President Nikos Christodoulides will further intensify his efforts so that the initiative he has undertaken as regards the Cyprus issue has a positive outcome, a press release by the Presidency of the Republic says, on the occasion of the completion of 49 years since the second phase of the Turkish invasion against Cyprus in 1974.

The Presidency says that today marks 49 years since the completion of the crime against Cyprus, noting that it is a day of commemoration and condemnation of the barbaric Turkish invasion. It adds that while talks were ongoing at a diplomatic level in Geneva, Turkey proceeded to execute its plan by occupying the city of Famagusta, Morphou and other areas, on August 14, 1974, expanding the occupation, bringing more destruction, death, more missing persons and a new wave of refugees.

The Presidency adds that the new advance of the Turkish troops was condemned by the UN Security Council which convened on August 15 and 16 requesting a ceasefire and the immediate withdrawal of Turkish troops from Cyprus and that in the years that followed the Security Council adopted resolutions 550 and 789 for Famagusta, which today are as relevant as ever before.

Furthermore, it notes that after 49 years, the desire for liberation, reunification and return remains and that the unacceptable current status quo cannot be the future of Cyprus and its people.

It points out that it is for this reason that the only path to which the President of the Republic remains exclusively committed is that of breaking the deadlock and resuming talks from where they were interrupted in Crans Montana, on the basis of UN resolutions, principles and values of the EU and the acquis of the talks.

“Within this context, the President of the Republic will further intensify his efforts at all levels, in the UN, the EU and at the international level, so that the initiative he has undertaken to break the deadlock and to restart the talks with a more active involvement of the EU, always under the auspices of the UN, has a positive outcome,” the press release concludes.

Source: Parikiaki.com