MR EVGENIOS STYLIANIDES

I was born in the small village of Arminou, Paphos.  My primary school days were very happy ones.  My father was a teacher but due to his progressive views, he was ‘hounded’ by the British colonial administration.  When he and other like-minded colleagues welcomed Leontios, the locum tenens of Cyprus, they were summarily ‘banished’ to remote villages.  Mr Cullen, at the Ministry of Education knew exactly what he was doing.  My father always insisted that we should continue with our studies, saying that, “nobody can take education away from you”. Get your diplomas and then “hang them on the wall”.  We all followed his advice.  One of my brothers, who died seven years ago, was a successful dentist, the other a lawyer and I am an accountant.  The rest of the family are also educated. I believe that this has made us better people.  Yes, we have property especially in Arminou, but we have never lost our ‘common’ touch.  As youngsters we also worked hard.  In fact, on many occasions we used to walk some twenty miles from Paramali to Arminou, carrying corn and other produce – and even when darkness used to settle in.  Today however, if you ask a child to get you a glass of water, the answer would probably be “it’s easier for you to get it, you are much nearer”.

With the clear intention of studying agriculture, I left Cyprus on 26 December 1948.  The ‘Kyrenia’ was fairly comfortable but it cost me £73.  At the Italian port of Genoa, we went ashore for coffee and a stroll but we managed to miss the forward journey.  All my belongings and my passport were on board.  The British Consulate in Genoa provided me with a travel document.  I went to Ventimiglia and then to Marseille.  Advised by a young North African person, I jumped on the tram and, without paying, we were taken to the port where our ship was moored.  I was welcomed by all my fellow passengers.  I collected my belongings and set off for Paris.  My only relative in London was Demetrakis, my brother, who later in life became The President of the Supreme Court in Cyprus.  I am very proud whenever I mention this “small detail”.

Due to the fact that we were a few days late arriving, my brother used to go to Victoria Station on a daily basis. I finally arrived on 2 January 1949.  Life in London was different and not at all easy.  The weather was very cold and even the water pipes used to freeze up.  Fog on a regular basis was simply a reminder of how things were in England.  I first took up residence at 73 Albert Street, but later we moved to a house just off the Edgware Road.  Overcrowding for us Cypriots was the norm.  At Tollington Park, we had no electricity, no gas and therefore no heating.  Facilities there were also limited.  For example, there was one kitchen and one bathroom for some eight people.  If you were in a hurry, it was just too bad.  The cost of food and other household items was also pretty low.  Thus, in the early 1950s, we used to buy tomatoes at two pence per pound.  My wages then were £6 per week.  That’s how things were at that time.

As I said earlier, my intention was to study Agriculture.  There were no places at the University of Reading, so I enrolled at the Northwestern Polytechnic and then at Regent’s Street Polytechnic.  I studied Accountancy.  I had many Cypriot friends and fellow students, like Kyriacos Tsioupras, but I did not have a single English friend.  We complained to the British Council.  A really nice person arranged a trip for us to Henley-on-Thames and we stayed in his house.  He then took us to Oxford and Cambridge.  We had a wonderful time.
On 30 March 1957, I married Stella who originates from a village near the famous monastery of Machaeras called Lazania.  We are very happy. Our three sons are all doing well.  Our eldest, George, won a scholarship to Dulwich College, one of South London’s most noted private schools and then he studied at the LSE, where he completed his Master’s degree.  I then influenced him to study Accountancy.  He is now a manager with the prestigious company Price, Waterhouse & Coopers.  He is married with two children.  My second son Akis, looks after the family’s property portfolio and is working hard in that direction.  Marios, went to the University of Exeter, where he excelled in Media Studies.  He worked for the BBC, but is now an executive producer with Hatrick’s – a company currently making films.  Both Akis and Marios are single.  It’s a sign of the times I presume.  For me, marriage is a wonderful thing- “it counts for a lot”.

I have always been active in community affairs.  I served as secretary of St Mary’s Cathedral for nearly forty years.  In 1974, we formed DOEK in order to help the refugees in Cyprus and in 1975 DOEK was one of the founding members of KOPA, the Cypriot Sunday Football Federation.  I was also president of the Paphos Association for around twelve years.  In addition, we spent hours and hours in order to establish the Cypriot Community Centre in South London.  We literally “cried” to council officials in order to get their approval.  Hasan, a Turkish Cypriot, then a councillor in Southwark, helped us a lot.  We were first given a small hall in St Giles and a grant of £20 per week.  Today we have a big building; we get a hefty annual grant, and a smaller one from the National Lottery.  I am really proud and content when I see Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots eating, drinking and playing backgammon (tavli) etc in perfect harmony.  It is a day centre and we celebrate, in our own nice way, all religious festivals.  We provide a four-course lunch with coffee for £2.  We arrange trips to different places and of course we have our annual summer holidays.  There are other activities which are spread throughout the year.  An ambulance also helps our disabled users with their transportation to and from the centre.  In addition, we have a very competent advice section, where my friend Dr Stavros Panteli and Andreas Stavrou work very long hours to help everyone who seeks their help.  Our motto is “help to all our compatriots”.  Surely, a very noble ideal.  Loneliness is a terrible experience.

I am always ready and willing to help our community and even “outsiders”.  Voluntary work is a “must” if our community is to progress even further.  I remember an interview I had two years ago with Stavros Panteli at the LGR, when I pointed out quite clearly that such voluntary work is constructive and rewarding.  I also said that our community is in good hands – look at the number of professional people we have.  Our youngsters today are choosy and they know exactly which course of study to follow.  They weigh things up and then they decide.  We are a progressive, peace-loving people and we have done wonders here in our “second homeland”.

Finally, I have to say this:  when I arrived in the UK in January 1949, I used to ask some of our compatriots, “how many years have you been here?”  The answer was usually, “three or four years”.  I used to murmur silently, “Virgin Mary, so many years”.  Yes, I have been here since 1949.  Thanks to the mass media “Cyprus is now in everybody’s home”.  Yet, I still yearn to go back.  I want to be buried in our family grave.  That is “my dream”.