President of the Republic Nicos Anastasiades said on Friday that he would be happier if our Turkish Cypriot compatriots were celebrating Cyprus` Independence Day with us today.
Speaking to the press following the military parade in Nicosia, the President said that today we celebrate the 61st anniversary of the foundation of the Cyprus Republic, a state that was created as a result of the anticolonial struggle.
He said that today we honour and pay respects to all those who sacrificed their lives for the liberation of our country, to those who defended Cyprus` integrity and sovereignty when these were at stake and during the 1974 Turkish invasion.
Cyprus President said that it is well known that for 61 years we went through hardships. We started, he said, as a poor colonial country to be today a modern European state with institutions, international relations and with international law as the sound base for the safeguard of our country`s sovereignty and independence.
He went on to say that he would have been happier today if Turkish Cypriots were celebrating with us and expressed his sorrow for the fact that interventions by those who assumed to defend the Cyprus Republic have led to tragic phenomena we are faced with today.
President Anastasiades hoped that all these will soon realise the hard path they chose to follow not by their own will but the will of others who want to turn Cyprus Republic into a Turkish protectorate.
He congratulated the National Guard for the efforts assumed to enhance the army forces adding that it is with pride that today we watched the continuous modernization of the National Guard. He hoped that soon we will celebrate free of the occupation .
Earlier the President laid a wreath at the Imprisoned Graves. A memorial service also took place at the Presidential Palace in honour of the fighters of the 1955-1959 liberation struggle (EOKA) against the British rule, of all those who fell resisting a coup d` état engineered by the Greek Junta on July 15, 1974, the heroes who lost their lives during the Turkish invasion and the 1963-1964 events.
The President laid a wreath before the statue of Archbishop Makarios III, the first President of the Republic of Cyprus.
After the parade the President and his spouse Andri host an event for the diplomatic corps.
Cyprus has been divided since the 1974 Turkish invasion. Numerous round of talks under the UN aegis failed to yield results.