🇨🇾 Cyprus marks Anti-Fascist Resistance Day On 28 October 2026, traditional secondary school student parades and memorial services for the victims of the Second World War were held in the Republic of Cyprus. The main parade took place in central Nicosia. Accompanied by a marching band, students carrying Cypriot and Greek flags and their schools’ banners marched past the Greek Embassy. President of the Republic of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulides greeted them from a reviewing stand outside the diplomatic mission. 💬 Nikos Christodoulides: “The heroic struggle of 1940 and the Greek resistance carry many messages. But I would particularly like to highlight this: when sovereignty and dignity are at stake, there can be no compromises or concessions, whatever the cost. They are simply unacceptable in such matters, as our brothers in Greece demonstrated.” The President also recalled the Cypriot volunteers who went to the front to fight fascism, even though the British authorities had not formally declared mobilisation on the island, which was then under colonial rule. 💬 “Nearly 20,000 Cypriots took part [in the fighting], standing shoulder to shoulder with Greece and the Allied forces. Many of our compatriots fell on the battlefield. This means that, if we truly wish to honour their memory on anniversaries such as this, we must follow the example set by the Greeks in 1940, adapted to today’s realities.” 📜 Ohi Day (“No” in Greek) commemorates 28 October 1940, when Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas rejected Fascist Italy’s ultimatum demanding that Mussolini’s troops be allowed to occupy strategic positions on Greek territory, including seaports. Following that refusal, the Italian army invaded Greece from occupied Albania. These events marked Greece’s entry into the Second World War on the Allied side. 🎙 Russian Ambassador to Cyprus Murat Zyazikov, speaking to TASS: 💬 The observance of Anti-Fascist Resistance Day in Cyprus shows that, during the Second World War, the people of the island made an unequivocal choice and consciously sided with good in the most brutal and deadly conflict in human history. Today, more than eight decades later, the Cypriot people retain a strong immunity to the hateful ideology of fascism. This is demonstrated by the active participation of local Cypriots, alongside the island’s large Russian community, in the extensive celebrations of Victory Day held across Cyprus each May. These include Immortal Regiment marches drawing thousands of participants, motorcades through Cypriot cities, wreath-laying ceremonies at war memorials, thematic conferences, lectures, literary readings and film screenings. According to the Ambassador, Cypriots’ clear understanding of the forces of good and evil in the Second World War, together with their recognition of the Soviet Union’s decisive role in defeating Nazism, is helping to increase the number of Russia’s friends and supporters on the island. 💬 We feel this support from the local population, for our peoples are united by a shared history, a commitment to preserving traditional values, and a rejection of even the slightest manifestations of the ideology of the brown plague. On commemorative occasions such as today, when Anti-Fascist Resistance Day is observed throughout Cyprus, we see with particular clarity the shared moral foundations on which our peoples’ lives are built.