Costas Anaxagorou
Timeline Events
He was born in the village of Spilia1, Nicosia province, on June 20, 1935.
He was killed on June 20, 1958 in the village of Kourdali2, by a bomb explosion.
Costas Anaxagorou studied at Spilia primary school and worked as a driver at the Amiantos mine. He was a founding member of the Nea Syntechnia, the SEK and the “Aris” Sports Club of Spillia, clubs which he promoted to a focus of national excursions. He was distinguished for his guileless patriotism, which also characterized his entire family.
“All of us in the family had a deep-rooted faith in us, that Cyprus will be called Greece”, says his father characteristically.
He was one of the first to build up the army of the legendary EOKA, after the historic battle of Spilia, in December 1955. He was the link of the EOKA groups operating in the villages of Spilia-Polystypos, which were mines and grenade manufacturing centers. He maintained caches to hide both this material and other Organization weaponry.
He took part in ambushes and other missions, such as the detachment of three radios from the forest station of Platania3 and the blowing up of a government excavator at Spilia.
He was killed along with his fellow competitors Andreas Patsalidis, Alekos Konstantinou and Panagiotis Georgiadis, by an explosion of a field mine. The mine exploded as the four fighters were working on it under the guidance of Panagiotis Georgiadis and intended it for an ambush against the British.
The phrase of his father, when he heard of his son’s death, is typical:
“ I lost the first one. I immediately have another, ready to take his place in the race. ”
Indicative of the unity and fighting spirit that characterized the Cypriot people is the fact that the inhabitants of Spilia, honoring the hero, voluntarily undertook to cultivate the family’s estates, because his father, due to the abuses he suffered at the hands of the English, he was no longer able to cultivate them.
