ELENI Tsiakourmas, 78, was buried at a Larnaca cemetery yesterday afternoon, a day after her son Panicos was released from a Turkish Cypriot jail following his abduction last December from the British bases.
Hundreds of people turned out for the funeral at the Ayios Ioannis church in Larnaca, including party leaders, local deputies, government and town officials, and representatives from the British High Commission and the British bases.
President Glafcos Clerides, Archbishop Chrysostomos and outgoing House President Spyros Kyprianou sent wreaths to the grieving Tsiakourmas family.
Eleni Tsiakourmas, a diabetic like her abducted son, suffered a stroke on April 19 brought on by the stress of her youngest son’s kidnapping and detention in the north. Complications arose early this week when she contracted pneumonia and high blood pressure and slipped in and out of unconsciousness. Reports on Thursday said she died whispering her son’s name.
She was buried yesterday at the Ayios Georgios cemetery alongside her husband Kyriacos, who died on April 25, 1988 and her other son, Christodoulos, who died seven years ago.
When he returned home on Thursday, Tsiakourmas, who had not been told earlier in the day that his mother had died, said: “She died to give life to her son.”
In an interview with the CyBC yesterday, Tsiakourmas spoke briefly of his five-month ordeal.
He said he had reached desperation many times, but did not criticise the Turkish Cypriots.
“It would be a shame to lie and say the Turkish Cypriots treated me badly,” he said. “They tried to give me encouragement all the time and make me smile.”
He said that throughout the time he spent in the north he did not feel abandoned by the Greek Cypriot side.
“My family was organising many events and people were attending so I felt their support,” he said.
Government Spokesman Michalis Papapetrou said yesterday the state would support any move by Tsiakourmas to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
