One hundred and forty-five cypress trees, dedicated to the heroes who gave their lives for their country in the battle of Rupel’s fort, will be planted along the road leading to the fort. Next Sunday, weather permitting, the action will be carried out by the Naturalist Mountaineering Club of Sidirokastro with the support of the Municipality of Sintiki, in cooperation with the non-profit environmental organization WE4RALL.

“Each cypress tree will be dedicated to a dead hero of Fort Rupel and the complexes surrounding the fort, so they will be planted along the road. This is a practice we have seen in Normandy, where we have been going every year for the last eight years on the occasion of the national student competition on the theme ‘The Battle of the Forts’. This trip is the prize for the child who wins the competition,” the mayor of Sintiki, George Tatsios, told APE – MPE. He explains that in Normandy, to honor the fallen of the great invasion, “the road leading to places where battles were fought has been planted with trees in this way, while at the base of each tree there is a plaque with the details of each soldier who perished.

Next Sunday, with the help of volunteers and the City’s staff, the tree planting will take place, while in April, during the month of the Battle of the Forts commemorations, plaques with the names of the heroes who perished will be placed on the trees and the official ceremony of paying tribute to them will take place. “Last April we planted with the Association of Friends of Fort Istibey 12 plantain trees, one for each of the fallen at Fort Istibey in New Petritsi,” the mayor adds, and announces that the action will then be extended to the entire area of the Municipality of Sintiki, which has eight forts from the Metaxa line. “We know in each fortress how many fell. We have historical researchers who have all the data and the action will take place every year in cooperation with the associations in the area,” he adds.

About the battle of the forts, he stresses, moreover, that “it is one of the historical events that marked the history of Greece. It was essentially the first successful organized resistance against the German axis, against which no army had stood up until then.”

“At Ruppel the Greek army managed not to lose to the most powerfully organized war machine, that of Germany. The forts were not conquered. After the order of capitulation they surrendered. The message that comes from this historic event is that nothing is impossible. The warriors resisted and managed not to lose, and this message can be passed on in multiple interpretations in today’s time to strive for something that seems lost. Nothing is lost. And this is the meaning of the student competition in which 3000 children take part every year. These students in their teens at a vulnerable age may face problems and think that they are insurmountable, but when they have such examples they are equipped to be strong in what they want to achieve,” underlines the Mayor of Sintiki.