Evangelos Florakis was born in Tzoumerka, north-west Greece on February 14, 1943. He entered the Hellenic Army Academy in 1962 and graduated four years later, seventh of his class.
Trained as a Special Forces officer, he commanded the 31st Infantry Regiment. He served in Cyprus as an officer of ELDYK and later as a Colonel, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Cypriot National Guard.
In 1996 he was promoted to Major General and given command of the 16th Mechanised Infantry Division. He subsequently served as Director of the Supreme War Academy in Thessaloniki. In 1999, as a Lieutenant General, he assumed command of the II Army Corps, which he held until his retirement in May 2000.
He was immediately recalled to service as Chief of the Cypriot National Guard (the senior command positions of the CNG customarily filled by active or retired Greek officers), replacing Lt. General Dimitrios Dimou.
Florakis was married to Athina Savvidou from Paphos, and quickly became a popular and well-liked officer in Cyprus.
He was killed in an accident on July 10, 2002 near Paphos, when his Bell 206 helicopter crashed. Apart from Florakis, the Air Force Commander, Brigadier Stylianos Demenagas and three other officers were killed.
A rumour doing the rounds is that Florakis attempted at dusk to fire a flare from the helicopter to confirm its position. The gun failed to fire and on further inspection inside the helicopter, blew away the right side of the pilot’s face, thus leading to the crash.
The naval base at Mari was named in Florakis’ memory and, seven years later, 98 containers of potentially explosive armaments were carelessly stored in the vicinity.
The existence of the arms store which, on 11/07/2011 exploded and killed 13, seriously injuring 60 was common knowledge.
But did any one of our 56 elected members of the House of Representatives attempt to close the gate prior to the horse bolting?
They had had two and half years in which to do so, but not a single memo, minutes of any meeting, exist to prove that any one of them had repeatedly or vociferously objected to storing the arms and, more particularly, questioned its location beside a major power station and naval base.
Would you give a loaded gun to a child? Then why did our politicians, all of them, leave those confiscated munitions in the charge of our Foreign Secretary at the time, Kyprianou, Minister of Defence, Papacostas, National Guard Chief, Tsalikidis and our lackadaisical administration, all under the supervision of President Christofias, whose intention (it is rumoured) was to please Syria and Iran by manipulating those munitions to spite the Yanks?
Calls by thousands for his resignation have failed to unseat him or he would now be in jail on a charge of manslaughter.
Instead, he has ordered two separate ‘in depth’ inquiries that some say will direct the blame for the Mari explosion at underlings in the same way as his party, AKEL blame economic downgrades on the profligacy of previous governments, and the worsening ills of this island on any other party but their own.
So just who is governing this country and is responsible for taking important decisions if not the government and president of the day?
Sharing out the blame is the oldest political con trick in the book, but this president must be made to take responsibility for his mistakes without hiding behind those of previous governments.
If not, then who is to blame for the mess we now find ourselves in if not the people, who voted AKEL in and have kept them there this past three-and-a half years, not withstanding DIKO and EDEK, who helped AKEL form the 2008 coalition, and to some degree DISY, who only now call for ‘that man’ to get out, when they should have highlighted the explosive potential of the munitions dump prior to the catastrophe, like they did our economy (without effect) prior to its collapse.
Having left a loaded gun in the hands of children, and our politicians and administration are, in the main, irresponsible children, plundering the country at the expense of its naive electorate, Cyprus now finds herself struggling to survive economically.
Who killed Evangelos Florakis? If the rumour is to be believed, Evangelos did. Then who will rid us of this government, which can’t help shooting itself in the foot or getting egg on its face?
Given their eventual removal by the electorate, is there anybody out there capable of filling the gap? I doubt it – a sad reflection on Cypriot politicians, who jockey for pole position now that the horse has bolted, saddled by that solitary rider, Christofias, who still hopes to stay in power and ahead of the field with the cry, ‘My kingdom for a scapegoat!’
Monday’s questioning of the President by enquiry chief, Polis Polyviou, broke up in chaos. Did anyone expect any less?
