My father died in 2019 when I was 39. I cannot imagine what my life would have been like had I lost him aged 7, when Michalakis Triantafyllides lost his father Antonios and his brothers were even younger. While being interviewed at 75, he cried uncontrollably as he recollected how his idyllic childhood was destroyed that fateful evening when his father was shot. He was in the house with his mother and brothers, when they heard the shots and a maid rushed in with the tragic news. The family were fortunately taken in by their aunt and uncle (Maria and Stelios Pavlides), yet they had lost a husband and father, an irreplaceable part of their lives, and he missed seeing them grow into upstanding members of society. And the nation lost a son. A man of intelligence, integrity and political acumen beyond most Cypriots then and since, and as Blackall stated: ‘he was the most statesmanlike figure among the Greek Cypriots’. Antonios Triantafyllides was not merely a once in a generation politician for Cyprus, but a once in a lifetime one.

The analysis of the evidence has shown that there existed a far right, specifically fascist, pro-enosis faction anxious to address the dilution of the nationalist pro-enosis ranks and enosis and only enosis stance with violence, thus highlighting the ambiguities in the prosecution of Cypriot nationalist and pro-enosis politics during the interwar years. Evidence pointed to a group of extremist nationalists, with fascist tendencies, some deported after the October 1931 disturbances and living in Athens and others still in Cyprus, as masterminding the assassination. This was the original view of Palmer, Blackall and Paschalis, and five of them were interned, including Dr Pigasiou, named as the mastermind by crown witnesses, contrary to the crown's communist conspiracy. This was reinforced by the evidence from Theodotou and Surridge; by the writings in the Athenian newspapers from the deportees to establish the ‘personal motive’ theory to deny the assassination; and by the threatening letters received by other Greek Cypriots either nominated or elected to represent the people.