On August 11, 1996, Tasos Isaac was murdered during an anti-occupation demonstration in the area of the dead zone, in Deryneia, Famagusta province.
In 1990, 18-year-old Tasos Isaac from Paralimni was serving his military service at an infantry unit post in Deryneia. While he was standing guard, the occupying soldiers from the opposite outpost started cursing and teasing him by making obscene gestures. Tasos said nothing to anyone.
Early the next day, he decided to enter the Turkish-occupied zone, half-naked, carrying a knife, and remove the Turkish flag from the occupation post. The next morning he burned the Turkish flag, cheering for the occupied side.
The incident caused a problem at the United Nations and his commander angrily announced that he would send him to a military court. “You will not send me because you are a Cretan,” answered the young soldier, and the commander turning to other officers said: “if I had a thousand like him. I want men like that. You are strong and young man, if Cyprus had 30 Tasos, not a single Turk would dare to set foot on this island”.
On July 31, 1996, 20 motorcyclists gathered at Larnaca airport. Everything was ready to start a long journey from Berlin to Kyrenia. About 200 motorcyclists from 12 European countries responded to the call of the Cypriot Motorcyclist Federation to hold an anti-occupation march. On August 2, the march began. They passed through 7 countries covering 25000 kilometers.
On August 10, they arrived in Limassol and joined other motorcyclists. But on the morning of August 11, there was intense concern in the Presidential area, due to threats from the Turks. The first motorcyclists had begun to flock to Lefkotheo where an event would take place before the start of the march. The President of the Republic requested to meet the president of K.O.M. There he was informed that the course had to be cancelled.
We were stopped by the barrels of the Turkish soldiers Andreas Pettemeridis, current member of the Isaac-Solomos Memorial Initiative, had taken part in the long march in 1996 and told MtX: “People were gathered in Lefkotheo and there was a panic because there were whispers that the course is cancelled. With this whisper they were waiting for the president of K.O.M. Mr. Hatzikostas was under tremendous pressure. He officially announced through the microphone of the police vehicle, with tears in his eyes and a lot of tension, that the motorcyclists’ march was cancelled. From then on, chaos prevailed. With political interventions, they had convinced him that the incidents and deviations that would take place could lead to war.
We went to Sopaz. There we stopped at the barrels of the Turkish soldiers. We had 30 people left inside the Dead Zone and they couldn’t get us out. The police cage was requested to come in to take us out. There were beatings, fights, a mess.” Motorcyclists dare. After the announcement of the cancellation, a disorderly march began where the motorcyclists chose their own destination. However, there were many who emphasized again and again that the march should be peaceful, that no one would create trouble or provoke. The purpose was to give the message to the world and nothing else. They formed sub-groups and headed separately to various roadblocks. Among the motorcyclists who disagreed with the decision of K.O.M. there was also 24-year-old Tasos Isaac.
Heading towards the unguarded Deryneia roadblock, the motorcyclists encountered organized Turks and Turkish Cypriots, ready to fight, holding stones and sticks, clubs and iron rods. Among them the Gray Wolves. The motorcyclists entered the Dead Zone and from that moment the situation started to get out of hand, when they were attacked by the Turks and Turkish Cypriots.
They had urged him not to go, but Tasos replied “I will go because the Cyprus issue is not only for the refugees, but for the whole of Cyprus”. Tasos was trying to free a friend of his who was being chased.
“In an instant I lost him. I didn’t know where it was. The Turks started shooting. I started to go towards the free zones. Tasos was behind me, but when he saw the Turks beating our people, he returned to help them and finally got trapped himself”, said Evgenios Papageorgiou.
Antonis Kritikos from Xylofagou, was one of the Greek Cypriots who saved the lives of other motorcyclists by intervening with his Land Rover type car at the moment when the Turks were beating protesters. “I saw the Turks hit Tasos back in the neck with a club, he fell down covered in blood, and in a split second I saw another Turk pick up a large stone and throw it at Tasos’ face.” Tasos Isaac breathed his last 95 meters from the Greek Cypriot side and 32 from the occupied side, according to the OHE report.
A crowd of people gathered at the Paralimni Hospital, where the lifeless body of Tasos Isaac was. The Municipality of Paralimni decided on 40 days of mourning. The Turks continued the provocations the following day, when they kidnapped two Greeks who accidentally entered the occupied territories. Tasos had been married some time before. His wife was eight months pregnant. Almost a month after his murder, his daughter Anastasia was born. Haris Alexiou wrote “The Song of the Swallow” for her.
