Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Note on Translations
- Introduction
- 1 Triantafyllides before his Assassination
- 2 The Colonial Newspaper Archive and the Triantafyllides Case
- 3 The Colonial Government Archive and the Triantafyllides Case
- 4 The Assassination of Triantafyllides and the EOKA Connection
- Conclusion
- Select Bibliography
- Index
3 - The Colonial Government Archive and the Triantafyllides Case
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 February 2022
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Note on Translations
- Introduction
- 1 Triantafyllides before his Assassination
- 2 The Colonial Newspaper Archive and the Triantafyllides Case
- 3 The Colonial Government Archive and the Triantafyllides Case
- 4 The Assassination of Triantafyllides and the EOKA Connection
- Conclusion
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Some months ago Savvas Loizides, Theodoros Kolokasides and Theophanis Tsangarides proposed to me (Bishop Nicodemos) to try to go to Athens for the purpose of taking presidency of an association whose aim was to use all means, murders not excluded, against those Cypriots who co-operate with the Government.
Theophanis Theodotou to Philip Cunliffe-Lister, 26 January 1934.On 12 January 1934, Henry Blackall, the Attorney General since 1932, gave notice of his intention to marry Maria Severis, daughter of Demosthenis Severis and first cousin of Loulla Triantafyllides, Antonios's wife, in the Orthodox Church (which happened on 21 April 1934). But that night he returned to his diary (noticeable by the darker ink) to enter the details of what was then ‘an attempt to assassinate Triantafyllides’. Blackall rang and then visited the General Hospital where Triantafyllides was being operated on. One shot had entered the intestines, which were perforated in four places, and the ‘doctors regard his condition as very serious, but there is […] some hope’. His immediate view was that this was ‘the first political assassination here and it is doubtless owed to the poison instilled by the local press’, and therefore ‘censorship should be revived’. Blackall noted that Triantafyllides had ‘helped a lot towards our engagement’. The next day, Blackall entered the death of Triantafyllides and how he influenced the immediate actions of Governor Palmer (Figure 3.1).
On going to see Henniker-Heaton (Col Sec) I found that he pooh-poohed the idea that it was a political murder. As I disagreed, I went to see the Governor with Paschalis (S-G) and had no difficulty in convincing him that it was. Paschalis believes that it was instigated by the irreconcilable clique who are at the back of all trouble here including the intransigence of the Archb (Archbishop, i.e. Locum Tenens, Bishop Leontios). So I advised His Excellency to intern the leaders of the clique.
Palmer agreed and also called a company of troops from Limassol to Nicosia, which Blackall disagreed with because
Most of us are against this as public opinion seems to be entirely against the murder and no trouble need therefore be anticipated while the presence of troops may be resented as uncalled for.
Meanwhile, in Athens, Savvas Loizides, Bishop Makarios, Theophanis Tsangarides and Theodoros Kolokasides must have received the news that Triantafyllides had died with a mixture of excitement and apprehension.
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- Assassination in Colonial Cyprus in 1934 and the Origins of EOKAReading the Archives against the Grain, pp. 61 - 84Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2021