Defence Minister Vasilis Palmas on Sunday declared that Greek Cypriots will “not withdraw from the fight we are waging until justice and freedom are restored in our homeland”.

Addressing an event to honour Eoka, the paramilitary group formed with the aim of uniting Cyprus with Greece, in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second city, he stressed his view that the globe should be resolute in its rejection of Turkey’s stance on the matter of Cyprus at present.

“The division and the Turkish occupation, the illegal and continuous colonisation, the systematic attempt to alter the Greek character of the occupied territories, Ankara’s provocative policy to change the agreed framework of the solution, and its aggressive ambitions in the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean cannot and should not be tolerated by the international community,” he said.

He added that his government is “well aware of the intransigence of the other side and the difficulties which arise”, but said, “we owe it to the people and to future generations to ensure a future of peace, progress, and prosperity”.

“Taking on their heavy debt and legacy, we must expand all our strength to achieve the long-awaited solution to the Cyprus problem and the reunification of our homeland,” he said.

Of Eoka, he said its founding in 1955 marked “a historical breakthrough made by Cypriot Hellenism, which fought against an all-out war machine, fully aware of the audacity of the undertaking”.

“With the lessons of Eoka’s fight as a beacon, as well as all of the historical fights our nation has fought, we must, with solidarity, unity, and collective action, prove ourselves worthy of our history,” he said.

He added that most Eoka fighters were “simple people” and “illiterate, from everyday life, from the peasantry”, and that they “abandoned their families and children, friends, classmates, and school desks and climbed the mountains, ploughed the treacherous paths and ravines, experienced the cold and hardships, hunger, and loneliness”.