Throwing light on 'A Dark Room'

"For real? Did the Turks leave for Cyprus? " asked the dictator Dimitris Ioannidis while looking puzzled. He was speaking to his close associate Charalambos Palainis when the latter informed him by phone about the latest developments.  "Ioannidis was shocked when he learned that the Turks had entered. He had lost them. His eyes were red and he was not talking," recalls Georgios Stavrou.

This could be an excerpt from a fascinating detective novel, and the truth is that "A Dark Room" can be read as such, except that it is the culmination of 25-year's research by Alexis Papachelas based on his gathering of historical documents from the critical years of 1967 -1974.

In his book, documents come to light accompanied by testimonies and conversations of the protagonists of the time. Among them, 38 recorded minutes of the war council, which you can listen to by scanning the QR code of the page.  The recordings and documents captured in the most vivid way the chaos that prevailed in those critical hours, what Ioannidis had in mind, the traps he fell into, the illusions he cultivated and who finally gave the order to "silence Greek weapons" in Cyprus.  The book clearly shows Ioannidis' state of mind when he said: "Let them enter Kyrenia and then intervene. […] But we will stop them later. After taking the port, Kyrenia and uniting Nicosia, then they will stop. That is what we are sure of."

Alexis Papachelas' will present his book in Nicosia on Tuesday, November 30, at 6 pm, at the building of the Cyprus Theatrical Organization.   , Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection of Greece and former European Commissioner Mr. Christos Stylianidis and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cyprus Mr. Nikos Christodoulidis will speak.  A discussion will follow.