[4] Giorkatzis joined the ranks of EOKA, the Greek Cypriot organization fighting against British rule in Cyprus, in his twenties and assumed the nom de guerre Laertes.
British pressure had forced Makarios to distance Giorkatzis, a former active EOKA member from the Ministry of Interior which was in charge of internal security, police and intelligence.
In 1968, Giorkatzis offered assistance to Alekos Panagoulis, a Greek political activist (and later politician), who opposed the rise of the military junta in Greece, in his attempted assassination of dictator Georgios Papadopoulos on 13 August 1968.
It is much more probable that he attempted to use Panagoulis as part of some greater plan, since there were growing signs of disagreement between the government of Cyprus under President and Archbishop Makarios and the military junta in Greece.
A week later, Giorkatzis drove to a secret night rendezvous in an open area outside the village of Mia Milia.
The two particular Greek officers were eventually only questioned several weeks later, at which time they gave identical accounts of their whereabouts on the night of the murder.
Giorkatzis' widow Fotini married Tassos Papadopoulos, then Minister of Labour, two years after her husband's death.
Though Giorkatzis planned and executed an operation to assassinate the President of the Republic, and though his role in this has been acknowledged by the courts, the yearly church service in his memory is attended by prominent figures among the Greek Cypriot political leadership and at least one street has been named after him.
A museum honoring the most distinguished aspects of his life is active in his birthplace in Palaichori, formally opened in 2002 by the then President Glafkos Clerides.