Evagoras Pallikarides

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Evagoras Pallikarides
(Ευαγόρας Παλληκαρίδης)
Pallhkaridhs.jpg
Born(1938-02-26)26 February 1938
Tsada, Paphos District
Died14 March 1957(1957-03-14) (aged 19)
Nicosia
AllegianceEOKA

Evagoras Pallikarides (Greek: Ευαγόρας Παλληκαρίδης; died 14 March 1957) was a Greek Cypriot revolutionary and poet, and member of EOKA during the 1955–1959 campaign against British rule in Cyprus.

EOKA[]

Pallikarides was arrested on 18 December 1956 because he was caught with his guns loaded on a donkey. The police had privately reported that he had murdered a man, considered to be a British collaborator by EOKA, although there was no evidence for this claim of murder.[1]

"I know you will sentence me to death, but whatever I did, I did as a Cypriot who wants his liberty"

Evagoras Pallikarides, speaking during his trial where he was sentenced to death for the possession of a non working firearm[2][3]

Trial and hanging[]

At his trial Pallikarides did not deny possession of the weapon. He said he did what he had to do as a Greek Cypriot seeking his freedom. He was sentenced to death by hanging for firearms possession on 27 February 1957. Pallikarides was hanged on 14 March 1957, at the age of 19. A propaganda leaflet was published after the hanging with a fabricated description of how he had murdered a traitor.[1] The lawfulness of his execution has been subsequently questioned in light of the fact that the weapon held by Pallikarides at the time was not functional. A. W. B. Simpson in his book Human Rights and the End of Empire, claims that the real reason for his execution was that the authorities believed, but were unable to prove,[1] that he had earlier murdered an elderly individual who was a suspected collaborator with the British authorities.[4]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c George Grivas. The Memoirs of General Grivas, edited by Charles Foley, p. 121. Longmans, London, 1964.
  2. ^ United States Congress, Committee on Foreign Affairs (1967). Hearings. U.S. Govt. Print. Off. p. 15.
  3. ^ "Amendment to the Anglo-American Financial agreement". 1957. p. 15. Retrieved 2007-10-01.
  4. ^ Simpson, Alfred William Brian (2001). Human Rights and the End of Empire: Britain and the Genesis of the European Convention. Oxford University Press. pp. 876–877. ISBN 978-0-19-926789-7.
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