Kyrenia Castle Escape

Part of Cyprus Emergency

Date	23 September 1955
Location	Kyrenia, Cyprus
Result	successful prison escape by EOKA prisoners

Belligerents

United Kingdom

EOKA

Cyprus Emergency

1 April Attacks (April 1955) Nicosia Cinema Bombing (May 1955) Police Station Attacks (June 1955) Kyrenia Castle Escape (Sept 1955) Battle of Famagusta (Nov 1955) Battle of the Pine (Nov 1955) Battle of Spilia (Dec 1955) Battle of Yialousa Battle at Nicosia Hospital (Aug 1956) Operation Lucky Alphonse (June 1956) Lepka Raid (April 1957) Battle of Lioepetri (Sept 1958)

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

↑ "Introduction to Cyprus Emergency", Cyprus at Britains Small Wars
↑ DETAINEES BREAK OUT OF PRISON: Soldiers Shot in Street The Manchester Guardian (1901-1959) [Manchester (UK)] 14 Nov 1955: 1.
↑ "The EOKA struggle during the Governorship of Armitage (1 April - 3 October 1955)", A history of the liberation struggle of EOKA (1955-1959) accessed 7 November 2013
↑ Slain British Soldier Found Special to The New York Times.. New York Times (1923-Current file) [New York, N.Y] 07 Feb 1957: 5.
↑ SEVEN TERRORISTS CAPTURED: E.O.K.A. gang smashed The Manchester Guardian (1901-1959) [Manchester (UK)] 22 Apr 1957: 5.
↑ GREEK CYPRIOT CAPTIVES RIOT AGAINST BRITISH Chicago Daily Tribune (1923-1963) [Chicago, Ill] 14 Nov 1955: c10.

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