Bikers remember Isaak and Solomou

By Angelos Anastasiou

A MOTORCYLE procession along the green line got underway on Friday organised by the Isaak-Solomou Memorial Initiative, in honour of Tasos Isaak and Solomos Solomou who were killed by Turkish occupying forces in the Dherynia buffer zone in August 1996.

Around 50 bikers, under the slogan “motorcyclists don’t forget,” started the ride at 8 am on Friday at the Georgios Grivas memorial in Chloraka, Paphos.

Xenios Kasinides, spokesman for the group, told the Cyprus News Agency that just like every year the ride aims to “remind the messages sent by the sacrifice of the two heroes, Tasos Isaak and Solomos Solomou. The messages of patriotism, altruism and ideology that each of us must have, to finally shake off the occupying army from our land.”

He said that the motorcycle ride was making its way through Polis Chrysochous, Pachyammos and Pomos and symbolically blocked the passage from the Limnitis checkpoint.

From Mammari, where the motorcyclists camped for the night, they will ride to Nicosia on Saturday.

Upon arrival, they will lay a wreath at the Makedonitissa military cemetery and war memorial from where they will visit the graves of executed EOKA fighters at the Central Prisons and the statue of liberty near the Archbishopric.

They will also visit the Modestos Pantelis memorial in Avgorou.

Before reaching Dherynia, where the ride will be concluded, the motorcyclists will symbolically block the Ayios Dometios, Ledra Palace and Ledra street checkpoints.

Kasinides said that on Sunday, motorcyclists from all town will ride to the Paralimni cemetery, where a memorial service will be held for Isaak and Solomou.

The procession will conclude in Dherynia where the annual event in memory of the two murdered youths will be held.

Before starting the ride, the bikers said that their aim in 2016 is to start the ride from Berlin.

That will mark 20 years since the ride that ended in tragedy at the buffer zone in Dherynia.

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.