Paddy writes to The Times about EOKA and the Cyprus situation in 1956

First published in Kathimerini April 10, 1956

Selection: Michalis Katsigeras

EOKA Slogans (Yes we were born and we will die as Greeks)

EOKA: London, 9 – The National Organization of Cypriot Fighters (EOKA) appears to have transferred its activities from the sunlit shores of the Mediterranean to the foggy banks of the Thames, where it is fast developing into a nightmare. London’s evening papers carried large headlines today revealing EOKA’s terrible plans, to which the British authorities do not appear to be indifferent. The Turkish Embassy has been put under heavy guard. Sources at Scotland Yard have so far maintained a silence regarding the reports of EOKA’s plans, which they appear to be in ignorance of. PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR: A letter from the famous British Philhellene and author, Patrick Leigh Fermor, was published in this week’s Sunday Times. Fermor said that the idea of uniting Cyprus with Greece was contemporaneous with the foreign occupation of the island, but that the issue had received more widespread attention ever since Archbishop Sofronios’s reference to it during his speech to mark the occasion of Britain’s acquisition of the island from the Turkish Sultan in 1878.