The Participation of Cyprus in the two world wars.
The example of Deryneia.
We commemorate today the
anniversary of the decision of the Greeks to resist the fascism of Mussolini
and Hitler's Nazism later.
The decision of the
Greeks to enter the war against the fascist Axis powers did not leave the
Cypriots unmoved and pathetic.
Thousands were the Cypriots
who participated in the two World Wars within the British army. Along with them
were several youngsters from Deryneia.
Since the beginning of World
War II those youngsters joined the British army, motivated by pure patriotism,
also by the promise of the British for independence of Cyprus by the end of the
war. Another main reason was to ensure a stable and sufficient income to meet
their family needs.
One by one the youth of
Deryneia were joining voluntarily as mercenaries in the British army.
These mercenaries, whose
number exceeded the number of 20 received a basic training in Cyprus and then
sent to Egypt where they were trained in real war conditions.
After their training, most
of them were sent to Crete and mainland Greece. Those of them who fought there,
they were captured by the Germans and were send as forced labour in factories
in Germany.
Later another group of
young men of Deryneia, eleven in number, joined the British Army as volunteers
after AKEL called for strengthening the resistance against Fascism.
This group was organized and
left the village singing "farewell my sweet mother, farewell forever, I
leave to fight for a sweeter mother" while the whole village salute them with
applause and cheers.
This group, after
training in Cyprus and Egypt was sent to Italy to fight against Italian and
German fascists.
All those warriors
returned to the village after the war's end, happy for their victory but bitter
inside them because the British failed to comply with their promise to grant
independence to Cyprus.
Besides the volunteer
soldiers, Deryneia contributed to Greece's struggle, through fundraising and
providing hospitality to refugees from the Dodecanese which then were under
Italian occupation. There were several families in Deryneia which hosted
refugees from Chios Island mainly.
Balkan Wars - First World
War.
With the anniversary of
Greece’s ‘’Ochi’’ coincides the anniversary of the liberation of Thessaloniki
and Northern Greece in general.
In those wars and also in
the world war that followed, the presence of Cyprus and Deryneia was notable.
Due to failing of keeping
records of events and other evidence concerning this particular participation
of Deryneia to the nation’s struggles, there is a confusion as to the time of
participation, the areas, and wars itself.
Older folks from Deryneia
testified this participation, but only made reference to a war at that time,
without being able to say precisely whether it was the Balkan or the World War,
since those wars were contiguous.
The only they remembered
and could surely say was that, their compatriots went to Greece as volunteers (mule
drivers) to drive out the Turks.
Some of those who participated
in those wars were Michaelis brothers Andrew and George Constantos, John
Nianias, Adamos Fenekis, etc.
I will make reference
below to one of those fighters who is still missing since then.
George Constantos.
George Constantos was the
younger brother of Michaelis and Andreas Constantos who took part in the Balkan
Wars as I mentioned earlier.
With the start of the
Balkan wars in 1912, Michaelis said present and served as a mule driver in the
Macedonian Front.
He was followed by
Andreas who also served in the Macedonian Front as a mule driver.
It is not known when the
two brothers returned home from that war, but it is certain that they left
Cyprus once again in 1915 to work as a cheap labour abroad. Andreas set foot in
America, and his brother Michaelis went to Argentina and to Peru later.
The youngest son of
Constantos family, George, although minor, felt patriotism awakens in him and
offered to serve. He was not accepted because of his age, but he found a way by
using false data, so they provide him a "pass" and went to the front
but he never return.
Somehow some news of him
arrived in the village. This is shown through the testimony of my late neighbour
Koumi (Mouametha) saying that when he was a student, his teacher Eleftherios
Jacovou was always asking the students: How do the Greeks fight? The students
had to respond with a loud voice "like George Constantos sir." The
same information I got from George Tsouka who have heard it from Papaloukas.
Another information says
that somewhere in the Macedonian Front, in a lull of hostilities, met two
Cypriots who did not know each other. One asked the other "where are you
from my patriot?" And the other replied: from Deryneia of Cyprus. Then
surprised the first retorted "I'm from Deryneia too"
It was George who met one
of his two brothers who had gone to the war earlier (he probably met Michaelis)
George Tsouka claims that
his uncle George, survived World War II, but was lost in the Asia Minor
Catastrophe.
George's father,
Constantos, was drinking from grief and into his dizziness he constantly sang
the same lament: "I wait for a boat to take me to Piraeus, to find my son
George to drink together."
The years passed and the
villagers forgot the missing George Constantos.
All it remained to
witness his existence, is a picture that accompanies my article next to the
photo of the 11 youngsters of Deryneia who fought in Italy integrated the
British army after AKEL appeal.
Finally, the story will
be a failure if I do not mention that in all three above wars volunteered many
Turkish Cypriots who integrated the British army and fought alongside with the
Greeks.
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