Famagusta: an open wound – the struggle continues
By Christos Nicolaou, AKEL Famagusta District Secretary
14 August 2025 ‘HARAVGI’ NEWSPAPER
This year marks fifty-one years since that tragic day, 14 August 1974. The day that marked the beginning of the second phase of the Turkish invasion. The day that Famagusta was lost. Its streets fell silent, voices were hushed, and the dreams and lives of thousands of people were shattered in a matter of hours.
The city did not fall after a heroic battle. It was betrayed and abandoned without a fight. This bitter truth weighs heavily on those responsible for the crime and burdens all the rest with the duty of remembrance. Not as a source of hatred, but as a reminder of our own responsibility. So that we do not forget, so that we do not permit history to repeat the same tragedies.
We who have never walked in Famagusta grew up with the stories of those who lived there. With eyes clouded by the sight of a closed city, with photographs trembling in the hands of refugees, with stories of beaches and streets left behind. With the sound of unspoken footsteps on Democracy Avenue. With an absence that has become part of our very soul.
For us, Famagusta is not just an inaccessible place today. It is a symbol of injustice, but also a profound call to return there. It is a promise made to those who were uprooted as refugees, to those who have passed away without ever seeing their beloved city again.
The AKEL Famagusta District Organisation carries this responsibility every day. From the very first hours of the refugee crisis, we stood by our people: we took the lead in creating and developing refugee settlements, we actively supported the Pancyprian Union of Refugees so that it could become a powerful voice of pressure and assertiveness. We did not simply stand by the refugees; we are one with the refugees.
And today, half a century later, we do not permit the ongoing injustice or fatigue to lead us to abandoning the struggle. We continue to struggle for a solution to the Cyprus problem that is based on principles and justice. For the reunification of our homeland, for the return of Famagusta to its lawful inhabitants, for peace and coexistence among the people of this island.
History teaches us that patience and perseverance pave the way to justice. And that is the path we are following.
Famagusta will live again.
