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Speaker Profile Προφίλ ηχείου
Evripidis Mouxouris
| Language: Greek
An elderly person

Speaker background

Occupation: Farmer, tailor, cleanerYear of arrival: 1976

Evripidis Mouxouris was born in Morphou, Cyprus in 1921. He grew up in a rural family, leaving school at the age of 12 to become an apprentice tailor. In 1938, after he and his co-workers were dissatisfied with their poor wages, they formed a union. He later joined AKEL, the Workers Party of Cyprus, and has remained a lifelong member. During World War Two, he enlisted as part of the Cyprus Regiment of the British Army and was sent to the Italian front. After the war, Evripidis returned to his trade, opening a tailor shop in Nicosia in 1952. Following the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, Evripidis and his young family sought refuge in a vacant flat in Nicosia for two years, before migrating to Australia.

Location in AustraliaMarrickville

Interview summary

Evripidis recalls his early life in Morphou, prior to leaving school to become a tailor. He provides a rich account of his time in the army during World War Two when he was sent to Italy. He talks about his involvement in the union movement and describes the violence he witnessed outside his tailor shop in central Nicosia, which was a hotbed of political activity. He provides a moving account of the day his son was born amid the chaos of the 1974 Turkish invasion.

Interview highlights

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Evripidis discusses the birth of his son, Mario, and the evacuation of his wife and other patients from the clinic in Nicosia to Limassol.

Evripidis: The next morning, the doctor said, ‘Evripidis we must leave from this clinic, and we’ll go to a clinic I’ve rented in Limassol. Your wife is the only one we operated on last night, but we’ll put her in my Mercedes, and you’ll put other passengers in your car, and we’ll go to Limassol; all the sick, the children and everyone will be transferred to the clinic.’ This is what happened. I said, ‘Doctor, Nicosia is more secure. Here where we are is the Green Line and they won’t cross the Green Line. This is their plan.’ He said the bombardments are too unpredictable and we don’t know if we’ll be able to. And so, we complied and left to go to Limassol. On the road, we were bombed. On the road the bombing started, but we got through it. Anyhow, we managed to get through it to Limassol. I was holding the baby, Mario. It was very hot and the sun strong. Anyhow, we stayed there in Limassol about two weeks till things started to settle down.

Timecode 01:04:29 - 01:06:02
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Following the Turkish invasion, Evripidis became a refugee in his own country. Here, he describes how he sought refuge in an empty apartment in Nicosia, with his young family.

Evripidis: I broke the lock and opened one of the flats. I changed the lock and went inside with my two children: Mario, who’d just been born, and my daughter, who was four or five years old. The police came, saying they hadn’t come to do harm, but to see what was happening. I told them that what’s happening is that I’m a refugee. I’ve nowhere to go. I have two children and I’ve broken down the door to come inside, to stay here and nothing else. They said it was OK and that no one would come to say anything […] and I stayed there till I came to Australia.

Interviewer: How long did you stay there?

Evripidis: I stayed for two years, and then an invitation came from Australia.

Timecode 01:10:35 - 01:11:34

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