We are working to break the deadlock and restart the talks on the Cyprus problem, President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides, said addressing an event to condemn the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 held at the Presidential Palace Thursday. The event was attended by the President of the House of Representatives, Annita Demetriou, the Archbishop of Cyprus George, the Ambassador of Greece, Ioannis Papameletiou, as well as representatives of the political, military and religious leadership of the country. Initially, President Christodoulides noted that “all the unacceptable and condemnable things we see today in Ukraine, to which the international community rightly reacts condemningly, happened and we experience their consequences every day in European Cyprus, 49 years ago”. They constitute, as he said, “a flagrant violation of International and European Law, the Charter of the United Nations, the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of the Republic of Cyprus and an indisputable violation of the fundamental freedoms and basic human rights of all Cypriots, Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots, Maronites, Armenians, Latins, who live and are deprived of their basic freedoms in their own homeland”. “That is why the need to restore the basic freedoms and human rights for all Cypriots is urgent. This calls out, this imposes the injustice of History, the illegality of the invasion, the universal rules of law,” he pointed out. The President said that “in 1974 the Republic of Cyprus received a double rape that shook its foundations, first against the Republic and then against its independence and territorial integrity”. “It is an indisputable fact and an admission by the international community itself that the key to the solution of the Cyprus issue lies in Ankara,” he stressed. At the same time, he underlined, “it is our homeland under occupation, it is all of us, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, who are paying the consequences of this abnormal state of affairs, we shoulder the consequences of today’s unacceptable status quo and we will be called, if the Cyprus issue is not resolved, to live with the uncertainty, the consequences and the insecurity that the partition or annexation of a part of our homeland in Turkey”. Furthermore, President Christodoulides said that “there is an urgent need to rid ourselves of occupation and division, and the only way is to intensify our efforts, to correctly read international developments, to understand geostrategic balances, to shield the international status of the Republic of Cyprus by strengthening all the state’s power factors and highlighting its role as a pillar of stability and security in the Eastern Mediterranean region and the wider Middle East”. “The only path, and this is the one I will follow, is the path of progress, cooperation and peace, the path of continuing every effort to break the deadlock and restart the talks as soon as possible to achieve the desired liberation, the desired solution, the reunification of our country,” he noted. “With realism, determination, perseverance, without scepticism, defeatism, and introspection, we strengthen our efforts even more in an international reality, constantly changing,” he added. In addition, the President of the Republic noted that “the immediate initiative on our part, from the first day of our government, resulted in the activation of the European and international factor in the direction of lifting the impasse and restarting the talks”. He expressed ”cautious optimism” about achieving that goal. “Our effort, the highlighting of our readiness to create positive developments for all involved through the resumption of talks, always on the basis of the agreed solution framework, is recognized by the international community, which is active in this direction”, the President said, while expressing his readiness, within the agreed framework, to take “bold and beneficial decisions that will lead to the end of the occupation and the reunification of our country”. In addition, he expressed his satisfaction, “especially for the efforts of some member states of the European Union which, based on our own approach, have taken a leading role, within the framework of the EU, to achieve a mutually beneficial state of affairs with positive developments for all parties involved in the Cyprus issue through the resumption of substantive negotiations always under the auspices of the United Nations, based on the agreed framework and starting from where they were interrupted in the summer of 2017”. The President expressed his readiness for the resumption of negotiations, which he approaches “with absolute seriousness, a clear objective and the necessary realism, which of course is necessary”, as he said. Furthermore, he emphasized that “anything else, apart from reunification, does not ensure the interests and the peaceful future of Cypriots”, adding that “we must be united and strong in order to aim for the future that our children deserve.’ “Despite the disappointments, dissatisfaction, fatigue brought about by the passing of years and the unfulfilled for 49 years of returning to our homes, despite the fact that Mr. Erdogan once again participated in today’s festivities in our occupied homeland, I consciously choose not to engage in a public blame game and creating impressions,” the President of the Republic underlined, stressing that he is not interested in the communication management of the Cyprus problem. “We condemn the double crime that divided Cyprus, we honour the heroes of Democracy and Freedom, we learn from our mistakes, but we long for recovery, we seek justice for all Cypriots, we have the right to hope for a reunited peaceful state like all the others,” he said. With dedication, determination and assertive realism, he added, “we are working to break the deadlock and restart the talks to resolve the Cyprus issue, aiming for a solution that will be functional and sustainable. A solution of a bizonal, bicommunal federation with political equality, in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the United Nations, the principles and values of the EU and the acquis communautaire”. “We belong to the European Union and we will continue to do so even after the solution of the Cyprus problem, and for this the European acquis and the European principles and values are the tools that we primarily have to utilise and it is time that we all realize this, indicated President Christodoulides. Moreover, he underlined that “we are not fighting to ‘win’ but to reunite and give justice to all, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, European citizens who do not need guarantors, foreign armies and rights invasive in their future and in their lives”. As he explained, “we are not fighting a battle to have winners and losers in Cyprus, but for the historical truth to be recognised and the human rights and basic freedoms of everyone to be restored and to be able to live freely, work, hope for a Cyprus that will be free of dividing lines and barbed wire”. “No solution is not a solution, because we do not compromise with division, because we know who is favoured by the passage of time and stagnation, because on our agenda is only the end of the occupation and the reunification of our homeland”, President Christodoulides pointed out, adding that there is the required, honest, political will, as well as full consultation and coordination with our partners in the EU and with the Greek Government. In addition, he expressed the belief that “the success of a sustainable and functional solution that will truly reunite our country and our people will be a success for all of us, it will be the key ingredient for a healthy and hopeful future for our children, in a modern European homeland, without barbed wire and occupation armies”. “As long as there is no solution, as long as there is no reunification, we are all losers, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots,” he noted. “We cannot change geography, nor the power factors of third parties. We must, however, not stop trying, not to be complacent, to strengthen our state, to use all the tools we have to give place to hope and real peace again. To make our homeland, our Cyprus again in its entirety, a place of peace, stability and security”, he concluded.

Source: Cyprus News Agency