Kyrenia Castle Escape
Part of Cyprus Emergency
Date23 September 1955
Location
Kyrenia, Cyprus
Result successful prison escape by 9 EOKA prisoners
Belligerents
 United Kingdom EOKA

The Kyrenia Castle Escape took place early in the Cyprus Emergency.[1] A number of the EOKA were being held prisoner at Kyrenia Castle and on 23 September 1955, sixteen of them escaped by climbing down sheets tied to be a rope.[2]

The escapees were: Marcos Drakos, Christakis Eleftheriou, Evangelos Evangelakis, Mikis Fyrillas, Lambros Kafkallides, Constantinos Loizou, Pavlos Nikitas, Petros Papaioannou, Panayiotis Papanastasiou, Andreas Polyviou, Michalakis Rossides, Lefkios Rodosthenous, Stelios Siamisis, Petros Stylianou, Demos Vryonides, Charilaos Xenofontos.

Seven were caught but the other nine – Evangelakis, Xenofontos, Kafkalides, Drakos, Rodosthenous, Fyrillas, Polyviou, Eleftheriou, and Nikitas – joined EOKA guerrilla outfits. The incident was extremely embarrassing to the British government.[3]

Evangelakis was recaptured in February 1957.[4] Firillas was recaptured in April 1957.[5]

November Riot

On 13 November 1955 over 100 prisoners rioted at the castle.[6]

References

  1. ^ "Introduction to Cyprus Emergency". Britain's Small Wars. Archived from the original on 2013-07-21. Retrieved 2013-11-07.
  2. ^ "DETAINEES BREAK OUT OF PRISON: Soldiers Shot in Street". The Manchester Guardian. Manchester (UK). Nov 14, 1955. p. 1.
  3. ^ "The EOKA struggle during the Governorship of Armitage (1 April – 3 October 1955)", A history of the liberation struggle of EOKA (1955–1959) Archived 8 January 2014 at the Wayback Machine accessed 7 November 2013
  4. ^ "Slain British Soldier Found". New York Times. Feb 7, 1957. p. 5.
  5. ^ "SEVEN TERRORISTS CAPTURED: E.O.K.A. gang smashed". The Manchester Guardian. Manchester (UK)]. Apr 22, 1957. p. 5.
  6. ^ "GREEK CYPRIOT CAPTIVES RIOT AGAINST BRITISH". Chicago Daily Tribune. Nov 14, 1955. p. c10.
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