The current status quo is not and will never be accepted and cannot be the future of Cyprus, the country's president, Nikos Christodoulides has told CNA, on the occasion of the 49th anniversary of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
He stressed that "our effort and struggle is for this year's sad anniversary to be the last one that part of our country is occupied."
"We are struggling with all the political and diplomatic means at our disposal to reverse this unacceptable state of affairs and the fait accompli of the invasion and the occupation, to free and reunite our country, on the basis of the UN decisions and resolutions, the High Level Agreements and the principles and values of the EU, of which the Republic of Cyprus is a member state," he noted.
President Christodoulides said that "this day brings back horrible memories of that dreadful morning of July 20, 1974, when the Turkish army invaded the island causing devastation."
He noted that today marks 49 years since the Attila forced 200 thousand Greek Cypriots to leave their ancestral homes and left thousands of people dead and missing.
The President said that unfortunately the consequences still remain. "Our homeland remains divided with the Turkish army having 37% of our territories under its control, with the refugees continuing to be uprooted, while we continue to struggle in order to establish the fate of missing persons," he added.
He underlined that "the current status quo is not and will never be accepted and cannot be the future of Cyprus."
The President assured that "we are struggling with all the political and diplomatic means at our disposal to reverse this unacceptable state of affairs and the fait accompli of the invasion and the occupation, to free and reunite our country, on the basis of the UN decisions and resolutions, the High Level Agreements and the principles and values of the EU, of which the Republic of Cyprus is a member state."
Christodoulides said that since his election as the President of the Republic of Cyprus, he began to make intensive efforts through initiatives and proposals to break the deadlock and resume talks from where they were left off in Crans-Montana, with a view to reach a lasting and viable solution, with no foreign interventions and troops.
He went on to say that his proposal for a more active engagement of the EU in efforts to break the deadlock and resume talks, always under the UN auspices and within the framework of the UN Secretary General's good officers, lies in this framework.
Christodoulides stressed that "our effort and struggle aim at making this year's anniversary the last one that part of our country is occupied and 'wounded by the occupier's boot', with the international law being blatantly violated and the human rights of the displaced, the enclaved and the missing persons' relative being infringed."
Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks have so far failed to yield results. The latest round of negotiations, in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively.
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