Cyprus News Agency: News in English, 07-07-17

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From: The Cyprus News Agency at <http://www.cyna.org.cy>

CONTENTS

[01] PAPADOPOULOS - CYPRUS SOLUTION

[02] NEW MINISTERS ASSUME DUTIES

[03] BRITISH PM - APPEAL - CYPRUS

[01] PAPADOPOULOS - CYPRUS SOLUTION

Speaking during an event on Monday at the Presidential Palace to commemorate the anniversaries of the 1974 coup and the Turkish invasion, President Papadopoulos said ``if some want to accuse me of being intransigent or to consider me an obstacle to their designs on Cyprus, I am not willing to contribute, knowingly, to an unacceptable solution of the Cyprus problem just to secure an honourable mention and to elicit a certificate of allegedly good conduct.``

I have no ambition to be a president of any kind of solution. My ambition is to hand to the people a good and viable solution, even a bitter and painful settlement, a compromise which shall be, at least, functional and viable, he added.

He said ``if the goal is to close the Cyprus issue so that it will not exist anymore and if the goal is to say `yes` when we have to say `no`, then we had an opportunity in 2004 and we have that opportunity now, if of course we accept all that the Turkish side demands.``

This, he pointed out, is not an opportunity for a solution but an opportunity for dissolution,`` adding that ``those who still believe that we lost an opportunity in 2004, the truth is that we lost an opportunity to be lost as a state and as Hellenism in Cyprus.``

In April 2004, the overwhelming majority of the Greek Cypriots (76%) rejected a UN-proposed solution plan, saying it would lead to the dissolution of the Republic and allow Turkey to have a say in the affairs of the country. The Turkish Cypriots approved the plan.

``We remain firm and honest in our pursuit for a bizonal bicommunal federation but we do not accept a solution of a disguised dichotomous confederation. We seek a settlement which would reunite the people and our country, the economy, society and institutions but we reject a divisive and dead-end solution which would threaten the future of Cypriot Hellenism,`` President Papadopoulos said.

He said he would reject an arrangement which would legitimize Turkeys crime and render permanent, in cosmetic language, the consequences of the 1974 Turkish invasion.

The President wondered if indeed Cyprus was ever offered a fundamentally just, functional and viable solution, which was turned down by the people.

He also said that Cyprus, as an EU member, deserves a better future and its people the right to live in the land of their ancestors.

We have a responsibility to those who have passed away, the living and the generations to come. We, as a passing generation from this land, have no right to condemn future generations, by signing any kind of solution simply to close the question of Cyprus, he stressed.

Referring to the anniversaries of the coup and the invasion, President Papadopoulos said that form the painful remembrance of this tragedy the people of Cyprus must be determined to safeguard the Republic and demand their rights.

``It is our duty not to buckle, not to kneel but to strive and struggle for the rights of our people, for a viable and functional settlement, for a better and happier tomorrow for our homeland,`` he concluded.

The event, which was attended by House of Representatives President Demetris Christofias, Archbishop of Cyprus Chrysostomos II, Ministers, leaders and representatives of political parties, dignitaries and others, began with a short film of the coup and the invasion. The President`s speech was followed by a performance by Greek singer Charis Alexiou.

[02] NEW MINISTERS ASSUME DUTIES

Speaking during the ceremony at the Ministry of the Interior, new Minister Christos Patsalides pledged that he will do his utmost to ensure that, by the end of the current term in office of this government, policies and goals, which have been set out, will be met. Patsalides invited his senior staff to work collectively and praised outgoing Minister Neoklis Silikiotis for his work.

During the ceremony at the Ministry of Health, the new Minister recognised the big responsibility he was undertaking. He noted that the outgoing Minister Haris Charalambous was very successful and announced that in the coming days he will visit during all departments to meet with the staff and be informed about existing problems. Charalambous referred to the issues promoted during his term in office and wished his successor every luck, noting that this is a Ministry with great dynamism and with excellent employees dedicated to their duties.

During the ceremony at the Ministry of Communications and Works, Maria Malachtou-Pamballi said she assumed her duties fully aware of the heavy responsibility she is undertaking. She said that in the remaining period until end of the term in office of this government - February next year - all the work undertaken by the government must be fullfilled and all deadlines must be met. She noted that only with the help of her staff at the Ministry she will be able to work effectively.

[03] BRITISH PM - APPEAL - CYPRUS

In a letter to Miliband, on the occasion of a photo exhibition staged in London by Greek Cypriot Doros Partasides with photographs depicting the condition of the churches and chapels in the Turkish occupied part of Cyprus, Gale said it was a pity that Miliband was not able to see ``this demonstration of the effects, upon heritage and upon people, of thirty-three years of unlawful occupation of part of what is now a Member State of the European Union and of which the United Kingdom is a guarantor power.``

Gale said that one of the churches depicted is in Komi Kebir, which is the home village of the late George Gerolemou, his constituent, who died last month, at the age of 94. ``His retirement villa from which he and his wife were evicted is illegally occupied by a settler from mainland Turkey and although it is too late for George, his family would like what is now their property back, please,`` Gale added. He expressed the belief that ``over the 34 years successive UK governments have signally failed to take sufficiently robust action, in tandem with our allies the United States, to bring about a resolution of `The Cyprus Problem`.``

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