. Sir Harry Luke (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1972), 492. • 157 Ibid., 492. 158 Purcell, 235. • 159 • Grivas, Guerrilla, 15-16. • 37 •• • • • One of the most forceful acts of de-Hellenization occurred in the actual • curriculum of Cypriot students. The British officials created compulsory English lessons • to be held five hours a week. This was done at the same time as restricting Greek lessons • to only three hours a week. C. Spyridakis, headmaster of the Pancyprian Gymnasium, in a • letter to the New York Times editor explained the situation: • The instruction in the English language is gradually, year by year, gaining • ground at the expense of corresponding Greek instruction. Greek teachers are required to be educated in the Government college, where all • instruction is in the English language. It is true that readers are still • imported from Greece, but this is because attempts to replace them by other readers locally prepared met with the strongest reaction from the • 160 • people. • These actions on the part of the British oflicials did little to deter the students • from fighting. In fact, these actions simply further fanned the students' anger and • willingness to join EOKA. 161 The British thought that shutting down the schools would • 162 • prevent further youth meetings, but the meetings simply continued in secret. The • British government was at a complete loss. They even proposed other plans, such as • 163 • taking over all the secondary schools on the island. The closing of the schools, • however, only left these politically charged children free to roam the streets of Cyprus. • Yet the policy of closing down "troublesome" schools soon threatened to have the same effect, since as they closed, more pupils were • released to cause trouble on the streets and to lobby those schools which • remained open. Even the primary sector began to be affected. Parents, • headmasters, and the great majority teachers struggled to maintain discipline in institutions which were the pride and joy of the majority • community. Asked afterwards why these efforts failed, one teacher simply 16°C. Spyridakis, "Education in Cyprus," New York Times, 3 June 1952, Letters to the Times, p. 28. • 161 Grivas, Guerrilla, 15-16. • 162 Ibid., 14-15. • "''The End ofEmpire: Dependencies Since 1948. Part I: The West Indies, British Honduras, Hong Kong, Fiji, Cyprus, Gibraltar and the Falklands; Select Documents on the Constitutional History ofthe British • Empire and Commonwealth, Docu1nents in hnperial History, vol. 8, ed. Frederick Madden, Depart1nental • Memorandum (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2000), 427. • 38 • • • • replied, "they [the children] were making history." They were certainly • making trouble for the British Army, as soldiers tried to smother the surge • of Greek flag-waving and general mayhem which gathered momentum in the first two weeks of January. Pursuing a campaign, not so much of • crushing EOKA, but of chasing school kids around classrooms, was • something that the British Security Forces found humiliating. Nobody • could feel this particular indignity more than a Field Marshal. 164 • The debate over de-Hellenization made it all the way to the United States. In the • New York Times there was some back and forth through letters to the editor, in which • British officials and school administrators argued whether or not there was an issue with • de-Hellenization. On March 27, 1952, the New York Times published a letter written by • Horace White, a British Public Information Officer in Cyprus. This letter stated that • students in Cyprus were encouraged to love their heritage and culture and that claims of • de-Hellenization were simply untrue. 165 The letter denied earlier claims in the paper that • Hellenic pride was not allowed among the Greek children of Cyprus. • Dr. C. Spyridakis, headmaster of the Pancyprian School of Nicosia, also wrote a • letter to the editor of the New York Times, in direct response to the letter that had been • written by White. This letter state firmly that de-Hellenization does in fact threaten • Cypriot students. He firmly denies White's claim that children are taught to love their • heritage hy pointing out that children in Cypriot elementary schools it is illegal to teach • the Greek national anthem, hang Greek flags or have any pictures of Greek heroes or • leaders on display. In addition to these suppressions of Greek culture, British culture is • clearly favored, with mandatory English dance lessons, which are performed instead of • traditional Greek or Cypriot dances, at school festivals. 166 This sentiment is farther • 164 Holland, 108. 165 Horace White. "Education in Cyprus," New York Times, 27 March 1952, Letters to the Times, p. 28. • 166 • Spyridakis, "Education in Cyprus," p. 28. • 39 • • • • confirmed in a New York Times article written by A.C. Sedgwick, who wrote many • articles on Cyprus, which states, "In these schools [elementary] manifestations of Greek • sentiment are forbidden and teachers may be discharged if they permit them or even if • they give any special significance to the teaching of Greek history. In the few secondary • schools, also supported by the tax-payers, Hellenic demonstrations are taboo." 167 • Spyridakis clarifies the system of governance in the case of the schools of Cyprus • by explaining that elementary education is completely under the jurisdiction of the British • government, though most high schools did retain some independence. They did, however • receive some aid from special educational funds set up by the British. These funds, it • should be noted, were created from the taxes levied on the people of Cyprus. Spyridakis • adds that this aid, once given unconditionally, would now only be given to high schools • that agreed to change their curriculum to allow even more English lessons, decrease

• 168 • Greek language and history lessons, and refrain from any nationalist speech or activity. • The few secondary schools are divided into three categories-those fully • subsidized, with British curriculum; those partly supported by the • Government, where the teachers are also Government chosen, and those receiving no public support and considered private institutions. Last • summer the Government invited all schools to come under the first • category. No community school committee accepted, on the ground that if • the schools became fully public institutions Greek children would receive • an education designed to neutralize Hellenic feelings [... ] The Greeks objected to what they said was a determined policy to extirpate enosis • through discouragement and in some cases suppression of Greek • sentiment by the reducing of interest in Hellenic studies. 169 • Warnings from the government to the schools in 1954, created the sense that even • those schools that were not receiving government funding and considered themselves • 167 A.C. Sedgwick, "British Reaffirm Stand on Cyprus," New York Times, 28 November 1954, p. 33 . • 168 S ·ct k. "Ed . . C pyn a 1s, ucat10n m yprus," p. 28. 169 • A.C. Sedgwick, "British Warn Cyprus Schools Over Rioting; Greek Groups Angered at 'Interference,"' • New York Times, 25 December 1954, p. 3. • 40 • • • • immune to government interference were no longer safe from de-Hellenizing policies. • Schools were warned that any students participating in demonstrations were to be • expelled. The colonial government also warned that any school that could not control the • activities of their students would be closed altogether. 170 • Spyridakis goes even further by debunking the claim that the British government • gave scholarships to students in Greek schools on the island. These scholarships were • only given to students in the British controlled, English schools. Spyridakis concludes • sadly saying, "l regret to say that the whole educational policy ofthe Cyprus Government • tends to depart from the educational program applying [sicJin Greece in an attempt to • undermine the Greek ideal in the minds of the young generation." 171 • Conclusion • The story of the youth involvement in the Cypriot Nationalist Movement is one • that has, until now, been neglected. An unfortunate part of this fact is that there is no oral • history recorded. Many ofthe participants in these events are still living, and their stories • need to be recorded before it is too late. To further the research in this area, it will be • necessary to obtain the colonial office records of Britain on this topic as well as explore • the archival evidence in Cyprus. • Though British accounts as well as most subsequent scholarly accounts try to cast • the blame EOKA or the Cypriot education for the use ofviolent tactics by the youth • organizations for enosis, the children show a significant amount of initiative and self will. • Cypriot education, as education generally does, played its part in the beliefs ofthe • children of the island. They were told that Cyprus was a part of Greece and were taught 170 Ibid. • 171 • Spyridakis, "Education in Cyprus," p. 28. • 41 • • • • of the glories of Greek heroes. Even if this had not been the case, however, a culture that • spoke the Greek language, followed Greek cultural norms, and professed the Greek • Orthodox faith was bound to feel an attachment to the Greek nation. • Though the Cypriot education, at least in the early years, did lead to a hope for • union with Greece, evidence suggests this that this hope was initially a passive one. • Durrell's account shows the youth's reluctance to turn to violence against the British. • Violence became a primary recourse only after diplomatic means had been exhausted; the • people of Cyprus faced their final disappointment when the United Nations shelved the • issue of Cypriot self determination in 1954, which was followed by the first major • student riots. 172 • It should also be taken into consideration that elementary school was the only • compulsory education in Cyprus and was also completely run by the Colonial • Government. Therefore, the only form of education being received by every student in • Cyprus was the one being filtered to them by the British government and devoid of all • nationalist sentiment. Markides tell us, however, that high schools were only attended by • a fraction of the children of Cyprus, meaning that any supposed nationalist propaganda in • these schools was only reaching that fraction of the youth population. There is also • evidence disproving accusations that teachers in the high schools encouraged subversive • activities in their students. • It is also incorrect to blame General Grivas for the youth violence. Grivas never • forced anyone to join his organization, though he did threaten those who would stand in • the way of his work. When he arrived in Cyprus, the youth had already been actively • pressing for enosis and in many cases had already taken the path of violence. Grivas

• 172 • Grivas, Memoirs, 29. • 42 • • • • certainly managed to organize the youth. He gave them a rallying point and a chain of • command. This organization was a major factor in the effectiveness of the youth action • against colonial rule, but it can hardly be cited as the reason behind their actions. Finally, • as Markides points out, EOKA B ofthe 1970s, also led by General Grivas, had a wildly • different demographic from the EOKA ofthe 1950s. Had it been Grivas' influence that • pushed the youth into battle, then the effect should have been similar on his return to • Cyprus to try again to achieve enosis. • Though the movement did not achieve its goal of enosis in the end, a lot had still • been accomplished. There were reasons, outside of EOKA 's control, that contributed to • the granting of Cypriot independence in 1960, instead of union with Greece. Primary • among these was the violent Turkish response to the idea of enosis and Britain's • willingness to once again exploit cultural tensions for their own benefit by granting • special considerations to the Turkish minority and recruiting them to the police forces to • battle EOKA in the towns. • The agreement made in Zurich over the fate of the island, was that Britain would • retain several bases on the island and the constitution protected both the Greek majority • and the Turkish minority, which made up less than 18% of the population of Cyprus. • Both cultural groups were given equal weight in the government and it was agreed that • the president would be Greek and the Vice President would be Turkish. The first men • elected to these positions were the Archbishop Makarios III and Dr. Fazil Kii9iik, both of • whom maintained absolute veto power. This division of the government inevitably • created a lot of blocks in the effectiveness of the Cypriot government as a whole and • • • 43 • • • • eventually to the constitutional crisis, the attempted Greek coup, and the Turkish invasion • and occupation of Northern Cyprus. • However, the oath that the ANE members took said that they would fight to • remove themselves from British control and would stand down once their leader • proclaimed victory; which he did do, alhcit reluctantly. • "I knew then, as surely as I know that one day I will die, that the Greek • Cypriots and the men of free Greece are one people, indivisible. How much deeper was my bitterness, then, at leaving the Cypriots before they • could be given the full freedom of union with Mother Greece. My • conscience is at ease. I did my duty, as I saw it, to the end. But the Cypriot • people, who fought so bravely and for so long, deserved a better fate than • the shackles which were forged for them in Zurich; and those who bound the people's hands behind their backs in London carry the full • responsibility for what they did." 173 • For the mountain guerrilla fighters, however, the war was over and they could go • home. One New York Times article described the scene as follows: • E.O.K.A.'s war is over and the boys are heading home. The wiry youths whom Britain so recently called terrorists now are hailed as heroes on the • It streets of Nicosia. They do not look fierce. is hard to imagine one • padding silently along an alley, gun in hand, or waiting for the right • instant to set off a land mine on a mountain road. They look more like young clerks, accountants, students, electricians, lawyers or farmers­ • . h . 1· h 174 • wh1c m act t ey once were. • Their participation also became one of the primary factors in the success of the • movement as a whole. Grivas himself admitted this fact in his memoirs. The sheer • numbers that the youth offered to EOKA were a major asset to the organization. • Newspapers tell of demonstrations involving hundreds of students marching through the • streets of Cyprus, facing tear gas, batons and even gunfire. The loyalty and determination • shown by the children of Cyprus was nothing short of inspiring. Jn the words of Stella 173 Grivas, Memoirs, 203. • 174 • "Young Fighters Going Home," New York Times, 14 March 1959, p. 3. • 44 • • • • Soulioti: "Looking back on the first period of the struggle, what stands out most clearly is • the feeling ofpride that ran through the Greek population of Cyprus. Despite a natural • aversion to the use of arms, they were heartened that an era of inaction had come to an • end, that their youth could perform feats of heroism equal to any in Greek history..." 175 • • • • • • • • • •• • • • • • •

• 175 • Soulioti, 27. • 45 • • • • Bibliography • Primary Sources: • Bigart, Homer. "Cypriote Pupils Bedevil British." New York Times, 7 February 1956, p. • 3. British Government of Cyprus. Corruption ofYouth in Support o{Terrorism in Cyprus. • Cyprus: Government of Cyprus, 1957. • British Government. Cyprus: EOKA 's Campaign o{Terror. London: Central Office of • Information, 1956. • "British on Cyprus Battle New Riots." New York Times, 18 September 1955, p. 1. • "British Units Fire at Rioters As Cyprus Protest Spreads." New York Times, 18 December • 1954, p. I. • "Briton Shot Dead By Cypriotc Youth." New York Times, 25 October 1958, p. 2. • Byford-Jones, W. Grivas and the Story ofEOKA. London: Robert Hale Limited, 1959. • "Curfew in Cyprus." New York Times, 18 November 1956, p. 3. • "Cyprus Fighters Propose a Truce." New York Times, 15 March 1957, p. 4. • Durrell, Lawrence. Bitter lemons. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1957. • Foley, Charles, and W.I. Scobie. Island in Revolt. London: Longmans, Green and Co., • Ltd., 1962. • Grivas, George. General Grivas on Guerrilla Warfare. Translated by A.A. Pallis. New • York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1965. ____.The Memoirs ofGeneral Grivas. Edited by Charles Foley. New York: • Frederick A. Praeger, 1965. • Haff, Joseph 0. "Cypriotes Urged to Kill Governor." New York Times, 13 May 1956, • p. 1. • Madden, Frederick, ed. The End ofEmpire: Dependencies Since 1948, Part 1: The West • Indies, British Honduras, Hong Kong, Fiji, Cyprus, Gibraltar and the Falklands, • Select Documents on the Constitutional History ofthe British Empire and Commonwealth, vol. 8, Documents in Imperial History. Westport, Connecticut: • Greenwood Press, 2000. • • • • • • Sedgwick, A.C. "Anti-British Tide Rising in Cyprus." New York Times, 6 March 1951, p. • 14. ---~· "British Reafiirm Stand on Cyprus." New York Times, 28 November 1954, p. • 33 . • ____."British Warn Cyprus Schools Over Rioting; Greek Groups Angered at • 'Interference."' New York Times, 25 December 1954, p. 3. • "Slain Student Becomes A Martyr to Cypriotes." New York Times, 8 February 1956, p. 3. • Spyridakis, C. "Education in Cyprus." New York Times, 3 June 1952, Letters to the • Times, p. 28 . • "Students on Cyprus Join in Violent Demonstrations Against British." New York Times, 9 • February 1956, p. 3. • "Tear Gas Routs Cyprus Students." New York Times, 20 November 1955, p. 23 . • Tear Gas, Shots Scatter Rioting Cyprus Students: Police Disperse Marching Teenagers • Shouting Slogans Against Government," Los Angeles Times, 8 December 1957, p. • 24. • White, Horace. "Education in Cyprus." New York Times, 27 March 1952, Letters to the • Times, p. 28. • "Young Fighters Going Home," New York Times, 14 March 1959, p. 3. • "Youths on Cyprus Urge British Exit." New York Times, 25 May 1955, p. 8. • Secondary Sources: • Alastos, Doros. Cyprus Guerrilla: Grivas, Makarios and the British. London: William • Heinemann Ltd., 1960. • Barker, Dudley. Grivas: Portrait ofa Terrorist. New York: Harcourt, Brace and • Company, 1960. • Crawshaw, Nancy. The Cyprus Revolt: An Account olthe Struggle/or Union with • Greece. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1978. • Hill, Sir George. The Oltoman Province, The British Colony, 1571-1948. A History of • Cyprus, ed. Sir Harry Luke, vol. 4. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. • Holland, Robert. Britain and the Revolt in Cyprus. Oxford: Clarendon Press: Oxford • University Press, 1998. • • • • • Markides, Kyriacos C. The Rise and Fall of'the Cyprus Republic. New Haven: Yale • University Press, 1977. • Purcell, H.D. Cyprus. New York: Frederick A. Praegcr, 1968. • Soulioti, Stella, ed. Fettered Independence: Cyprus, 1878-1964. Minneapolis: University • of Minnesota, 2006. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • tudents on Cyprus Join in Violent Demonstrations Against British The New York Times . ) 9Jew York Times (1857-Currentfile); Feb 9, 1956; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2005 .g3 -Students on Cyprus Join in Violent, Demonstrations Against Britis4. t

The New York Times Sritish soldiers round up students at Nicosia, after boys staged ·protest Friday on treatment of Greek patriots•

• NICOSIA, Cyprus, Feb. 8 against the death Tuesday of from more than thirty villages. a revolver, lodged in a shutter, Meuters)-Elementary school Petrakis Yiallouris, an 18-year- The government closed most while the other was the ma­ ~ildren J'oined today In violent old secondary school student elementary schools to avoid chine-gun buJlet tltat killed 'll d b B ·t· h f rth t bl Al t the student, ·the statement said. 9monstrations calling for the 5 h0 t an d k1 e Yin Fri 15 u er rou e. mos a 11 It denied local newspaper re... ..ion of Cyprus ati.d Greece. soldiers during a riot ama- Greek_ secon_dary· schools now ports that security forces· had .1ey damaged schOol build- gusta. 1 are ctbsed indefinitely. ~ fired many shots. ,,,,JJ.gs, destroyed British flags, In one district children An official statement issued The Athens radio said in its .ashed portraits of the Royal stoned security forces who ap· today declared that British regµIar program to Cyprus to.. mily and hoisted Greek flags. peared during the demonstra· troops fired only two shots day that \t would 0 never go he disturbanCes \Vere ap· tions today. · Tuesday during the Famagusta silent" despite reports that cntly organized on an Reports of trouble In ele- riots. · Britain might jam its broad· nd-\vide basis as a protest mentary schools w~re received One, a warning Shot.fired by casts.

'eproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permis_s_i_o_n_.-----­ • • CYPRIOTE PUPILS BEDEVIL BRITISH By HOMER BIGART Special to The New York Times New York Times (1857-Currentfile); Feb 7, !956; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (!85! - 2005; • pg. 3 • OYPRIOTE PUPILS • BEDEYIL BRITISH • Clash With Troops Touches Off Riots in Famagusta­ • Schools a Trouble Spot

• By .HOl\IER BIGART Spedal to Tb• Ne• Yo~ Ttmu• • NICOSIA, Cyprus, Feb, 6­ Greek Cypriote -school children continued. to bedevil British 1101· • diers today•.They touched oft a series of riots: Jn Fame.gusta, the • leading port of Cyprus. On their way to· classrooms • this morning, the children gath­ ered in the market place and stoned the British Arm'f Educa­ • tion Center. They broke several \vindows and smashed the wind· sbield of a military vehicle. • The British reacted with tear gas. During- the incident one of four police dogs used in patrol­ • ling the area bit one of the chU· dren. The British said the dog "broke loose.. from its handler. • But the incident created ugly feeling in the port, • An houl' latel' a · crowd of Cypriotes surrounded a military vehicle and pelted soldiers in tt with slates and bottles. When the • Auoc\1.~ Praa Wlt•pboto troops dismounted to disperse the mob one soldiel' found him· REPORTS ON TALKS ffi THE UNITED STATES: Sir • self cut off fl'om others and .im­ Anthony Eden, British Prime JUnlster, as he addressed & mediately became the target of Canadian ye~terday a concentrated barrage. He joint session of Parlla.ment in Ottawa... • fired a Sten gun, wounding a Cypriote in the leg. is a formidable undertaking. For • Greeks Run 1\lost High School! example, Nicosia's foul' big high One of the oddities of the Brit­ schools hold a potential teen-age • ish handling of the Cypl'iote re- crowd of more than 4,000, which 1 bellion involves the display of could pour out on the streets at· Greek flags. High schools and any moment and become the· • churches may flaunt the Hellenic focal point of a mass demonstra­ standard and the British do tion• nothing about it. But let chll- The British are Insisting that • dren in elementary schools hang the governing bodies o·t Greek! out the .flag and British troops schools form parents' assocla­ • in full battle order come run- lions. When a school is closed: nlng to strike it down. because of rioting, the parents This discrimination is a result must sign a pledge making them • of the curious development of responsible for their children's the island's educational system. behavior. Then the schools re- By deliberate choice the Brit- open. . • ish left almost all seconda1·y Greek Cypriotes have reaped schooling under the control of a propaganda advantage from the Greek community. When the student clashes with troops. A • British occupied Cyprus in 1878 British unit commander com· they found its Turkish masters plained "these so-called chil.dren • had permitted the Greek com- are bigger than some of my na­ n1u'nity full autonomy in educa- tional service mer. [draftees]." tion. Prime Minister Gladstone I Meanwhile, K. J. Hendrick, • would tolerate no "de-Hellenlza- manager of the Cyprus· Mines lion,'.' so Gree~s were allowed to Corporation, the only' sizable • continue running the secondary 1 American investment on Cyprus, schools. . lsald today that "It' they had Today only one of the four- ·enosis we would be kicked out • teen secondary schools of the ·on our ear and the place na­ Greek community receives st~te ,tionallzed.'' aid, the Govemm.ent pr~vfd1ng owned by the Mudd family of • te~chers. and paymg their sal- Los Angeles, Cyprus Mines •?m· anes. Ail the rest have Greek ployes 2 000 and is the biggest teachers, Greek textbooks and a single eTi.teI'prise in Cyprus. Its • curriculum designed to .prepare annual production of coppet" con_• students for A~hens University, -centrates, cement, copper and • They charge tuition. ·pyrites totals $25,000,000. Henry Only the el~mentary schools T. Mudd of Los Angeles ts presi­ are free. And since. they are con- dent of the concern whose mines • trolled by a British director of are in the foothills' of the Troo· ed_~c_a.tion, they may fly only the dos range, thirty-five miles Bntlsh flag. west of Nicosia. • Thus secondary schools have become almost as important as Orthodox churches in fanning • the flame of enosis-union with Greece. The Brltlsh made a be­ • lated attempt to recapture the classrooms by planning technical high schools and a technical col­ • lege and by o!fertng more scho· larships to British universities. This plan is likely to be aban­ • doned If the Cypriotes get self­ government. • Meanwhile, control of students • Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. •• • ANTI-BRITISH TIDE • RISING IN CYPRUS • Cypriots Clamorln1for Mergerl With Greece, Whlle Britons • Point to Defense Needs • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • • CURFl<:W IN CYPRUS • ~;~~York fon~< i/llJ!-Curr~ni fil<). Nov lX, )9SI,. hoQucst Hi>tomal Ncwspopcr> ltic New Vork Time< ( IX51 2UUI) • CURFEW IN CYPRUS • Greek Youths Confined After • Terrorists Kill 36 NICOSIA, Cyprus, Nov, 17 • CReuters)-British authorities • clamped a house curfew today on all Greek Cypriot• youths • throughout Cyprus after thirty­ six persons had been killed in • terrorist attacks in the last two • weeks. Two British soldiers, wounded • when a time bomb exploded In a canteen yesterday, died during • the night. One of sixteen other • soldiers injured by the blast was reported in .serious condition. • As the curfew confined youths between the ages of 12 and 26 • to their homes, hundreds of British troops" and policemen • searched Nicosia's old city and the suburb of Ayios Dhometios, • scene of several recent attacks. J\.1embers of E.O.K.A., a terror­ • ist organization campaigning for union of Cyprus with Greece • have killed eighty-seven Britons in the last t\venty months. • A British free-lance journal­ ist, Angus McDonald, 27, was • killed yesterday• • Roproducod with permossion of the copynght owner. Fur1her repmduct1on prohibited wothout perm•ssion • • • • • • •• ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Tear Gas, Shots Scatter Rioting Cyprus Students Los Angeles Times (1886-Cunem File); Dec 8, 1957; ProQuest Historical Newspapers Los Angeles Times (1881 - 1986) pg. 24

the iiil'Jdc.nts from the street. Hundreds of girls retreat.. -, ed· inside the church, where ;r~:1..:~~~:. ~~~~ ,;;..~~ Tear Gas, Shots Scatter and yelled until a British .ot1"ng Cyprus Students r,o;:~«h:;;r,:\~'~~~~~~t. of­ Rl. But he warned,· "If a sin­ "le slone is thrown I will Police Disperse Marching Teen-agers ~rdcr the riot squad to dis­ perse you." Shouting Slogans Against Government The girls began tiling out . quietly, but the boys began NICOSIA, Cyprus, Dec. 7 The students troopcd into Ithrowing rock:>. One of them !~Police used tear gas and the streets shouting anti- hit Iris Russel, a British waming shots today to dis- government slogans a.nd C?rr~spondent, who was hos­ perse 3000 rioting teen-agers s i n g in g Greek - Cypr1ote 01tnh~ed. . . . let out of school to mnrk hymns. Church bells sum· ).lihtary police 1mmcd1atc. the opening of the U.N. de- 1noned the teen-agers to the ly fired over the students' bate on Cyprus. Phaneromeni Cathedral and heads and the teen-agers re. The debate harl been Church; \Vhere they hoisted taliated with .stones, bottles, :icheduled to start ),londay, iGrcek flags as they paraded bricks and sticks. hut officials of the· Greek-1in the square. Police finally fired tear gas Cypriote schools closed the Police, ordered to breali into ~he crowds, breaking up buildings . today. 1up the demonstration, chasec ,t~h~e~r~1o~t~.------­

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. • • • • • • • • • Young Fli:hteu Going Home N"W Yark Time• (18Ji·Cun-emjile). Mat 14. 1959; PmQucst llmorical Ncwspape" The New Yor~ T1mcs (1&51 · 2005) • pg. J NICOSIA, March 13 (APJ~ E. O. K. A.'s \VaJ' is over anl;I. • the boys are heading llome. . The wiry youths whom Brit• • ain so recently called terrorist;. . now are hailed as heroes on th'll • streets of ~tcosia. They do not look fierce. It ii • bard to imagine one padding silently· along an alley, gun ·th hand, or waiting for the righ'fl • instant to set off a Jand m1n8 on a mountain road. · • Th~y 10ok more llke yol,Ulg clerks, accountants, studenq;­ • electricians, lawyers or farmer.i -!.which in fact they once were• But the fourRyear war the.fr • fought ,to free Cyprus from~~ ain wa11>,;au1111 ~ ml/llO§§. .Al • total ·of 393: ~danWtm

• Slain S!udenl Becume5 A Martyr tu Cvprlutes N""' York Tim•.< (1857-Currem [ii~). FKyrenia on the east • coast. There \Vere no casual­ ties. • British troops raided two villages and arrested. three • Greek Cypriotes, wanted in connection \vith acts of ter­ • rorism. Terrorists threw a bomb at • a British Army patrol car in Paphos, west Cyprus, tonight. • The explosion caused no cas. ualties or damage to the car.

• Reproduc&d W•lh peim1ssoon o1 the ropyrOgh! owner fur1her reproductoon prohrboted w11hou! perm1sskm • • • • • • • British Units Fire at Rioters As Cyprus Protest Spreads ~~:~~~·;~~~:"'r~:;;~urremflle); De.: 19, \954; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times {1851 20()5) • pg. I • British Units Fire at Riote1ros • 1 • As Cyprus Protest Spreadsj • By The As.~ociated Pres1• I • 11.'ICOSIA, .Cyprus, Dec. 18-British troops resorted to fir-~ • Iing at demonstrators today as protest strikes and sttt.dent riot~/ • ,ing over the Cyprus issue spread. Tear gas was employed. The • ifiring was agains~ rioters at ·the to11;n of Limassol• • , , I > Tweh·e per•ons were ipjnrecl in • :LtmaBsol ·iri the first instance oi: • ,the' use of fireanns by troops to.I ·majntaln order In this BritisH • Crown Colon\·, in the Meclitel'l'a·' • nean. In Nicosia, the capital,'. strikes and rioting flared, leaving: • twenty-three persons Injured. • Arrests totaled thirty-seven as a result of the dispute ol'er thei • Greek majo1·ity's desh·e fo1· union I • with Greece. There have been; outbursts since the votes in the . • ;United Nations in favor of post·, • poning consideration of .the Cy-1 prus issue, . ! • I . ' , An official statement said the • I police had 'fired four shots at • 1de1nonsti·ators in Li~nassol, thei 'island's principal port. Two per-1 • 1sons were wounded and five ar-1 • !rested. I i In Nicosia, schoolboy rioters • ,caused the most trouble during a • Itwenty-four-hour strike called by ,the Communists, 1'jationalists andl • t1·ade unions to protest the Unit­ • 'ed Nations decision. The police ,used tear gas to disperse the lioys • and arrested thil'ty·two persons• • Following the disturbances a • small group of Turkish Cyprfotes appeared in the streets of Nicosia • shouting "Down with enosis!" • The Cypriote movement for union with Greece is calletl enosis, • The Govemment advised all • citizens to remain off the st;:eets • toni~ht ,and banned a soccer game scheduled for tomotTow A I ' • ban was placed also on a Com- • Conitnucd on Page 20, Column S • t Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. •• • • • • • BRITISH UNITS FIRE • ON CYPRUS RIOTERS • Continued From Page 1 ·\ • munist-sponsored meeting·tomor-1 • row to commeinorate the signing of the United Nations Declara­ • tion on Human Rights. • .After bursting out of their • school in Nicosia, the boys: Helped girls, some of whom • ,later joined in the demonstration, : to break · out of their school, • where teachers had locked the Idoors. • Threw stones and bottles at • policemen outside the British In­ stitute. The police charged and • ·they fled. . Re-formed and marched to the • United States Consulat~. where • they sang tlle Greek national an­ them. • • Assembled' In Nicosia's main square and broke t,Yindows of the • public information building, which • was flying British colors. The flag was lowered. • There were similar schoolboy demonstrations in Limassol,. • where British soldiers were booed and the British flag was cut • down !rom the courthouse. • For the most part, workers participating in the general strike • stayed off the streets. Food shops, i·estaurants and essential services • continued to function. The Gov­ • ernment had reminded strikers of severe penalties provided if they • closed. • Reproduced wi1h permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission • • • • • • • British Warn Cyprus Schools Over RioHng; Greek Groups Angered al 'Interference' • By A. C. SEDGWICK.Special to The New York Times. New York Times ({857-Currenrfi/e); Dec 25, 1954; ProQuesl Historical Newspapers The New York Times (!851 2005) • pg. J • Briti~h Warn Cyprus Schools Over Rioting; • Greek Groups Angered at.'Inter{erence' By A. C. SEDGWICK • Special to The New York Times. • NIC.OSIA, Cyprus, Dec. 24­ lion in this Crown Colony. There • Government . commissioners in are Government-run . primary sever~! towns of .this British schools with Government-ap· • colony told heads of Greek sec· pointed teachers. The few secondary schools are • ondary schools today pupils would divided into three categories­ be liable. to expulsion if they par. lhose fully subsidized, with a • ticipated in "unlawful demonstra­ British cuniculum; those partly • tions.11 . supported by the Government, The warning follows ah inquiry where the teachers are•also Gov­ • into last Saturday's rioting for ernment chosen, and those receiv­ enosis - the demand for union ing no public support and con­ • with Greece through self-deter­ sidered private institutions. mination. The demonstrations, Last summer the Government • while marked by the firing by invited all schools to come under • British troops and injuries and the first category. arrests in some instances, were mostly noisy and juvenile. No community school commit· • 1 tee accepted, on the ground that The school warning has evoked • angry resentment among groups if the schools became fully public of the Greelt community, which institutions Greek children would receive an education designed to • 1 interpret it as an enlargement Iof an alleged Government policy neutralize Hellenic feelings. • Families protested. In their to quell Greek national feeling • and patriotic fervor tl!rough fur­ name, objections to the Govern­ ther control of student deport­ ment move were raised to the • ment. effect that teachers would be Schools that have no subsidy civil servants who just conformed • to the Government's education from the Government and have • considered themselves compara­ pattern or risked discharge. tively immune to Government in­ The Greelts objected to what • terference are affected by the they said was a determined polky order. The commissioners also to e1'tirpate enosis through dis· • threatened to close schools alto­ couragement and in some cases gether if students got out of suppression of Greek sentiment by • j the reducing of interest ln Hel· hand. • There is no compulsory educa­ .lenic studies. • Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission . • •• • • • ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

BRITISH REAFFIRM STAND ON CYPRUS By A. C. SEDGWICKSpecial to The New York Times. New York Times (1857-Currentfile); Nov 28, 1954; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2005) pg.33

~~~~--··- -- ~=~-·--· ·-·-··- ~ .. in a rise in commodity prices. u;J l;;d~~ for temporal amellora. ! interpretation and one which legislation, Many Cypriot.. .,,. \~~ t~;&rdt ettecttng thll aubstl-1 BRITISH REAFFIRM • But tho main consequence of tlon of their plight; In fact there! cannot be advanced in good faith. sert that they have espoused tution,. There ts no. compulsory the Influx Is that tho so·called was none else to turn to. I It iS recalled that the British communism simply as a forceful education. However, · primary ''minoritles"-the Greek 1 Hence the Greek Orthodox recognized the power of the l amount­ way of achieving enosls, seeing ischools exist. and ·t;:~dren.. must STAND ON CYPRUS ing to about 80 per cent and the populatiqn turned to their Arch-; church in the troQbled post-war attend or remain handicapped Turkish amounting to about 20­ bishop-Etlnlarch to plead their period in Greece by installing that courtesy and patience ap­ 1 i are able to guess that the British cause:·:·for· e'noais' (union withl Archbishop Damaskinos as re­ pear unavailing. through lllltera.cy_, ·tn these Influx of Troops Shows Rulers meant it when they said that no G~eece l cif old before the Turkish gent. Courtesy is a. characteristic of schools· tnani!estatl.Qns of: ·Greek change in the island's sovereign· authoritieS,. ·and. ,.l.D. :more recent i Another British contention 1s the Greek Cypr!otes. Considering sentiment are forbidden: and Meant What They Said on ty was contemplated...... times before :the.·:Britlsh. Thus 1discotmted: That the Communists the island as theirs, they see. the teai:hers may be '11schB.i'ged If While' to the Turks this ls, -as: the:·Cypr_us Chllrcl).,.'and the Eth­ ialong with the Church authorities Britisher as a stranger within they perni.it then\ or .even if they Island's Sovereignty it were, good news, to the Greeks narchy "lone and Ill• same) nat. .bear the responsibility for the thefr gates tp whom by ancient give a· SpeClal ~itlcance to the Iis is a certificate or rene\ve4 un.tIY ..became the sole Cypriote :enosis agitation. The move for tradition friendship must be ex.­ teaching of Greek blstory. In the few _secondary schools, .also sup­ agency, whiC:h, working as a ·enosis gained headway long b~ tended. It would be possible for 1 frustration. . 1 By A. C. SEDGWICK Either the Greek clamor fbr ~iuiow government, could press .fore communism \'/as heard of.on any well-meaning Briton to travel ported by the tax. p~yers, Hellen· Special lo The :.!tw York '11m", i ic "demonstratioris are. taboo, union with Greece wJll have to thEf s:i:m~. a:ge-old demand before 1 this island. Befo1·e 1947 Commu- all over the island and retain the abate-of this there appears no th&~ United Nations. Previously nists favored complete independ­ impression of popularity. To th~I NICOSIA, Cypl'llS, Nov. 13­ likelihood-or the British will re­ all · invitatioQs to the British to l.ence and only after the enosis non-British traveler come the The British in the administration· isort to far more repressive rneas- discus~-~-.the. matter bilaterally movement's popularity had been complaints. of this island colony, those in1 1lll'es than those in force jn order were· declined. , vividly demonstrated did the left­ And so wi1l it be until the men­ business, and those he1·e for pl~as· 1 to maintain public order. There has never been a libera­ ists elect to join it. tality of the Greek . Cypi-lote 1 1 tion movement throughout mod­ changes. Indeed, ·EitiOsls might ure, altogether amount to 1ess Dl_rision by Religion! than 1 pet' cent of the popul:1tion,: ern Greek· history that has not Soclo.I Service Laeking well dwindle aW:;ty into· ..a lost which ntm1bers about 500,000. : Going back into history, the 1been inspired and, to some ex:. According to the Ethnarchy, cause if the :British can· substi­ Now Bl'itish n1iiltary person­ Ottoman Empire which adminis­ tent, organized by the Greek the British rulers, attacking the tute a local patriotism-for ey.. nel, ttnlil recently in the Suez tered Cyp1us before the British lOrthqdox Church. doctrine of enosis, have remained prus as part of the Britlsh Com­ Cana1 Zone, are being installed occupation in 1878, being a theo­ Consequently the British con­ comparatively indifferent to monwealth-instead of a: Hellenic on the south shore in sufficient cratic state, normally divided tention that enosis is merely communism, the spread of which sJ?ttlement. · numbers to affect the island's subject races according to relig·! fanned up by an ecclesiastical has been encouraged by Jack of Education ·and even "the train· economy and indicate a drift to­ ion. · People of various fafthsl body appears to Gi:eeks here as social services, and until recently, itig,. Of_ Boy·: and Gfrl .Scotits are ward inflation, already l'eflected habitually turned to their spirit·; on the mainland ti> .be a. fa1se the absence of all social and labor i~s~rUme~ts OI. GoVe~n~ent poll-

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. • • Eduratiou iu Cnirus • C. SPYRIDAKIS New York Tfr,,es (1857-Currentfih•); J1u1 3. 195.2: ProQuest Hi.,torical Ke,\"spapers The Ne"· York Ti1ne<:. (I 851 • :?.005) • pg. 28 • Let:t:ers t:o The Times • Education in Cyprus • Governnient Polic)'" Seen as Attempting • to Undermine Greek Ideal • To THB EDITOR OF THl!l NEW YoRK TIMES: • In your .fsstle of March 27 H. White, • Public Information Officer in the Cy­ • 1 prus administration, gives information • •on the educational system in Cyprus. ! May I, as headmaster of the oldest and • .biggest school of secondary education • I. in Cyprus and as an ex-member of the • ICouncil of Education ot the Cyprus • I Government, be allowed in reply to • I state the following; • 1 It is unfortunately not correct to say • · that the children a.re encouraged to love • their national traditions. The fact is • that in Greek elementary schools • the teaching of Greek national songs • and the national anthem is expressly • • • • • •• • ~• • • • fund (made up by special taxation • levied upon the Greek people of the • island) unless they consent to alter • their program of instruction by in­ • creasing the teaching hours of English • and correspondingly reducing the hours • of Greek and history, and further on • condition they refrain from any na­ • tional actiVities. Previously such finan­ • cial assistance was given to secondary • schools unconditionally. For this rea­ son most of the secondary education • schools, in an endeavor to retain their • national character (so essential for any • proper education), have rejected Gov­ • ernment a.id. • It is also not correct to say that • Government scholarships are available • for students in Greek schools, as they • are only provided for the students of • the Government English schools. Such • scholarships as there are in the Greek • schools are now aYailable by donations • • from the Greek people or by special • • • • • • •• • •• • •• •• • prohibited, and so 'is any display in • ·school premises of pictures of Greek • heroes or of the Greek flag, while Eng­ • lish dances are compulsorily taught and • are performed at school festivals. • The instruction in the English lan­ • guage is gradually, year by year, gain­ ing ground at the expense of corre­ • sponding Greek instruction. Greek • teachers are required to be educated • in the Government college, where all • instruction is in the English language. • It is true that readers are still import­ • ed from Greece, but this is because at­ • .tempts to replace them by other read­ ers locally prepared met with the • strongest reaction from the people. • While elementary education is en­ • tirely under Government control, • schools of secondary education still re­ • tain a certain degree of independence. • But the Government now denies them • any assistance from the educational • • • legacies. . • I. I regret to say that the whole edu­ • i cational policy· of the Cyprus Govern­ • ment tends· to depart from the educa­ : tional program applying in Greece in • :an attempt to undermine the Greek I • ideal in the minds of the young gen­ • 1 eration. C. SPYRIDAKIS, • Headmaster of the PancyPrtot School• • Nicosia, Cyprus, M.ay 1, 1952, • Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. • • • • • • • • CYPRIOTES URGED • TO KILL GOVERNOR • Rebel Leaflets Say Assassin • of Sir John Harding Would • Become a •Patriot' Hero By Josr::rH o. HAFF • S~«••I to Tiit Nt• \•cwt,.,..,... NICOSIA. C)'Pl"US, May 12­ • Leaflet!\ distributed today by the Gl'eek Cypriote terrorii;t or· • ganlzation urged the assassina­ tion of the British Governor bf • thls crown <'-nlony. One leaflet put out l.ly the • Xational Organization of Cyprl· ate Fighters, known as E. 0 . I\. A. proclaimed that the • "patriot" who should kill the Governor, Field .Marshal Sir • John Harding, would "have his name emblazoned on a scroll of gold." The leaflet appeared on • walls in ''artous parts of the capital. • The city 1·esembled a dead town as shops remained closed • tor the third da.~· and residents remaine1 indoors in protest against the hanging of L\\·o • Greek Cypriote!I In the Nicosia Central Prison eii.rly Thlll"~day. • Local newspapers, including two English-language morning • papers. The Crprus Uail and The Tlmei; ot Cyprus, printed no edi· lions yesterday or today because • Greek Cypric.te pnnters refused to report for work. Most of the • traffic through the narrow streets of the old walled !lector • of the cily consisted of heavily armr.d plltrols of milila.ry anr:I • police vehicles. Briti:<:h authorities countered the Cypriote leaflet campaign • by issuing a leaflet printed In Greek and showing a map or • Cyprus, over lhe center of whi('h was a daub or red ink represent• • ing blood. Charg-e Ag'aln3t Tcrrori~ts • Tl'l!s new uovernment 1ear· let attacked what It termed "pseudo patriots" who ha\'e shot • ind killed priests and othe1·· :iv:ilians, many of them Greek' • C)'Priotes, and policemen, It ('barged that terrorists had • "spoiled a beautiful island, turn· Ing it Into a place o! rear and • strife." Authorltlell announced lhl\l a 19·~·ear·old youth who wall' shot • and killed !ale yesterday by t:e· curit~· !on:f'.!'I In Nit:o!'ia. while • trying lo esrape Rfll'r p11ssin~ out E. 0. K. A. leaflets hfld been identifil'd Ill socratf'S Avroslou • or Ni('osia. He was one of three youths surprisl'

Continued From Page 1 youth was critically Injured last night by a bomb. Authorities believe the bomb exploded pre­ maturely while he was holding it. The Island-wide ban on trunk telephone calls that was en­ forced on Wednesday, on the eve of the executions of Mi­ chael Karaolis, 23, and Andreas Demetriou, 22, was lifted at noon today. It .was the execution of the pair that touched off the genera 1 strike and shut down here. Mr. Karaolis 'vas executed for the shooting of a. policeman: Mr. Demetriou for the shooting of a British civllian. Yesterday's announcement by E. 0. K. A. that two British soldiers hac:J been hanged in re­ taliation for the youths' deaths was the subject of wide discus· TARGET: Field Harsha! sion in Cypn1s today. Sir John Harding, British E. 0. K. A. leaflets reported, Go\·ernor of Cyprus. Greek the deaths of Cpl. Gordon Hill Cypriotes urged that he and Cpl. Ronald Shilton, both of the Royal Leichestershire Regi-· should be assas:rinated• • ;;~]> ment. Corporal Hill disappeared rrom his outfit Dec. 19, and Cor­ Anoc:lated Pr~ss poral Shilton was reported miss­ ...YPRIOTES ARRESTED: Four youths, taken into cus­ ing on April 17, after he had •lil!dy Thursday near the cathedra.J In Nicosia, are guarded been reprimanded for having sent home false reports that he .. British policemen. Arrests followed stoning of police had been seriousJy wounded, .on announcement that two terrorists had been hanged. Authorities believe that If E. 0. K. A. terrorists had hanged the soldiers they would have dis­ tributed photos of the hangings to support their boast of ven­ • geance. • U. S. Cancels Fleet Visit ATHENS, May 12 Ill'> - A • United States spokesman an­ nounced today that a visit of the • United States Sixth Fleet to Crete next \Veek had been can­ • celed •'at the suggestion of the Greek Government." No reason • \\•as given but the supposition \Vas that the Greeks \vished to • avoid possible anti-American manifestations arising from the • Cypn1s question. •eeproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. • • • •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• ,

TEAR GAS ROUTS CYPRUS STUDENTS New York Times (1857-Currentfile); Nov 20, 1955; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851- 2005) pg.23 TEAR GAS ROUTS : ,.::d::. ~ ~s: =-~ ....,..,.. An ln.ve waa canceled tor Schoo~vlllapnltolled -PRU EN ·British troopt. Informed source• the pollce atatlon at J:urykhou, Cy SSTUD Ts said military authorities feared thirty-two mlleo weot of Nlco•la, reprlsab by angry soldlen and destroyed a 1man bridge. Stone-Throwing Youngsters against the civilian populace One policeman was Injured In following the death of a British the stoning before the British Clash With Troops--Wava sergeant last night In a bomb could restore order. of Terrorism Spreads explosion. Another •Oldier wao A few. how:•. after the blast seriously injured In the blast in fatal to the Bn~h sergeant, ter­ ' rorlsto armed with sub-machine Kyko Camp, on the outsk!rts of guns attacked a police station NICOSIA. Cyprus, Nov. 19 Nicosia. at Deftera, eight miles south of ffiPl-Britlsh troops and police Greek atudento demonstrated here. British troops rushed to fired tear gaa into groups of at Larnaca today against the the scene and joined in a furious stone-throwing students today in death sentence imposed last f;llll batUe with the raiders, be­ & drive to break up & wave of k Cypri t found guilty heved to be memb_ers ot Eoka. . ee on a o e Military authonties reported terronsm. of having murdered a police con- that troops and policemen fought Uniformed reinforcements pa- stable. Students ran through the another battle on the Larnaca­ troled the rubble.strewn streets stree~ shouting antt·Britlsh sl amagusta road in southeastern of this atrategio British outpost. gans and chanting "Enosis! En~ Cyprus. More than fifty bomb explo- sis!" Ten bomb• exploded In the stons were reported in a day of In addition to calling thus tor li'amagusta area last night as . union With Greece. the students police combed the streets for ~oting th~t spread o~er the en- shouted support for Eoka, ter· terrorists. Isolated bursts of tire Mediterranean i~land. At rorist underground organization. gunfire crackled trom narrow least one British soldier was he j><>lice opened a barrage of dowa and doors.

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• BRITON SHOT DEAD BY CYPRJOTE YOUTH • ~~·:~~t~,;;:ie~-~j'.;'j;:i:,';.~~~jileJ. Oci is, 19SR, ProQu~" H"'on