At the end of the first year of the Greek War of Independence, in 1821, after the bloody events of July in Cyprus, a manuscript text known as the ‘Declaration’ [Διακήρυξη] was composed. It was signed by Cypriot clergy and ordinary people who were saved from the July slaughter and sought refuge in Europe. Information about the tragic hours lived by the Cypriots is recorded in this short text, and their will to fight for their freedom ‘in accordance with the rest of our Greek brothers’ is stated. The key person is Nikolaos Theseus, who was designated as the representative of the Cypriots in order to take action in Europe to support their common struggle.

The preserved copy of the ‘Declaration’ is kept in the Sylvia Ioannou Charitable Foundation Collection. According to the Academician Paschalis M. Kitromilides, ‘The “Declaration” of 6 December 1821 could be considered, without risk of serious exaggeration, as the constitutional text of the Cypriot national movement.’

In order to make the ‘Declaration’ more widely known, a concise edition, entitled Ἡ κυπριακὴ Διακήρυξη τῆς 6ης Δεκεμβρίου 1821 – Σκίρτημα ἐλευθερίας [The Cypriot Declaration of 6 December 1821 – Struggle for freedom], has been designed. It consists of a facsimile of the manuscript and an accompanying booklet with explanatory texts about the document, its content and its history. Academician Paschalis M. Kitromilides, Petros Papapolyviou, Associate Professor of the University of Cyprus, and Maria Yiouroukou, PhD, Philologist–Palaeographer, contributed the texts.

The Sylvia Ioannou Charitable Foundation, whose mission is to preserve and disseminate the historical and cultural – printed and manuscript – heritage of Cyprus, has donated copies of the edition to libraries, universities and secondary schools in Cyprus. In this way, the opportunity to study a unique historical document is offered to a multitude of researchers, and at the same time it will be possible to use the document as study material at every level of education.