July 31, 1959
GRIVAS RESPONDS: Cyprus General Georgios Grivas, aka Digenis, gave the following reply yesterday to statements by Prime Minister Constantine Karamanlis and Foreign Minister Evangelos Averoff. «I grant… Karamanlis the honor [of bringing to a conclusion] the Zurich and London agreements on Cyprus. After waging a four-year struggle for liberation on Cyprus, I would not like to claim such an honor for myself. I reiterate that I have never criticized those agreements. Presented with a fait accompli, I was forced to order a ceasefire to the heroic struggle of the Greek-Cypriot people. I was informed about the Zurich accord by the Greek consul on Cyprus on February 23 of this year. It did not include the British government’s statement on the bases. I only heard about that later. As the leader of the armed struggle, I was not even invited to London, nor was I asked to send any representative. But the time has come to shed light on all the phases of the struggle: how it began, how it was carried out and what happened to bring about its end. However, since my arrival in Greece, it has become clear that the problems that will arise from the concessions being made in the face of British-Turkish claims will prove to be greater than those I had tried to forestall.»
