Tasos Markou

Born in Paralimni¹ on 18 September 1936. Times were hard on the countryside so he and his family moved to the city of Famagusta.

He was not just a clever man but also very sportive. He participated in several sports competitions and even won golden and silver medals.

In May 1955 and while the Liberation Struggle of Cyprus had begun, Tasos Markou joined the EOKA on December 18, 1955, the team in which he participated seriously injured two English officers in an ambush. The information of the English leads Tasos Markou to be involved in the ambush and they are looking for him, but he manages after an anxious attempt to escape the arrest and to escape from the Organization on January 5, 1956 in Athens.

There, Tasos Markou managed to find a job and in this way to cover the costs of tuition and to prepare for his big dream that always remained his admission and study at the School of Guards, which he succeeded in the next entrance exams.

During this period, his mind was always on his homeland, which was fighting for Freedom, and his heart was beating. For this reason, in November 1958, he secretly left the Guards School and returned by air to Cyprus via Paris. Upon his arrival in Cyprus, he was immediately transferred to a hideout in Nicosia where he met the then general manager of PEKA, Tasos Papadopoulos. Under the pseudonym "Gouras", he took over the administration of the Kythreas sector on Christmas Eve 1958.

The assumption of the administration of the sector of Kythrea and the presence of Tasos Markou in the area was then accompanied by the solution of the serious problems that existed due to the successes of the English at that time. It did not take long for Tasos Markou to gain the trust and appreciation of his competitors and to reorganize his sector by transforming it into a combative part of the Organization.

The signing of the Zurich Agreement found Tasos Markou in his field. He had then expressed the view that the militants should be disciplined in the decisions of the political leadership in relation to the Agreements. In March 1959 the Struggle ended and the Fighters came down from the mountains and out of the hiding places.

On April 13, 1959, Tasos Markou left for Athens to continue his studies at the School of Guards. There he threw himself back into the quest for success in the school lessons. In August 1959 he graduated from the school and took the honorary oath of the Greek Officer. With the rank of Lieutenant, he then served on the Greek-Bulgarian border.

Characteristic for his ethos and modesty was the answer he gave to Digenis when he had asked him to send him a written report on his personal action in the Struggle for its summary in the memoirs of the Leader of EOKA: