Greek minister to accept remains of Tillyria sailors

Greece’s deputy defence minister Dimitris Vitsas will be in Cyprus next week to accept the remains of five Greek sailors killed in the battle of Tillyria in August 1964.

The remains of the sailors are to be repatriated to Greece.

A memorial service will be held on Tuesday at the cemetery of Saints Constantine and Eleni in Nicosia, where the fallen Greek sailors are buried.

The exhumation and identification of the remains began in April.

The sailors were part of the crew of the Phaethon, a patrol boat of the Cypriot Navy which took part in the battle of Tillyria on August 8, 1964.

The boat was manned by a crew of the Greek Navy in a top-secret mission to help patrol the Cypriot coastline. The boat also fought against the Turkish Cypriot forces during the battle at Tillyria.

According to Wikipedia, the losses sustained by the crew were the first battle casualties of the Hellenic Navy after World War II.

Due to the top-secret nature of the mission, the commander and crew of the boat, including the fallen, received recognition from Greece and Cyprus on 19 January 2016, more than 50 years after the battle.

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