Stavros Stylianidis

Born in Gialousa¹, Famagusta district, on March 21, 1927.

Killed on August 18, 1957 in the village of Episkopeio², Nicosia district, by a bomb explosion.

Stavros Stylianidis finished primary school in Gialousa and settled in Nicosia with his mother and sister. His father had died when he was an infant. He threw himself into the struggle for survival from a very young age and was very risk-taking. He was an amateur with gunpowder and weapons. With the start of the struggle, he joined an executive group in Nicosia and devoted himself to the manufacture of all kinds of explosive objects.

The bomb placed in the bed of the British Governor Harding on March 20, 1956 was of his own invention and construction, manufactured in such a way that it could be applied to the abdomen of the fighter who carried it under a corset. He was wanted very early and went into hiding, continuing to make plans for the execution of the British Governor Harding and the British Commander of Nicosia Clemens.

In May 1956, he was responsible for the villages of Lythrodontas, Mathiatis, Agia Varvara, Alambra, Nisou, Pera Chorio, Dali, Potamia, Lympia, Latsia and Geri in the Orini sector. During the Anglo-French attack on Suez, when French troops were stationed near Pyroi, Stylianidis' group, led by him, managed to remove a number of weapons from French hoplites, including a large anti-tank gun with 60 shells, which he hid for some time. However, it was later discovered by the British near Lythrodontas.

After the death of Grigoris Afxentiou, with the annexation of the Orini sector and the villages of the Machairas area, the sector was divided into sub-sectors and Stavros Stylianidis took over as sub-sector commander the area of the villages of Klirou-Malounta-Deftera and as the head of the guerrilla groups of the Orini sector.

On August 16, 1957, a powerful mine he was making exploded in his hands outside his hideout in the village of Episkopio, seriously injuring him and seriously injuring his two assistants. His fellow activists managed to take him to a doctor and hide the two wounded children, fooling the English officer in charge of the Deftera police station with combined moves, who immediately rushed to the village of Episkopeio when the terrifying explosion was heard.

Stylianidis died two days later, saying: