"Greece's communists will always remember him"- KKE on the passing of D. Christofias

Regarding the passing away of the former General Secretary of the CC of AKEL, also former President of the Republic of Cyprus, Demetris Christofias, the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) issued a statement of condolences. 

More specifically, the statement of the CC of the KKE points out:

"Comrade Demetris Christofias was born in August 1946 in the village of Kato Dikomo of Keryneia district and as a pupil he joined action. From an early age he believed in the right and served the interests of the cypriot people in all phases of his life. 

Former President of Cyprus and long-time AKEL leader Demetris Christofias dies at 72

Demetris Christofias.

Demetris Christofias, the former President of the Republic of Cyprus and long-time General Secretary of the Central Committee of AKEL party, has died in Nicosia. He was 72 years old. 

Doctors had said earlier that his health condition was extremely critical and irreversible.

Born in 1946, Christofias studied in Moscow, in the Soviet Union, at the Institute of Social Sciences, Academy of Social Sciences, from which he received a degree in history.  

92 years since the foundation of the Cypriot Communist Party - Statement by AKEL

The 19th of August marked the 92nd anniversary since the foundation of the Communist Party of Cyprus which in 1941 was renamed as AKEL (Progressive Party of Working People). 

On the occasion of the Party's foundation, the Press Office of the Central Committee of AKEL issued the following statement:

"The foundation of the Communist Party of Cyprus in Limassol on 19 August 1926 was and remains a landmark in our country’s history. From that day onwards, the working people of Cyprus acquired their own Party. 

The revolutionary message conveyed throughout Cypriot society by the Communist Party of Cyprus (CPC) is summarized in the following reference of its Program: "People are no longer dividedinto Greeks and Turks to fight amongst themselves about the greatness of their homelands, but dividedinto the poor and the wealthy." This is the class and internationalist content of the ideology that has been guiding the CPC-AKEL for 92 years.

AKEL honored the memory of Cypriot communist leader Ezekias Papaioannou

Ezekias Papaioannou (1908-1988).

Last April, during the inauguration ceremony of a park named after Ezekias Papaioannou* in the city of Limassol, the Progressive Party of the Working People (AKEL) honored the memory of the Cypriot communist leader. AKEL's General Secretary Andros Kyprianou praised the role of Papaioannou in Cypriot politics and made some references to the late leader's life and political activity.

Among other things, Kyprianou referred to Papaioannou as "one of the most important political leaders of our country, one of the important personalities of the international communist movement" and "a Communist who lived a life full of struggles and service", beginning his speech with a passage from the memoirs of former Cypriot President (also former AKEL leader) Demetris Christofias: 

AKEL expresses "deep concern" about the nuclear power station in Turkey's Akkuyu

In a statement today, the Cypriot Progressive Party of the Working People (AKEL) expresses its deep concern for the beginning of the construction of the nuclear plant in Akkuyu, Turkey. 

The construction was launched yesterday April 3, with a ceremony attended by Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin,  as part of the agreement signed between Turkey and Russia in 2010, Russian State Nuclear Energy Agency Rosatom undertook the construction of the NPP in Turkey's southern province of Mersin.

63 years ago: EOKA's nationalists begin the armed struggle in Cyprus

Members of EOKA in Troodos mountain. Third
from the right is Georgios Grivas (sitting).

It was the 1st of April 1955, 63 years ago, when the National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters, known by the acronym EOKA, began its armed guerrilla struggle aiming at the union of Cyprus with Greece. 

EOKA was a nationalist, deeply anticommunist organisation. The plans for its creation had already began in 1950, with the active support of the Greek bourgeois class and the consent of Archbishop Makarios. The organisation's leader was the notorious nationalist, known for his anticommunist sentiments, Georgios Grivas. 

It is characteristic that during the Nazi occupation of Greece in 1940s, Grivas had founded and led the "X" far-right guerrilla organisation, which was mainly made up by officers of the bourgeois Greek army. During the December 1944 events in Athens, members of the "X organisation fought alongside Greek bourgeois forces and British imperialists against the EAM-ELAS popular movement. 

Communists honored the 135th anniversary of Karl Marx's death in London

Well over a hundred communists and friends defied the snow to take part in the annual commemoration of the passing of Karl Marx at his tomb on Sunday. 

Marx died in his London study at half-past two on the afternoon of Wednesday 14th March 1883. 

He was buried three days later at Highgate Cemetery and the Marx Memorial Library has for many decades held an annual graveside oration at his burial place in the cemetery in North London.

AKEL condemns attack on "Afrika" newspaper: "The moral perpetrator is President Erdogan himself"

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 22nd January 2018, Nicosia.

AKEL denounces today’s attacks by extreme nationalist forces against the “Afrika” newspaper in the occupied areas. The moral perpetrator of the attacks is the Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan himself, whose recent references in Bursa bluntly targeted the newspaper “Afrika”.

As AKEL, we express our solidarity with Sener Levent and the newspaper “Afrika”, which is once again being targeted because it dared to refer to Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus on the occasion of Turkey’s ongoing invasion of Syria’s Arfin region.

Condemn U.S. decision on Jerusalem: Statements by Communist and Workers Parties across the world

The recent decision of the U.S. Trump administration to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital city of the state of Israel has sparked outrage across the world. Israeli and Palestinian communist and left parties have denounced Trump's decision, while the Communist Party of Greece stated that the decision "adds fuel to the fire" to "burn" the perspective of a Palestinian state. Below, you can read announcements by various Communist and Workers Parties:

Regional meeting of Communist and Workers Parties to be held in Athens on November 26th

Archive Photo.

A meeting of Communist and Workers Parties of the Mediterranean, Middle East and Persian Gulf will take place on Sunday 26th of November, at the headquarters of the Communist Party of Greece in Perissos, Athens. 

The major subject of the meeting- which is an initiative of the KKE - is: "The communist and workers parties consistently by the side of the just struggle of the Palestinian people in the fight against imperialist war and capitalist exploitation".

KKE: People’s struggle for a united Cyprus without guarantors and protectors

Source: inter.kke.gr.

The Party Organization of the KKE in Cyprus held on Saturday the 11^th of February a meeting in Lefkosia (Nicosia), Cyprus with as its theme the positions of the KKE on the Cyprus issue. Giorgos Marinos, member of the PB of the CC of the KKE, spoke at the meeting.

His speech was as follows:

“The KKE is preparing for the 20^th Congress which will be held between 30^th of March and 2^nd of April and there is an ongoing creative dialogue- on the basis of the theses of the CC- in which members and friends are participating, a large number of working people.

The major objective of the Theses of the CC and the final decisions of the Congress is the all-round ideological-political-organizational steeling of the KKE and its Youth, as a Party of revolutionary overthrow. This steeling is a necessary precondition in order to carry out the complex tasks of the labour movement's recasting, the struggle against imperialist war, the building of social alliance towards an anticapitalist, antimonopoly direction aimed at workers' power.

Interview with the member of the CC of KKE Thanasis Pafilis: The Cyprus Issue, AKEL and the positions of KKE

Interview of Thanasis Pafilis, member of the CC of the KKE, and parliamentary representative of the party to the MEGAONE news outlet in Cyprus- "Cyprus, united, independent, with its people sovereign".

Source: inter.kke.gr.

1. Is the KKE not concerned about the fact that its decision could negatively affect AKEL, with which it has special relations, and indeed in a period where the process of the resolution of the Cyprus Issue, which is also supported by AKEL, is being called into issue by various sides?

The stance of the KKE is rooted in its deep internationalist solidarity with the working class and popular strata of Cyprus, the Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots, Armenians,  Maronites and Latins, and is opposed to the monopoly interests that are promoting a new dichotomous plan so that they can gain control of the natural resources without any impediments. The leadership of AKEL has made its choices and its agreement with the framework of the government and President, a framework supported by the USA and the EU and especially Britain, is mistaken, without prospects and is leading the Cypriot people into great hazards.

Various contributions at the 18th International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties

Contribution by various parties to the 18th International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties held in Hanoi, Vietnam:

Cyprus Elections: AKEL suffers setback losing up to 7% - Fascist Party enters the Parliament

The GS of AKEL A.Kyprianou.

Cyprus's ruling conservatives took the lead in Sunday's general election, results showed, while a far-right party won its first seats in the legislature amid voter disillusionment after a 2013 financial meltdown.

With the voting tally at 100 percent, and an unprecedentedly high abstention rate, the right-wing Democratic Rally party was ahead with 30.6 percent of the vote followed by AKEL (Progressive Party of Working People) with 25.6 percent.

Compared to the previous elections of 2011, those two main parties on the Cypriot political scene suffered setbacks. AKEL lost up to seven percentage points while Democratic Rally lost 3.7 percentage points.

By contrast ELAM, a far-right formation forged on the coat-tails of Greece's Neo-Nazi Party of Golden Dawn, scraped past a newly-imposed 3.6 percent electoral threshold and won up to two seats, according to preliminary estimates. Cyprus has an executive system of government and the president is elected separately, but the vote on Sunday was seen as a popularity gauge for President Nicos Anastasiades, whose term expires in 2018.