On this date in 1956, three Greek Cypriot nationalists were hanged by the British
Andreas Zakos, Charilaos Michael and Iakovos Patatsos were all members of the EOKA guerrilla movement, which fought the British for independence during the late 1950s. Nine of their ranks overall were executed in 1956-1957, including the three on August 9, 1956 and several others whom we’ve met in these grim annals. As for Zakos, Michael and Patatsos, “the first two had been convicted of taking part in an ambush in December 1955 during which a British soldier was killed, and the third was convicted of shooting a Turkish policeman in Nicosia.” (Source)
All nine are entombed together with four other EOKA men who died less ceremonially at British hands, at what’s known as the “Imprisoned Graves”: the British proconsul John Harding buried them behind prison walls in Nicosia quietly, two to a grave, to avoid creating sites of nationalistic pilgrimage.
But holding onto colonies long-term was not in the wind post-World War II. EOKA did not achieve its ultimate objective of unification with Greece, but its rebellion achieved independence for Cyprus in 1960. Today, that cemetery (emblazoned with the words “The brave man’s death is no death at all”) and the gallows that ushered men into it are that very patriotic monument the British once sought to pre-empt.
The gallows at the Central Jail of Nicosia; on the walls behind the visitors, the leftmost photo is that of Andreas Zakos. (cc) image from Lapost.
The EOKA martyrs can also be seen at various other public memorials in Cyprus, such as a bust of Andreas Zakos at the Legions Heroes Monument, or this statue of Iakovos Patatsos communing with a bird.
On this day..
- 1909: Mir Hashim, Persian monarchist
- 1870: William Dickson, the last in Kansas for a lifetime
- 1941: Sheyna Gram and the Jews of Preili
- A Day in the Death Penalty Around the Martyrology
- 2000: Brian Roberson, "Y'all kiss my black ass"
- 1849: Friedrich Neff, 1848 Revolutions radical
- 1786: Tom, "faithful, industrious, healthy slave"
- 1934: Anna Antonio, enough for a million men
- 1961: José Isaías Constante Laureano, the last executed in Mexico
- 1856: Elizabeth Martha Brown, Tess of the D'Urbervilles inspiration
- Themed Set: Thomas Hardy
- 1943: Blessed Franz Jagerstatter, conscientious objector
- 1993: Mohamed Mustafa Tabet, serial rapist with a badge
I was reading the January 19th 1945 edition of the Shanghai Evening Post and Mercury, in which there was an article on the Teichman incident, which stated that Private George E Smith, Jr had the mental faculties of a nine year old. I am putting this message here, as when I tried to enter it on the proper page, I was accused of making a duplicate reply, which is not so.