Memorial for victims of 2011 Mari explosion

Ministers and state officials on Sunday attended a memorial services of the men killed five years ago at the Mari naval base blast.
The July 11, 2011 blast, which killed seven sailors and six firemen, was caused by munitions haphazardly stored at the Evangelos Florakis naval base for more than two years.
The munitions, stored in 98 containers, had been confiscated in 2009 from a Cyprus-flagged ship en route to Syria, and were then stacked in an open space at the base and left exposed to the elements until the day of the explosion, despite repeated warnings about the risks.
Speaking at the memorial service for police sergeant Vassilis Krokos in Larnaca,  Justice Minister Ionas Nicolaou, said that these “brave men gave their lives while on duty at a time when the government had failed to protect its citizens”.
“These men show us the way, our obligation … to the country and society, and to honour their memory there is a lot that we must do to be able to be a state worthy of the one every member of a civilized society wants,” Nicolaou said.
“Let us hope that through the wisdom and collective effort”  we will not  experience another incident like that of Mari, or of theJuly 15 coup, “or any other calamities”.
Following a request of the family of the twin sailors Miltos and Christos Christoforou, 19, who were doing their military service at the time, and were among those killed, no state official attended their memorial, the defence ministry said.
President Nicos Anastasiades is to attend the fifth anniversary memorial at the Evangelos Florakis naval base on Monday.

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.