Grigoris Afxentiou. The sacrifice of the Cross Eagle of Machairas, Deputy Leader of EOKA.
March 03rd marks 68 years since the day that the hero of EOKA heroes, Grigoris Afxentiou, resurrected in the historic cave of Machairas, Thermopylae, the Gates of Romanos, Kougia, Messolongia, Alamanes and Arcadia. And the legendary captain Zidros, with his magnificent sacrifice, his holocaust, united old legends and glories - stations of the glorious Greek History, with our epic armed Liberation Struggle. A sacred pilgrimage for those who insist on singing the nationalist Rigas Thurios: "Better an hour of free life, than forty years of slavery and prison...".
It is not only his comrades in the mountains and his fellow fighters in the villages of the now Turkish-occupied Pentadaktylos, Troodos, Madari and Papoutsa, who had the fortune to fight with him against the praetorians of the bloodthirsty Harding, who wove hymns of praise and elegy to the Crossed Eagle of Machairas. There are also many others, ours and foreigners, men of intellect, poets and prose writers, anonymous people of our people. Also, praises to the demigod Afxentius were also sung by several British poets, prose writers and journalists, compatriots of the bloodthirsty Harding, the odious governor, who hastened to congratulate the cruel murderers of the hero for their heinous crime... Those, who in his "Molon Lavet" did not dare to proceed to the betrayed cave of the Archangel of Liberty. And cowardly and cowardly as they were, they used inhuman means to commit their horrific crime. They opened holes in his cave, poured gasoline and explosives inside. To the eternal glory of Afxentius and eternal shame of Harding and his cannibals.
On March 3, 1957, the British, after a betrayal, learned of his hideout near Machairas. They surrounded him with cars and helicopters, and after a long battle, where he fought alone for ten hours against a thousand British soldiers, and with several dead Englishmen, they then poured gasoline on his hideout and burned him alive.
His burnt body was buried on March 4 at the Nicosia Central Prison, in the area known today as "The Prisoner's Graves" for fear of public demonstrations. According to the then Associated Press correspondent in Cyprus Alex Evthyvoulou, the battle began at 4.30 am and ended at 2.00 pm. The battle was fought in heavy rain and before being killed, Grigoris Afxentiou fired about 1000 bullets and several grenades, killing 47 soldiers.
In Cyprus, he is considered a hero, and is honored every year with a memorial service at the Machairas Monastery, on a date approaching that of his death. In October 2016, the Minister of National Defense of Greece, Panos Kammenos, honorably presented the rank of Lieutenant General to Afxentiou's relatives.