EOKA - is an abbreviation for Ethnikí Organósis Kipriakóu Agónos (National Organization of the Cypriot Struggle), an underground organization formed by General George Grivas in 1955 to fight for the independence of Cyprus from Britain and eventually, its union (enosis) with Greece. In 1971, some 11 years after the independence of Cyprus, Grivas returned to the island to form EOKA B (a Greek Cypriot paramilitary organisation) and to resume the fight for enosis, which had not been achieved by the Cypriot government.

Enosis may no longer be a popular cause but most Greek Cypriots still see the Eoka struggle as a celebration of both their heroes and their Hellenism. Most school days, coachloads of children come to the Central Prison to lay flowers on the graves of 13 Cypriots buried in the little walled garden a minute's walk from the execution shed, where a working British gallows is demonstrated to the older children. Nine of the Cypriots were hanged, one an 18-year-old condemned merely for possessing a firearm. The others were Eoka men killed in gunfights whose public funerals were deemed likely to turn into riots. Among them is Gregoris Afxentiou, cornered in a dug-out in the Troodos mountains where he made an epic last stand until petrol was poured in and lit.