Nicosia: President of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulides expressed the government's unwavering support for Cyprus' Maronite community during the feast day celebration of Saint Maron at the Maronite Cathedral in Nicosia on Sunday, pledging continued efforts to improve the daily lives of enclaved and resettled Maronites in the occupied territories.
According to Cyprus News Agency, President Christodoulides described his attendance at the annual celebration as "a small but tangible indication of the state's boundless appreciation for the members of the Maronite community," which he said "constitutes an inseparable part of our people, with a particularly decisive contribution to the ceaseless effort the people of this country have been making for centuries - for survival, for prosperity and for a future."
The President announced that a proposal would shortly be brought before the Cabinet for the full coverage of healthcare for resettled Maronites through the General Health System (GeSY), as part of the government's ongoing drive to enhance the quality of life of enclaved citizens.
He also assured the community that issues affecting the enclaved remain "high on the agenda" of his meetings with both the United Nations Secretary-General and the Turkish Cypriot leader. "I raised the specific issues of the Maronites, as you conveyed them to me, with Mr Erhrman recently, and I am hopeful that by our next meeting, on 24 February, there will be positive responses," he said.
President Christodoulides highlighted the successful resettlement of 367 Cypriot Maronites in Kormakitis as a source of satisfaction, calling it "a reward for the great effort we are making, while at the same time sending a hopeful message for the future." He noted that several Maronite villages remain under Turkish occupation and that "our heroic enclaved residents in the Maronite villages and the rest of the occupied parts of our homeland define the duty we have to work until the blessed day of liberation and reunification."
The President outlined a series of concrete measures already implemented, including a pound 320,000 grant to the Kormakitis Community Council for flood-protection works and the restoration of the old kindergarten building housing the folklore museum, a 30 per cent increase in allowances, a pound 1,200 subsidy per household for solar water heater replacement, the provision of a new bus for safe transport to and from Nicosia, and the reopening of the Kormakitis Kindergarten after 25 years - fulfilling, he said, a personal pre-election promise.
Regarding Maronite churches in the occupied north, he noted that four of the seven have already been repaired through the relevant Technical Committee and that work on Saint John's Church in the historic Maronite village of Vouni would begin soon. Efforts were also under way for the Prophet Elias church and Saint Marina's Church, he added.
He further stated that the government was at an advanced stage of evaluating the Maronite Church's requests for repair and maintenance of churches in the free areas. The President also referred to the strong relationship between the Republic of Cyprus and the Holy See, as well as what he described as the excellent fraternal cooperation his government has developed with the Government of Lebanon.
In a greeting read on his behalf by Bishop Porphyrios of Neapolis, Archbishop of Cyprus Georgios said that nearly 52 years after the Turkish invasion, "united hand in hand with our Maronite compatriots, we walk as fellow travellers the Calvary of refugeedom, enclavement and displacement in our own homeland." He stressed that religious leaders of all communities on the island - Orthodox, Maronite, Armenian, Latin and Muslim - have been joining forces through interfaith dialogue since 2011 to demand respect for human rights and religious freedom.
Yiannakis Mousas, Representative of the Maronite Religious Group in the House of Representatives, thanked the President for standing by the community in deeds rather than words and called on Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhrman to show goodwill on the matter and underscored that "a solution to the Cyprus problem is a sine qua non for the survival of this community."
The celebration was presided over by Maronite Archbishop Selim Sfeir and attended by Cabinet members, state officials, and party leaders and representatives.
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.