This morning (08:00) the opening of the grave and the exhumation of the bones that you believe belong to the national poet of Cyprus, Vassilis Michaelidis, are taking place at the Agios Nikolaos cemetery in Limassol
After at least two decades of searching for the poet's grave, it was only in December 2023 that a decree was secured from the District Court of Limassol to exhume a specific grave where, according to testimonies, it is the poet's grave. After securing testimonies as to which grave belongs to the poet, they appealed to justice to follow the procedure provided by law.
The exhumation decree that has already been issued provides that it will be done in the presence of an anthropologist and archaeologist, while a sample of genetic material will be sent to the Institute of Neurology and Genetics for scientific tests for identification. Dr. Marios Kariolou, director of the Institute of Neurology and Genetics, has made an important contribution to the process, under whose guidance the necessary procedures will be carried out. The procedure foresees that only the first bones to be found will be exhumed and samples will be taken only if it is established that they belong to a man of 60-70 years (Vassilis Michailidis died at 68). According to the conditions set by the Limassol Metropolis, if bones possibly belonging to other persons are found first, the process will not continue, even though the poet's bones may be in a deeper place. However, the whole project is characterized as extremely difficult as more than 100 years have passed since the funeral of Vassilis Michaelides and the bones may have been moved elsewhere.
In the event that the bones found at first glance match the "profile" of the poet, a DNA sample will be taken from a small bone and a tooth for DNA testing, to be identified with the samples given by his relatives and already in the Institute of Neurology and Genetics. The whole process is expected to take less than a month for the final result.
The testimony
Speaking to "P", Giorgos Petousis on behalf of the Society of Writers of Limassol said that the day they have been waiting for for many years has finally arrived to locate Michaelides' grave. He especially thanked Dr. Marios Kariolou for the guidance. As he himself explains, Vassilis Michaelidis lived in Limassol towards the end of his life where he died in the city's poorhouse. "Although the Municipality of the city honored him at his funeral and there are testimonies of the presence of a large number of people and honors" he says at first, "unfortunately for various reasons over the years no inscriptions were entered and important testimonies about the exact spot were lost".
According to Mr. Petousis, on the 100th anniversary of his death in 2017, the President of the Historical Society of Cyprus, Aristides Koudounaris, had testified that he had secured around 1956, about the location of the grave of our National poet. As he said, he had asked Antonis Indianos "who was my mentor and my father's lawyer, to tell me where the grave of Vassilis Michaelides was, because nobody knows". "We took a taxi and came here to the cemetery of Agios Nikolaos, where I saw the grave, which was then unoccupied and there were only stones around, no cross, no candlestick, no inscription, nothing."
He also said that although he had long reported the information about the burial place of Vassilis Michaelidis, the decision to investigate and document it was made only recently.