There is no specific date for the convening of the multilateral meeting on the Cyprus problem, President of the Republic Nikos Christodoulides said on Sunday, noting however that “it looks like it will be after the end of January, possibly February or March”.

In his statements after the unveiling of the Monument to the Heroes and Missing Persons of the 120th Heavy Weapons Company 1974, which took place in Lakatameia, and asked if there is any development in relation to the convening of a multilateral meeting on the Cyprus problem, the President of the Republic said “no, we have no development regarding a specific date. It looks like it will be after the end of January, possibly February or March”.

He added that “what I can tell you is that following the brief conversation I had with Mr. Tatar (T/C leader) during the UN reception yesterday, we also conveyed specific dates for holding the meeting in relation to the crossing points”.

“There is nothing to be announced, but we think it is important to meet, to see where we are, where the differences are and how we move forward. So, we conveyed yesterday through the UN specific dates and we expect a positive response. The dates given are in January”, he concluded.

President Christodoulides said earlier in his address during the ceremony that as a State and as a society, we must stand with actions by all the heroes, the fallen, captured, wounded, and relatives of the missing and we assure them that we will do everything we can to liberate our country.

He stressed that the State and the society have a duty to pay the due tribute and express in every way their gratitude with due respect to every citizen who “defended the integrity of the homeland, who fought for freedom and put his own life on the line against any invader”.

He added that such fighters were the soldiers of the 120th Heavy Weapons Company, whose action, he said, stands out among the heroic and legendary cases of defenders of the country’s freedom during the Turkish invasion of 1974.

“Counting 15 heroes killed and 11 others missing, the Company paid a heavy price for its debt to the homeland,” he noted.

The country, he added, “taking strength from all those sacrificed, is working to strengthen, not with words but with deeds, its footprint, which will also help in the effort for liberation, for ending the occupation and reunification”.

“As a State and as a Society, we must stand with deeds to all the heroes, the fallen, captured, wounded, and relatives of the missing. We are aware of our great responsibility, and we assure them, not in words, that we will do everything we can, first with respect to all those sacrificed, and at the same time, however, with confidence, with assertive realism to liberate our country,” he stressed.

Speaking at the event, Archbishop Georgios of Cyprus said that 50 years after the sacrifice of our heroes, we are witnessing today an unacceptably sad situation, the tolerance and oblivion of compromise with the occupation,, adding that “it is not enough to commemorate the memory of our heroes and fighters with monuments and solemn speeches, but also to prove with deeds that we are worthy of them” and that “as long as the Turkish occupation continues on our island, we cannot sleep peacefully”.

“Drawing strength from history and from their example, we have a duty to continue our struggle until the day of liberation and vindication. The struggle should aim at finding a just and fair solution, without foreign troops and settlers, a solution that will ensure in perpetuity, the freedom and national-religious survival of our people, that is, the liberation of our land,” he stressed, adding that it should never be forgotten that the Cyprus problem is purely a problem of invasion and occupation.

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.

Source: Parikiaki.com