CYPRUS: THOUSANDS ATTEND FUNERAL OF SOLMOUS SOLOMOU

Описание: (17 Aug 1996) English/Nat

Thousands of Greek Cypriots have attended the funeral of a protester killed by Turkish troops on the buffer zone running across the divided Mediterranean island of Cyprus.

A placard proclaiming "freedom or death" hung at the gate of the Greek Orthodox cathedral in Paralimni for the funeral of Solomous Solomou.

Solomou was shot by Turkish soldiers on Wednesday as he tried to haul down a Turkish flag flying inside the zone between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot sectors.

Solomous Solomou's friends arrived on their motorbikes as a vanguard, giving him the sort of send-off the 26-year-old would have appreciated.

It's the second state funeral this week of a Greek Cypriot.

Solomou died three days after a cousin, Tassos Isaac, was beaten to death by Turks during a protest against Turkey's 22-year occupation of the northern third of Cyprus.

Church bells pealed, a military band played, and hundreds of Greek and Cypriot flags fluttered in the square nearby for the second victim of the worst violence in Cyprus since Turkey invaded and occupied the northern third of the island in 1974.

The crowd applauded as mourners carried Solomou's coffin, draped with a Greek flag, into the cathedral on their shoulders.

Archbishop Chrysostomos, the influential head of the Cyprus Orthodox Church, said in his eulogy, ''The objective has been achieved: to awaken the conscience of the world to the injustice that has been going in Cyprus.''

The recent violence has heightened tension between Greece and Turkey, NATO allies whose relations have long been marred by disputes over Cyprus and territorial rights in the Aegean Sea.

Solomou was buried after sunset, which is extremely rare in the Greek Orthodox faith and is believed to have been approved by the Cypriot Greek Orthodox church to minimize the possibility of violence after the funeral.

Mourners chanted the words ''eternal'' as he was lowered into the grave.

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