th anniversary of a brutal campaign to destroy the left on the Mediterranean island.
In statement, the Progressive Party of Working People (Akel) explained that the 1955 campaign sought to destroy the party, in the British occupying forces’ second attempt to wipe out the Communist Party of Cyprus, as it was known in the 1930s.
On December 14
th that year, the British colonialists arrested 135 Akel leaders and militants, including its general secretary Ezekias Papaioannou.
British Colonial Governor of Cyprus John Harding banned the party along with the Cyprus Farmers’ Union (EAK), the Pancyprian Organization of Democratic Women (PODG) and the Progressive Youth Organization (AON).