The Liberation Struggle 1955-59

the gallows chanting the national anthem and were burned to death in their hideouts rather than surrender. The 1955-59 struggle was a hard, determined, persistent strug- gle fought on many fronts. It was a war fought in hideouts, in ambush, in the detention centres against the cruelty of the interrogators, on the gallows which the freedom fighters faced with a song and a smile on their lips, in the towns with the cur- fews, the pamphlets and the militant demonstrations: "When we had run out of hope With telegrams and embassies, We folded up our little lives in an envelope Small enough to fit in a schoolgirl’s fist, On a bicycle lamp, on a book’s spine And with red ink addressed it: To the Greek-Cypriot People Freedom or Death Street, Towns and Villages of Cyprus". This was how the poet Yiannis Papadopoulos described the experiences of the Greek-Cypriots at that time. The sacrifice of Gregoris Afxentiou opened the way for national dignity and honour The Kokkinotrimithia Detention Centre. The colonial powers may have imprisoned the freedom fighters, but their soul and their spirit remained free The fields of sacri- fice were endless: Mersinaki, Machairas, Liopetri, Dikomo. And the roll call of the heroic dead is long: Mouskos, Demetriou, Karaolis, Drakos, Afxentiou, Pallikarides, Lenas, Karyos, Samaras, Pittas, Papakyriacou, Matsis…