On August 9, 2024, the Isaac-Solomos Memorial Initiative under the title “Five minus one”, i.e. minus the occupied Pentadaktylos, honored the memory of Tassos Isaac and Solomos Solomos with a march that crossed the mountain peaks of free Cyprus.
The march started on Friday evening from Chionistra, where both the motorcyclists and the runners who participated in the march received a flame of freedom and memory. The ignition of the flame had taken place on the Olympus of Greece and arrived in Cyprus in order to declare the common course of Hellenism, its identity and continuity. The cyclists who started from Kionia, as well as the swimmers who started from Agioi Anargyrou and reached the last point they could, before the sea area of the enclosed city of the occupied Famagusta, received a flame.
The flame was carried to various parts of the Troodos region, such as Teisia of Madaris by the runners, Kyperounda, Agro and Papoutsa, where it was passed to the people of the community of the heroic Agios Ioannis Pitsilias, to carry it to the top, through a difficult route, late in the evening of the 9th of August. The story was present and grasped from afar, it penetrated the EOKA's ambushes and was connected to the memory of Tasos and Solomos. The motorcyclists continued in Nicosia and at the Tomb of Makedonitissa, as well as at the barricades of Agios Dometios, Ledra Palas and Ledra Street, which were symbolically closed for a certain period of time.
At the Ledra Palace roadblock, the “Isaac-Solomos Memorial Initiative” took on the responsibility of the Cypriot authorities, local or supreme, by replacing the signs that are there. One sign is about the murders of Tasos Isaac and Solomos Solomos, while the other is about the drama of the missing persons of the Turkish invasion. Present, as on the rest of the route, Taso Isaac's mother, Mrs. Tasoula, as well as his 28-year-old daughter Anastasia and his sister.
The first day of the march was initially completed at the Ledras roadblock, in the early hours of August 10, while the big motorcyclist march takes place on Saturday night. The motorcyclists are expected to arrive at the Paralimni cemetery to welcome the runners, swimmers and cyclists. There will be a trisage in memory of the two heroes and a modest event. The trek will end at the Deryneia roadblock, where a number of participants will spend the night to attend the 28th annual Tassos and Solomos memorial service on Sunday, August 11.
