SEKA Victoria, the Justice For Cyprus Co-ordinating Committee recently elected their new president Pavlos Andronikos on Thursday December 7.
The organisation was created after the 1974 invasion of Cyprus by Turkey, with a purpose to “work for a fair and just settlement to the Cyprus Issue.”
Andronikos has been with SEKA for decades, always in the background as Secretary and Webmaster (in charge of the website and social media), but now he finds himself at the forefront of SEKA.
Born in Cyprus and growing up in London, the Cypriot migrated to Australia to teach Greek at the University of New England in Armidale, New South Wales.
That was in 1981, prior to that he’d been a grammar-school boy, an apprentice mechanic, a washer of dishes, a waiter, a KFC cook, a motorcyclist, a van-driver, a diesel mechanic, a factory worker and a student.
In 1983 he moved to Melbourne to assume responsibility for Greek at Monash University, working as head of modern Greek for 20 years.
Neos Kosmos spoke to the published academic about his newfound position, one that previous president Tony Kyriacou stepped down from.
“I expressed a desire to step up. There is a lot of work involved in organising SEKA’s activities, which is why I have hesitated in the past,” he said.
“I would like my involvement with SEKA to include a spell as President before I get too old to take on such a demanding assignment.
He said he looks forward to a memorable year next year, one marks the 50th since the invasion.
In other newsworthy events this week involving the Cyprus Issue, a NSW MP has causes an uproar in the Cypriot community after she attended a 40th celebration of the self-declared Independence day for the unrecognised Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
Neos Kosmos asked Andronikos what his thoughts were on the situation. He called it “regrettable” and revealed that Andrew Costa, President of the Cyprus Community of NSW had already written to Tina Ayyad, and she had responded apologetically.
“We hope our horror and dismay that she should have chosen to celebrate such a tragic event as the division of Cyprus is now clear to her.”
“The occupied territory was not taken by a normal military campaign, it was taken by a horrific genocidal operation aimed at civilians – men, women and children.
“The atrocities committed by the Turkish Army and the TMT terrorists left a bloody trail of indiscriminate murder and rape from one end of the island to the other. The aim was ethnic cleansing.
“Imagine a neighbouring country taking more than a third of your country by force with the help of a 5th column minority, and emptying that stolen territory of its majority inhabitants. That is Cyprus since 1974.”
