Savvas Taliadoros

Savvas Taliadoros passed away on 19 December 2019.

Savvas Taliadoros was one of the first to swear an oath to EOKA and one of the few fighters who worked in the guerilla, both in the Kykkos area¹, under the orders of the military leader of EOKA, Georgios Grivas - Digenis, and in Pitsilia², under various heads of departments.

He was distinguished for his morals and his unrestrained patriotism. Although he offered a lot to the National Liberation Struggle, he asked for nothing after Independence. At the national commemorations of his comrades he always attended wearing his honored guerrilla uniform and holding a blue and white, making him an iconic figure who reminded the older and taught the younger. That uniform dates back to the Second World War and was also adopted by the Cypriot revolutionaries.

In a short interview on RIK1, in May 2019, he spoke with reverence and respect about the EOKA fight, Digenis and Markos Drakos:

“It was a holy fight and we sacrificed our lives then, to die for the Union and only the Union. I experienced Digenis up close, when I was 21 years old, Digenis was 59. In Dkyo Potamos, halfway between Gerakion and Kampos, eight miles from Kykkos. I lived with Digenis at Vasilitzii, at the Headquarters, five miles from Kykkos. I lived in Digeni, three miles below the Throne of Panagia Kykkos. I lived Digenis in the Black Cliffs, where the wild ones live. Digenis was hungry, thirsty, risked countless times. I shared the water, poxamatchia, chartelloui and salmo with him. We were the only ones who escaped, who were sent by the English to attack us and the wind blew and an entire battalion was hit, Digenis drew Georgiadis with Antonaki towards Trooditissa. We, we got together with Markos Drakos.

"Markos Drakos was excellent, of all the rebels I met. First we go to the ambush, he injected us. We didn't eat polypif, salmon, chartelloui. Olives and poxamatchia, and we doubled over after the ambush to eat. But he found a priest and a church and took the group at 9 o'clock at night with the candle to give us communion because we didn't know if we would turn back."

In the last ten days before his sacrifice, Markos Drakos took their group, as Savvas Taliadoros remembered, and they communed in the small church of Prophet Ilias, between Kalopanagiotis and Moutoullas.

Both those who lived with him during the EOKA fight, as well as those who met him after the fight, only had good words to say about the late Savva Taliadoros.

Speaking to SigmaLive, the President of the EOKA Fighters Association Thasos Sophokleous praised the deceased fighter's morals and patriotism. Taliadoros was pure from the time he joined the fight. He was with Markos Drakos in the crucial battle where he was killed when their group was ambushed by the British, trying to escape from Evrychou, to the east. In the exchange of gunfire that followed, Markos Drakos fell heroically, while fighter Kostas Loizou from Marathovounos was wounded in the legs. Neophytos Sophokleous, Tevkros Loizou from Kalo Chorio Lefkas and Savvas Taliadoros were also in the Markos Drakos team, under the composition it had at the time, who took their wounded competitor to Katydata. There, they were treated and taken care of by the family of Demosthenes Schiza. Kostas Loizou later became head of Marathasa and died of burns a month and a half after the attack on the Kampos Police Station, where he was seriously injured.

Savvas Taliadoros, concluded Neophytos Sophokleous, was a good fighter, conscientious and enthusiastic, full of energy and mood to fight. A very good character, a lover of Greece and a model of a good Christian, as his later life proved.

His surname is acquired, as Neophytos Sophokleous has informed us, which he adopted from the profession which he practiced with love and diligence. He practiced the profession of woodcarver ("taliadoro" in the Cypriot dialect), one of the oldest professions and specialized in church icons.

The funeral of Savvas Taliadoros was held on Sunday, December 22, 2019.

Source: https://www.sigmalive.com