There is no other alternative but to end the Turkish occupation of Cyprus and reunite our homeland, pledged President of the Republic Nikos Christodoulides on Saturday.
In a speech at an event in Kalamata city of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece where he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of the Peloponnese while the Municipality of Kalamata also named him an honourary citizen, President Christodoulides said “we must rid ourselves of the occupation and division, which undermine Cyprus’ strengths and capabilities for further progress and prosperity and nullify the vision of a united, common prosperous homeland.”
The only way forward, he noted, “is to intensify efforts, correctly interpret international developments, understand geostrategic balances, bolster the international standing of the Republic of Cyprus by strengthening all state power factors, and highlight our role, through actions and not words, as a pillar of security and stability in the particularly significant region of the Eastern Mediterranean and the broader Middle East.”
President Christodoulides said “we sincerely and substantively support the initiatives of the international community. We constructively support the initiative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations and invest in this new effort, having a strong belief that if there is a positive response from the Turkish side, it is possible to create the conditions to place the Cyprus issue on the tracks of the negotiation process and lead to a mutually beneficial situation”.
At this point he said he is fully aware of the difficulties, obstacles, and challenges.
“We have a full understanding of the balance of power and, of course, we are sufficiently realistic not to be idealistic. However, precisely because we are pragmatists, we consistently follow a strategy based on a Thucydidean understanding of international relations and the importance of power factors and synergies with other forces, particularly strong actors in the international system, to achieve this national goal.”
In this very context, President Christodoulides said “we leverage the status of the Republic of Cyprus as a member state of the European Union, strengthen the network of synergies we maintain with third countries, enhance our political and diplomatic footprint with actions and not just words, and expand the power factors of our country”.
In his remarks at the ceremony of his appointment as an Honorary Doctor of the University of Kalamata and declaration as an honorary citizen of Kalamata, the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, pointed to the special links that connect Cyprus to Kalamata and Messinia.
The President of the Republic accepted the two distinctions on behalf of the Cypriot people, interpreting them principally as honours to the institution of the Republic’s highest state authority. It is especially significant for me, he said, that the honorary doctorate comes from the University of the Peloponnese, whose mission is to make a creative contribution to the development of higher education in the Greek region, with high-quality standards that meet the requirements of a modern university with national, European, and international scope in terms of study, research, and teaching content.
Referring to the relationship between Cyprus and Messinia, he stated that they have been linked by mutual struggles from ancient times, and he praised the city’s citizens’ contributions in 1974, when Cyprus was seeking help to deal with the illegal Turkish invasion.
Messinia’s Cypriots, approximately 50 families, engage in notable professional and social activities, while Cypriot enterprises thrive here, and some students from Cyprus are also accommodated, he added.
President Christodoulides further spoke of the reciprocation of solidarity and love a few years later, when the Cypriot government hurried to assist individuals afflicted by both the tragic earthquake of 1986 and the deadly fires of 2007. Following that, President Christodoulides made numerous references to historical events and personalities that have connected Cyprus and the Peloponnese from antiquity to the present day.
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.
On October 15, 2024, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hosted an informal dinner with Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar in New York, encouraging “the leaders to consider how to bridge the gap in their positions and rebuild trust to allow movement leading to a settlement.”
At the meeting, President Christodoulides and Tatar agreed to have an informal meeting in a broader format in the near future, under the auspices of the Secretary-General, to discuss the way forward. They also agreed to have a meeting in Cyprus to explore the possibility of opening new crossing points, which is still pending.
