Kyrenia Castle escape

The Kyrenia Castle Escape took place early in the Cyprus Emergency. A number of the EOKA were being held prisoner at Kyrenia Castle and on 23 September 1955, sixteen of them escaped by climbing down sheets tied to be a rope.

As mentioned in this regard, the leader of EOKA Georgios Grivas Digenis in the Chronic Struggle:

“The plan was as follows: To cut the irons of the cabin window to the occupant. Because the window was at a great height, they would use their slings as a rope for the descent. To cover their descent, as it would last a long time, and there would be relative noise, the prisoners decided to organize a party with dances and songs thus attracting the attention of the guards. The plan did succeed. Petros Papaioannou, who weighed 100 kg, was the first to fall, so the strength of the rope was tested, and then all the fighters came down unscathed. Because the escape was accelerated by one day without the knowledge of me and the person in charge of Nicosia, no one was there to pick them up at the agreed place, and they headed to the Turkish cemetery opposite the Fortress. However, the Turkish guard realized them. There they were divided into two groups. Or a group of eight headed for the Five Fingers. As a result, A Kafkalides, Charilaos Xenophontos and Evangelos Evangelakis managed to arrive in Nicosia after many adventures and to get in touch with me […] fiber removed. After a few minutes, the entire Fortress was illuminated and floodlights flooded the surrounding areas. The escape had been perceived, and immediately military vehicles were crossing the streets at breakneck speed. “

The escapees were: Markos Drakos, Christakis Eleftheriou, Evangelos Evangelakis, Mikis Fyrillas, Lambros Kafkallides, Kostas Loizou, Pavlos Nikitas, Petros Papaioannou, Panayiotis Papanastasiou, Andreas Polyviou, Michalakis Rossides, Lefkios Rodosthenous, Stelios Siamisis, Petros Stylianou, Demos Vryonides, Charilaos Xenofontos.

Seven were caught but the other nine – Evangelos Evangelakis, Charilaos Xenofontos, A Kafkalides, Drakos, Lefkios Rodosthenous, Mikis Fyrillas, Andreas Polyviou, Christakis Eleftheriou, and Pavlos Nikitas – joined EOKA guerrilla outfits. The incident was extremely embarrassing to the British government.

Evangelos Evangelakis was recaptured in February 1957. Mikis Fyrillas was recaptured in April 1957.