Cyprus will on Thursday mark the 66th anniversary of the Eoka struggle for independence from British colonial rule, which was launched on April 1, 1955.

President Nicos Anastasiades will attend a church service on Thursday morning at the Ayios Ioannis cathedral at the archbishopric.

He will then attend a memorial service at the Imprisoned Graves and lay a wreath to honour the Eoka fighters buried there.

No other large events have been announced such as the annual parades by students and veterans due to the pandemic.

Education Minister, Prodromos Prodromou, in his message to mark the day, read in schools, said that the “the determination of the Greeks of Cyprus to shake off the foreign yoke, which for centuries deprived them of the right to freedom and self-determination, begins from the first moment of the arrival of the British on the island in 1878.”

The 1955-’59 Eoka struggle, he said was successful in seeing Cyprus liberated from British rule. Cyprus has become an independent state, he added.

The minister said: “Today we must defend the independence and integrity of the Republic of Cyprus against Turkish expansionism.”

Drawing from the ideals of the “epic” 1955-59 national liberation struggle, he added: “We must continue to strive, through political means for the achievement of a nationally acceptable and functional solution to the Cyprus problem, through which the occupied territories of our country will be liberated.”