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Sifis Valyrakis, who was found dead Sunday night in the Eretrian Sea in Evia, may have been known for his presence in the political arena as a PASOK deputy and minister for some four decades, but for most the intense resistance. action in the years of the dictatorship.
“I did not get out of prison without trying to escape, I have more than 15 attempts and two successfulSifis Valyrakis himself had mentioned it in the documentary “The unknown resistance against the dictatorship” by ERT several years ago. But before we get to the “cinematic” leaks, it is worth seeing the reasons why the young Valyrakis had become a red flag for the dictatorship.
The son of the deputy of the Central Union, Giannis Valyrakis, who had already been detained by the board of colonels, Sifis (Joseph), fearing his own arrest, leaves Greece for Italy with a false passport. There, his colleagues advised him to go to Munich and be received by the first MEP of Greek origin, Germany, Giannis Sakelariou. It puts him in contact with Angela Kokkola in Stockholm, where Andreas Papandreou had already founded the PAK in 1968, in whose armed wing the young Valyrakis will join.
Via Munich and then by ship from Italy he will land in 1971 on a special mission in Athens. In the capital he was staying at the house of a cousin waiting for the green light to place an explosive device. Shortly before the shooting in the place indicated, he was arrested by the police because he knew all his steps since the people of the dictatorship had managed to enter the PAK and learn the next steps of its members.
The first and only fugitive from EAT ESA
Valyrakis is arrested and taken to the EAT ESA. He escaped from the detention facilities of the Military Police where he is tortured daily shortly after. He managed to cut the bars of his cell and then with a pitchfork caused a short circuit in the electricity network of the prisons. “Around two in the morning, leaving the grill, I got up and circulated normally as a member of the guard, I got to the bathrooms and from there to the roof, I went to NIMITS and then I stayed in Athens for about 15 days.He remembers and mentions himself. But everywhere he found closed doors. “Everybody gave me money but nobody gave me a house”. His first attempt to leave Greece via Patras by boat to Italy was unsuccessful. He then tried to travel to Yugoslavia under the roof of a train. Unfortunately, shortly before crossing the border, the train stops to refuel and a searchlight shines a beam of light on it. They arrest him once more and handcuff him back to the EAT ESA.
“EAT ESA was nothing like the prisons it had left a few days ago. They had closed everything, built the windows and escape was almost impossible“He will report in the ERT documentary. After his second arrest, he will be sentenced by the Extraordinary Military Court to seven years in prison. During the hearing, the 28-year-old detainee will express:
I do not recognize the dictatorial regime, I fight for the restoration of democratic legitimacy. I feel trapped with an obligation to escape. I dedicate my thoughts and my time to him. I am already free with my thoughts.
They will then take him to Korydallos Prison, where he came close to the escape. He manages to open a hole in his cell behind the sink but the plan remains in the middle as he will be transferred to the prisons of Corfu. There, together with Babis Georgakakis and the help of Giannis Klonizakis, they organize a new escape. With silver and gold saws, they begin to cut the railings of the cells at the time of volleyball so that the noise is not heard. Valyrakis and Georgakakis manage from the small passage between the cut irons to get out of the cell and climb to the roof of the prison with the help of a makeshift ladder made from the planks of the bed. They are noticed by the guards throwing the projector light at them and asking the guards to shoot the two fugitive candidates. Valyrakis jumps from a height of 10 meters and with the help of the OTE cable he lands gently outside the prison, on the contrary Georgakakis during his fall broke his tibia and was immobilized.
Albania’s nightmare
“He was alone and the only option he had was to escape to Albania. I took off my clothes, stuffed them in a nylon bag to keep them dry when I arrived, smeared myself with the cooking grease that I had stolen from the kitchens to resist the cold, and fell into the sea. I started swimming and arrived exhausted, almost unconscious, on the Albanian shores. I disguised myself as a tourist and squeezed myself into some bushes until morning came. The next day I had regained my strength and was happy because I felt that I was now on free land.”.
However, things did not turn out as expected, that he would be welcomed as a resistance fighter in the US-led junta. He was arrested, charged with espionage and sentenced to three years in prison.
“After the people’s court, I was taken to a concentration camp in northern Albania in the first phase, a little bit to Tirana and then to Fier, where it was a forced labor camp. Only the Stalinist camp with cold, hunger, insects and bedbugs. He was entitled to 15 grams of meat a day!“
Sifis Valyrakis was isolated from his relatives by his comrades. No one knew if he was alive or dead. “I tried from the beginning to communicate, I sent them letters for months but they did not leave. Someone suggested that I stamp the letter with Ember Hoxha’s head on both sides and indeed the letter I was sending to my mother reached the addressee. My mother made it public, so my organization found out after months that I live and that I am in Albania”.
An international mobilization followed. The mediator in Honja was Prince Sihanouk of Cambodia. There was pressure from other sides and finally the regime of the neighboring country decides to free the Greek fugitive.
“They picked me up in a jeep and took me to the extreme north of Albania, where they locked me in an apartment building. There they started feeding me. The food was rich and greasy, so I was able to regain the weight I had lost. They took me a suit, gave me five dollars for random expenses, and put me on the plane to Rome.”.
Somewhere there his adventure would end. The first to meet him were Alekos Panagoulis and Oriana Falatsi. Amalia Fleming, with the special permission of the Italian government, takes him out of the airport and receives him at her home. A few days later he would meet Andreas Papandreou. The board counted months as did his return to Athens.
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