Cyprus’ government Ministers dismissed on Sunday Turkey’s illegal actions in the fenced off part of Famagusta as unacceptable, while deploring the “aggressive rhetoric” Ankara employs, pointing at the same time to the readiness of the Greek Cypriot side to engage in settlement talks.
“We remain firmly committed to the efforts to resolve the Cyprus problem in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions and the principles and values of the EU. We declare to the international community our readiness to resume talks through an honest dialogue, in order to reach an agreed and fair solution for the reunification of our country”, said Defence Minister, Charalambos Petrides, on Sunday, while unveiling the bust of George Melifronides, an officer who fell during the 1974 Turkish invasion.
The Defence Minister also said that the current leadership in Ankara is showing an uncompromising stance based on its new revisionist policy with neo-Ottoman aspirations, thus violating any notion of International Law. “It systematically undermines any initiatives taken to resume talks, instrumentalises the migration crisis and at the same time seeks to create new ones, both in Cyprus, in the broader eastern Mediterranean and in Greece,” he said.
“Turkey’s new illegal actions with the opening of another part of the beach, in the fenced off city of Famagusta, are an extremely unacceptable provocation” Petrides stressed, adding that the government will never stop emplying any diplomatic means to address Turkey’s challenges effectively.
Turkey continues to pursue an aggressive rhetoric, Interior Minister Nicos Nouris said from his part, while delivering a memorial speech on Sunday for EOKA hero Andreas Avraamides, at the village of Temvria, in Nicosia district.
The Minister also said that Ankara chooses to “poison” the relations between the two sides “both through its arrogant attitude and its position provocatively demanding two-state solution”, Nouris said, adding that the unacceptable attitude and illegal actions of Turkey maintain the impasse in negotiations for a Cyprus settlement.
In addition, Nouris pointed to Ankara’s actions in respect to migration, saying that Turkey pushes thousands of irregular migrants from Turkey through the buffer zone to the areas controlled by the Republic of Cyprus.
“We will methodically reduce the flows from the Green Line and we will resolutely intensify the returns and deportations of those whose applications are rejected and who are not allowed to remain in the Republic,” he stated.
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.
Source: Cyprus News Agency