THE   CLUB    HISTORY   AND   FORMATION

The Kyrenia Nautical Club. (Department of Open Sea Navigation)

(The Kyrenia Chrysocava Cultural Foundation partialy originated from the department of offshore or open-sea navigation of the Nautical Club of Kyrenia).

  The Hellenic Achaean town of Kyrenia was established by King Kypheas, on the 4^th Century BC on the Island of CYPRUS in the Eastern Mediterranean at position: Lat.35 20.3N,  Long.33 19.4E (Light: FFl.R.5sec.10m,10M.)

 The Kyrenia Nautical Club has been formed in the early years of the 1950s by a handful of devoted sea going "children" of King Kypheas such as  Demetrios  Efthyvoulou (Demas) (Exploration of the Amazon River),  Andreas .M. Cariolou (Arris) (see Cpt.H.M.Denham "Southern Turkey the Levant and CYPRUS" 1973 p.: x ) ,  and Krinos  Elissaios. They called it, at the  time : "THE  TRITONS  OF  CYPRUS" club, and of course they operated from the Harbour of Kyrenia. Other prominent  personalities of  contemporary  Nautical Kyrenia were : Michalis  Economou (the Customs & Kyrenia Port chief), ,  Kostis Kleanthous  "tou Magli", Captan Charalambis, Christakis, Savvas  and young Andrikos  Keleshis, Giorgos and Epaminondas Sekkides ( Payoundis), ,  Andreas Pateras (Toumanis), Chrysostomos, Galaktiou , Andreas Kiamilos (Pipos), Loukis, Yannis or "Pshi-Pshis" , Savvas Pafitis, Antonis Vrahas, Savvas Kapetanopoullos,  Captan Bekir and his sons, Souleiman, Koundouros,  Captan Kemal (over his 90s still in Kyrenia -Oct.2002) ,   R.Honorable Demetrakis Demetriades (High Court  judge), Ali Dana and many others. A very  substantial part of Nautical activities  were performed  by the SEA SCOUTS  OF  KYRENIA, KARAVAS  AND  LAPITHOS  since the year  1946, under  , Kostas Christou, ( sea-scout vessel  "ACHIROPIOITOS")  Takis Neophytou, Michalis Kokkinides,  Nikos Christodoulides,   Nikos and Savvas Moustakas, Kalozois and others..

  In 1974 after a military coup of the Greek  junta ,Turkey using this as a pretext,  invaded Cyprus causing casualties and uprooting many Cypriots of all communities, mainly Cypriotgreeks to the South and Cypriotturks to the North. Kyrenia is since 1974 illegally occupied by the Turkish mainland army. Those of the Cypriotgreek Kyrenians that managed to escape the  1974 calamity,  took refuge in the South part of the Island.  Since then  over 26 United Nations resolutions have called upon the Turkish  army  and the Anatolian settlers imported by the Turkish mainland Generals,  to withdraw from Cyprus  and allow human rights  to  prevail.  However !!!! since Cyprus and Kyrenia, only produce olive-oil  and  lemons and not....... oil (petroleum) and weapons ! and since the Turkish military are  up  to  the moment  still acting  under the tolerance of  the  Planetarchs,   no United  Nations resolution nor  justice  are allowed to  be applied in the particular case of the Kyrenians (see  TITINA  LOIZIDOU  Vs  TURKEY) .

 In 1977 the Refugees of Kyrenia re-established their nautical activities in Limassol and Larnaca and in 1982  they formed the KYRENIA NAUTICAL  CLUB  (KNC)  ,  with its headquarters  in Limassol and with a branch in  Nicosia (with a sea outlet in Larnaca) . The first President of the KNC was Andreas Sekkides assisted by George Matheou, Thomas Georgis, Dr.Konstantinos Orologas, Glafkos Cariolou,  and many others. The   KNC is a registered Club with the Cyprus Sports Organisation (C.S.O) of the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Cyprus.

 further details: 

In 1959 Captain J.Rossides Chief of the newly formed CYPRUS PORTS ORGANISATION  was invited in the port of Kyrenia with the main purpose of forming a NAUTICAL CLUB for KYRENIA. The  Efthyvoulou  brothers (Demas, Lonias and Alex Efthyvoulou),  the Moustakas, Sfogaras and many others took part. The Kyrenia Port and Customs Chief,  Mr. Michalis Ekonomou coordinated the meeting. Unfortunately due to a disagreement,  the attempt was short lasting and unsuccessful.

 In 1961  some  members of the  Nicosia TRUST club together with prominent Kyrenians formed the "CYPRUS  MARINE  CLUB" with architect Pavlos Michaelides its  president and other members included, brothers  Demas, Lonias and  Alex Efthyvoulou ("Cyprus Weekly"), Demetrakis Demetriades (the judge) ,  Tasos Papadopoulos (Lawyer), Panayiotis Vouros, Fedros Fieros, Osman Orek, Kokos Antoniades, Ali Dana, Vias Antoniades and others. These were the members of the second major effort to form a Nautical Club in Kyrenia.

(to be continued)    

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