Miltiades Stelianou

He was born in the village of Tala¹, in the district of Paphos, on June 16, 1937.

He died after a battle on March 7, 1957, between the villages of Tala and Kissonerga².

Miltiadis Stelianou graduated from Talas primary school. In 1955, he was a student in the 5th grade of Paphos College, when he joined EOKA and took over the team of his village. He worked closely with the hero Christos Kkelis, who had direct contact with the head of the Paphos area. He took part in many ambushes between Ktima – Pegeia. Assisted in the collection of private arms in Kissonerga. He transported weapons and explosives to and from the villages of Tala, Chloraka, Theletra and Mesogi. He hosted and hid in his father’s house rebels and fed them in their hideouts from 1956 until the day he fell fighting. In his father’s orchard, in the location of Api, he maintained a special shelter for the leader of the group, Christos Kkelis.

He took part in many ambushes and attacks against the British, such as the ambush against the senior officer Macmillan and others at Kissonerga, one in 1956 and three in 1957. He also took part in the bombing of the Estate.

On March 7, 1957, British soldiers, with the help of paid traitors, set up an ambush – a trap against the fighters Christos Kkelis and Miltiadis Stelianou. The traitors tricked fellow competitors of Christos and Miltiades, presenting themselves as rebels who escaped from the battle of Machairas. The two fighters, because they suspected treason, went to meet them in the orchard of Stylianos, between Talas and Kissonergas, armed. They fought a long-hour battle against the traitors, who were well ensconced in an empty concrete tank, and managed to wound one of them. Then English soldiers intervened who, according to eyewitnesses, were hiding in the surrounding locust trees. They surrounded the two fighters in a brick house and blew them up.

Miltiades’ work was deservedly continued by his family. His brother Panagiotis took over the supply of the rebel group in their area until his arrest the following year. On the same day as Panagiotis, his father Stylianos was also arrested, who was abused to such an extent that he was never able to work on his estates again.

Honoring the hero’s sacrifice and the family’s contribution to our liberation struggle, the villagers collectively undertook the cultivation of their estates.