Our vision is a dignified compromise, which will end Turkish occupation and reunify Cyprus and its people, President of the Republic Demetris Christofias has said.
President Christofias was addressing the unveiling of a statue of Demetrakis Georgiou at Alaminos village in the District of Larnaca, who having been captured during the Turkish invasion of 1974 had been considered a missing person until his remains were found and identified by the Missing Persons Committee in 2010.
“Our vision is a dignified compromise which will end occupation and reunify Cyprus and its people creating the prospects for a creative co-existence” of both communities, Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot, he noted.
He stressed that “we will never accept the status quo of partition of our island”.
President Christofias said that after 38 years of struggle against occupation and partition it is natural for there to be signs of fatigue. However, he added, many times this may be taken advantage of ignoring the dangers lurking behind this disappointment.
When disappointment leads to resignation and inaction this leads to an acceptance of complete failure, he pointed out.
He reiterated that Cyprus’ leadership and its people have visualized over the years the solution, which will truly reunite the country.
It is a solution which will end occupation and the illegal settling by Turkey, will reinstate the human rights of all, on the basis of a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation, with a single sovereignty, a single international personality, a single nationality.
A state, he added, which will ensure political equality of the two communities as is provided for by the relevant UN resolutions.
President Christofias noted at the same time that it is very important to insist on these positions so that the prospect of a solution may be maintained and so that Turkey’s negative role can be exposed internationally.
Referring to Turkey’s intransigence, he said that it has increased so much that it threatens almost all its neighbouring countries as well as the EU.
The coup de grace of this behaviour he added was the Turkish Cypriot side’s provocative action to leave the negotiating table and in so doing effectively put an end to the UN- led talks.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. As a result of the invasion, 1619 Greek-Cypriots were listed as missing, most of whom soldiers or reservists, who were captured in the battlefield.
Among them, however, were many civilians, women and children, arrested by the Turkish invasion troops and Turkish-Cypriot paramilitary groups, within the area controlled by the Turkish army after the end of hostilities and far away from the battlefield. Many of those missing were last seen alive in the hands of the Turkish military. A further 41 more cases of Greek Cypriot missing persons have been recently added. These cases concern the period between 1963-1964, when inter-communal fighting broke out but none of them has been identified yet.
The number of Turkish Cypriot missing since 1974 and 1963/64 stands at 503.
According to the latest figures released in July 2012, the remains of 330 missing individuals – 264 Greek Cypriots and 66 Turkish Cypriots – have been returned to their families for proper burial.
