Call for Makarios

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33653, 1 October 1974, Page 17

Call for Makarios

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —CopynghO LIMASSOL, Sept. 30. More than 15,000 people jammed the centre of Limassol yesterday in demonstrations for the return of the deposed President Makarios, without any of the feared clashes with the underground Eoka ‘B’ organisation. Limassol is the traditional base of that extremist Rightwing movement, which campaigns for union with Greece and the Greek Cypriot Government. had earlier appealed for restraint at the rally by the archbishop’s supporters and opponents alike. The demonstrators packed the square and main street for more than two hours, chanting, singing, and waving banners and posters backing the archbishop, who was deposed in a Rightwing coup d’etat on July 15.

The demonstration was organised by the National Rally movement, which claims the support of several powerful Left-wing unions and the Socialist Centre Union Party led by Dr Vassos Lyssarides. Since escaping from the island a day after the coup, Archbishop Makarios has based himself in London, but has visited several European and Mediterranean countries, and is now in New York for the United Nations General Assembly debate on Cyprus. While he is violently opposed by Eoka ‘B,’ the vast majority of Greek Cypriots are believed to support him. He was quoted recently as saying that he would return to Cyprus on October 15.