THE OLYMPIC Flame that brought as much controversy as delight to Cyprus, left the island just after 4pm yesterday for Crete after having spent two days travelling between the main towns.
Speaking at Larnaca Airport during a special departure ceremony, Athens 2004 President Gianna Angelopoulou-Daskalaki, who arrived earlier yesterday to escort the flame back to Greece said: ”It is not unintentional that Cyprus was chosen to be the last stop before our torch returns to Greece for its celebratory journey before it lights up the Olympic Stadium on August 13.”
Angelopoulou said she was proud because this symbol of Greece, of the Olympic Games literally managed to unite the five continents.
Unfortunately the flame failed to unite Greek and Turkish Cypriots as the controversy over why it did not go to the north deepened yesterday.
The flame arrived in Cyprus on Thursday through Paphos and travelled to Limassol and then Nicosia with ceremonies being held along the way. Yesterday thousands turned out in Paralimni and Larnaca for the last leg of the journey.
”I am proud because Cypriots gave such a warm and moving welcome to the flame and men and women, known and unknown, who had the privilege to hold the torch in their hands, demonstrated the strength this symbol of our country has.”
Angelopoulou thanked the authorities on the island for organising the flame’s relay, adding that she was expecting everyone in Greece during the Olympics “so that Greece can show that the Games are perhaps the most powerful event that unite the world today”.
Angelopoulou will participate in today’s relay as a torchbearer during the Knossos route in Crete.
Earlier in the day residents of Paralimni and the Famagusta district welcomed the flame at a special ceremony at Saint George’s Square in Paralimni, in the presence of the local authorities and other officials.
Twelve priestesses dressed in white and blue danced in honour of the flame while the Paralimni Municipality band played the Olympic Anthem for the crowd that thronged the square.
The flag of the Olympic Games was hoisted as the last torchbearer Lambros Kefalas, a veteran athlete, holding an olive branch in one hand and the torch in the other, arrived at the square.
Famagusta Mayor Yiannakis Skordis expressed hope that the passing of the flame through Cyprus would bring luck and good fortune to the island and especially to the Famagusta which was still waiting to be free.
Skordis said he hoped that as the torch left Cyprus it would ”convey our overwhelming wish and desire for peace and solidarity in this land, which we have inherited and which we have to hand over to our children and grandchildren.”
During the ceremony folk singer Kyriacos Pelagia recited the poem Olympic Torch and the event concluded with a dance before the flame moved on its journey to Larnaca Airport.
