Georgios Koullapis

Georgios Koullapis, originally from the village of Agios Mamas¹ (Limassol district). Joined the ranks of the organization at the end of October 1954, driven by his inner desire for union with mother Greece.

On February 2, 1955, he was arrested in connection with the case of the ship "Agios Georgios". He was detained first at the central police station of Nicosia and then at the central prison. After being interrogated on 15 days, they released him and he served under the orders of the Greek citizen Evagoras.

He took part in several operations against the English troops, such as blowing up the electrical installations of the Episkopi² military base on 1 April 55 and blowing up the water tanks used for English soldiers.

He was a liaison, took part in arms and ammunition transfers and single-handedly blew up the Agios Nikolaos³ police station. He was the leader of his village and organized groups in five neighbouring villages. In the area of the cape and the diocese, he blew up 4 English houses and 2 water tanks with time bombs.

His most important and best-known personal success was the sabotage of the Akrotiri airport⁴ tunnel on 23rd of september 1956. There, having initially been hired as an employee at the English bases, he gathered information and planned the detonation. With a lot of courage and “audacity” he crossed the base with 2 bombs in a basket covered with grapes and when he was even asked by the soldiers guarding the corridors, he did not hesitate to treat them with grapes from his basket. After crawling for 6 hours in the sewers under the runway, he planted the two time bombs which exploded at midnight. The result was to create 2 large rifts in the middle of the runways and make them unsuitable for jets and heavy bombers. It took 25 days of intensive work to repair the damage, which was caused on the eve of the start of the Anglo-French campaign in the Suez Canal^*, which had a serious impact on their operations.

During the four years of his contribution to the fight, he was arrested 6 times. In two of them he was severely tortured in Platres⁵ and Omorfita⁶.

From the cruel torture he suffered, he developed a problem in his liver as a result of which he vomited blood continuously and needed transfusions. After a fundraiser, he was hospitalized at the People’s Hospital of Athens⁷ where he lost his battle with life at just 27 years old, but won a place in the pantheon of heroes.

He was buried in the cemetery of the poor in Athens⁸. After an investigation carried out by the fighter’s children, it was not possible to find his remains and transfer them to Cyprus. Perhaps it is a consolation for his relatives that he was welcomed by the soil of Motherland Greece, after he sacrificed himself for the union of Our Cyprus with her.

With his sacrifice, 1 widow and 2 children, 2 and 1 years old, were left behind.

* For more information: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Crisis