Loukia Papageorgiou

She was born in the village of Avgorou¹, Famagusta district, on March 23, 1926.

She was killed in her hometown², on July 5, 1958, by gunfire from British soldiers.

She was pregnant with her seventh child when she was killed.

Loukia Laoutari Papageorgiou attended the primary school of her village and was a farmer. In her orchard in Avgorou she maintained a hideout, where together with her husband she hosted and hid wanted persons.

In order to implement Digenis' order for a general uprising of the civilian population, the local organization EOKA Avgorou placed slogans in the center of the village on Friday, July 4, 1958. British soldiers came and took them down. The next day, new slogans were posted and the women, following instructions from the Organization, prepared to stone the soldiers.

The soldiers returned the next day, July 5, 1958, arrested Kyriakos Makris, a fifteen-year-old boy, and pushed him up a ladder to take down the slogans. When he refused, the women rushed in, snatched him from the hands of the British and made him flee. Then the bells were rung as a signal, the villagers gathered and began to throw stones at the soldiers. Loukia, who was one of the initiators of this attack, was bathing her young daughter Theodora when the bell rang when the soldiers arrived. She left the child in the bathroom, in the care of her husband's sister, and hurried to join the other women.

The clash developed into a real battle. The British soldiers mounted their armored vehicles and opened fire on the unarmed crowd, killing Loukia Papageorgiou Laoutari and Panagiotis Zacharia and wounding eighteen people.