Takis Sofokleous

He was born in Xeros¹, Nicosia district, on December 26, 1941. After graduating from primary school, he settled in Paphos.

He fell fighting between Prodromi and Androlikos², Paphos district, on February 7, 1957.

Takis Sofokleous finished Xeros primary school. He was in the third grade of Paphos High School when the British arrested him for rioting. He was released but was later arrested again, when he threw a bomb outside the “Paphos Palace” hotel, where British police officers were staying. He was held for nine days in the Paphos interrogation room, and from there he was transferred to the hospital in Ktima, because he was in terrible pain from the abuse. He escaped through a window of the hospital and the police who were chasing him lost track of him when he hid in a barrel filled with water in a house next to his school, and covered himself with the lid of the barrel. After the police who were chasing him left, Takis went to his school, where he changed clothes and was then taken by a classmate to his group leader in the Kato Perivolia area of Ktima. His group leader led him to the hero Christos Kkelis in the village of Kissonerga.

Later he joined the guerrilla group of the mountainous area of Paphos, which had its hideout in the “Toxeftra” area. Due to his very young age, the group's responsible provider kept him at his parents' house, but he participated in the group's activities.

On January 23, 1957, he set up an ambush with two other partisans and attacked a military vehicle passing outside the village of Kritou Tera. Because they were informed by a Turkish resident of the village of Arodes that another Turk from Paphos was following them and betraying their movements to the British, they executed the traitor and were forced to abandon their area and head towards the village of Skoulli.

On February 7, 1957, Takis Sofokleous and Georgios Papaverkiou set up an ambush in the Ampelakia area of the village of Prodromi, only 15 minutes from the Limni camp, where 2 thousand British soldiers were staying. They planted a mine to blow up a convoy of British cars and waited armed with automatic weapons. A battle ensued in which five soldiers were killed and seven others were wounded. The two heroes came under fire from soldiers in another vehicle that was following and were both killed.