Ready for meaningful negotiations for a Cyprus settlement, FM says

“We stand ready to engage in meaningful negotiations with the aim of finding a viable and lasting solution” said Cyprus Foreign Minister, Constantinos Kombos during the 39th PSEKA Conference in Washington DC, pointing to a Cyprus settlement which is in line with “the agreed framework of a bizonal, bicommunal federation with political equality, as defined by the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions and with full respect of the principles and values of the EU.”

“Anything else belongs in the realm of illegality and would create a dangerous precedent for the international community as a whole. To this end, we fully support the mission of the UN Secretary General’s Personal Envoy. And I assure you that, both President Christodoulides and myself, will continue to work with realism, determination and in a fully constructive manner, towards reaching a solution to the Cyprus problem."

Addressing participants at the PSEKA Conference on 11 June, the Minister said that they comprise the "point of contact with the American society and the US Administration. With the most powerful country in the world.”

In the margins of the conference Minister Kombos addressed a Photographic Exhibition regarding the 50th anniversary since the 1974 illegal Turkish invasion and occupation of Cyprus.

The images travelled to the US from the archives of the Press and Information Office in Nicosia. They comprise the "mosaic of the collective memory of the devastation, of the suffering of our people" as the Minister put it. 

He reminded the 50th anniversary of the Turkish invasion in 39 days and said that "We do not forget. We have a duty not to forget."

"The Photographic Exhibition, which I have the honour to open today, takes us back to that tragic summer of 1974" he said, adding that the International Community needs to be reminded.

Washington D.C. is the first stop for this photographic exhibition. It will travel the world, through the network of Cypriots Diplomatic Missions.  Cyprus has a collection of more than 100 photographs, some of them seen for the first time.

“They are dominated by the faces of the summer of 1974.  No matter how many years have passed, no matter where we are, they remain the unshakable point of reference for every Cypriot, for every Greek" he said, adding that 50 years on, these images constitute "a recollection of the past, while remaining present and contemporary."

Because, he went on, Cyprus, and its people, continue to experience the Turkish occupation and division, in violation of their basic human rights, "in full contempt of public International Law and against any notion of the values guiding the International Community. Fifty years of Turkish occupation is enough.  And, it must end. Our steadfast goal remains the reunification of Cyprus,” underlined Minister Kombos.

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. Guterres last January appointed Holguin as his personal envoy for Cyprus, to assume a Good Offices role on his behalf and search for common ground on the way forward in the Cyprus issue.

(Source: CNA)