As you know, today the Republic of Cyprus uses as its national anthem the same work as Greece, namely the first two stanzas of the poem “Hymn to Freedom” by the classic of Greek literature Dionysios Solomos, set to music by composer Nikolaos Mandzaros.
It is a unique case for our days when two independent states use the same anthem (from 1989 to 1994, Moldova and Romania also had completely identical anthems). But not many people know that for three years, from 1963 to 1966, the Republic of Cyprus had its own anthem, unrelated to the Greek anthem.
On August 16, 1960, after the independence of the Republic of Cyprus was declared, President Makarios commissioned the famous Cypriot composer Solon Michailidis to compose an anthem for the new state. Michailidis completed his work on it in 1963. It was a musical piece without words, equally suitable for both the Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot communities of the island. But this anthem was never destined to become the official anthem for the country. In 1966, after the first inter-communal clashes and the withdrawal of the Turkish-Cypriot deputies from the parliament, the national anthem of Cyprus was replaced by the Greek “Hymn to Freedom”.
The Cypriot anthem never became associated with a unified Cypriot state and Cypriot identity. In particular, the Minister under President Makarios Patroklos Stavrou described the following story in one personal letter. During the visit of the head of the Republic of Cyprus to Washington, before the start of the official meeting, the orchestra played first the U.S. anthem and then began to play the Cypriot anthem by Solon Michailidis. At this time Makarios, who had previously been listening to the American anthem, moved from his seat, thinking it was just accompanying music. “Then I tugged on his cassock and said: “Your Beatitude, where are you going? The national anthem of the Republic of Cyprus is now playing,’” Stavrou writes. The story showed that independent Cyprus’ own anthem was not particularly popular and even the president himself failed to recognize it.
