The Student Leader
Petrakis Yiallouros served as manager of the student teams at the Greek High School of Famagusta. As a young studenthe took charge of organising his fellow pupils for the E.O.K.A. struggle. He composed patriotic songs and taught them to younger students. Also he wrote leaflets urging resistance and distributed them under cover of darkness. In addition he concealed weapons and moved them between safe locations and carried secret correspondence between E.O.K.A. cells. Always in front he planned and led militant student demonstrations against British rule. The colonial authorities identified him through informants and placed him on their hunt list.
The School Closes
On February 6, 1956, students from Famagusta Gymnasium clashed violently with British forces. Rocks flew. Soldiers responded with batons and rifle butts. The government ordered the immediate closure of the Gymnasium. Petrakis Yiallouros did not go home to hide. He spent the night coordinating with students from the Commercial High School. They would demonstrate again at dawn.
The Demonstration on Ermou Street
The next morning, February 7, 1956, a large force of students assembled on Ermou Street. Pupils from both schools joined together. They built barricades from wooden crates and overturned carts and tore up paving stones and hurled them at the British soldiers. The soldiers raised their rifles and aimed directly into the crowd. They fired live ammunition at unarmed schoolboys.
The Fatal Shot
During the retreat, one British soldier took deliberate aim. The soldier selected Petrakis Yiallouros from the scattering students. The bullet struck him squarely in the heart. Petrakis did not fall immediately. He took ten steady steps. He raised his arm and shouted with all his remaining strength: “Long Live the Union!” Then he collapsed onto the cold stone.
The First Student Martyr
Petrakis Yiallouros became the first student to water the earth of Greek Cyprus with his blood. He was seventeen years old. His body lay on Ermou Street while the demonstration scattered and the soldiers regrouped. Fellow students carried him away. His death did not end the resistance. It ignited it.
The Eternal Lesson
The sacrifice of Petrakis Yiallouros taught future generations the meaning of virtue and duty. He did not die for land alone. He died for an idea. Cypriot schoolchildren still learn his name. They sing the songs he wrote. They walk past the memorial on Ermou Street and remember the teenager who took ten steps, shouted for Enosis, and fell so that Cyprus might one day rise free.
He was the first student whose blood watered the land of Greek Cyprus. His sacrifice will teach future generations the way of virtue and duty for the freedom of the country.
