10.10.2025 – October is a month of action for the independence and sovereignty of Cyprus and the Cypriot people, both on the island and across the world in the spirit of international solidarity. 1 October marks Cyprus’s Independence Day from British colonialism, and 10 October is recognised as the International Day of Solidarity with the Cypriot People, when anti-imperialists around the world unite their voices and actions for Cyprus.
This year, alongside actions in other countries, members of the Union of Cypriots organised two actions in London, the city that hosts the largest Cypriot diaspora. On 1 October, Independence Day, our members unfolded a large banner from Westminster Bridge reading in Greek, Turkish and English “Republic of Cyprus: The Only Solution”, accompanied by the slogan “Apartheid is not a Solution.” This is the same banner for which our comrade Oz Karahan and journalist Giorgos Tattis were violently arrested at last year’s Independence Day, because of the Cyprus government’s ongoing negotiations aiming to dissolve the Republic of Cyprus and replace it with an apartheid regime through the framework of a bizonal bicommunal federation, where foreign presence and control would continue to exist. The oppression and criminalization of those who defend the Republic of Cyprus continue.
On 10 October, the International Day of Solidarity with the Cypriot People, the Union of Cypriots joined other anti-imperialist movements in a protest outside the Turkish Embassy in London. The speakers included Anastasia Gavalas, representative of the Union of Cypriots, who delivered a powerful speech outlining the principles of our struggle.
Gavalas underlined that Cypriots cannot accept a plan for their future that denies the unconditional right of return to all refugees or one that fails to dismantle the settler colonisation imposed by the Turkish occupiers. She added that no plan allowing continued influence by NATO countries, or one that falls short of full sovereignty while concealing ongoing Turkish colonisation in the occupied north, can be accepted. Gavalas reminded that any plan which does not demand the full and immediate withdrawal of the occupying Turkish military, or which keeps Cypriots segregated, psychologically colonised, and subject to imperialist divide-and-rule tactics, must be rejected. She stated that Cypriots have rejected such plans in the past, as they did with the Annan Plan, and will not accept any form of a bizonal bicommunal federation for Cyprus. She stressed that these plans for Cyprus do not challenge the imperialist world order but rather reinforce it, having been promoted by NATO.
She stressed that bizonal bicommunal federation plans for Cyprus pose no threat to the imperialist world order, having been promoted by NATO. Gavalas stated that only a unitary Cyprus can break the grip of imperialist control over our region. A divided people is a weakened people, and a weakened people is one denied the right to govern itself. Only a united community has the political legitimacy to demand and achieve total liberation.
Finally, she reaffirmed that only a unitary national liberation struggle will bring about the end of the British and other NATO bases in Cyprus. Only a liberated Cyprus can strike at the chain of genocidal violence that continues in Palestine and beyond.
The Union of Cypriots upholds this position. A unitary, sovereign, and democratic Cyprus, free from the presence of all foreign powers, is the only path to justice and true liberation. The struggle continues in Cyprus and across the world, in solidarity with all peoples fighting for freedom.
