The particular interest by the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres and that of the international community and the EU leave “room for hope to lift this yearslong deadlock” concerning the Cyprus issue, Deputy Minister for Culture, Vasiliki Kassianidou, said on Sunday.
Kassianidou was speaking after a church service in Athens, commemorating the April 1st national anniversary, that marks the launch of the EOKA struggle in 1955.
The Deputy Minister noted that, as 69 years have passed since the liberation struggle and half a century will be completed this summer since the Turkish invasion in 1974, “the aim is to contribute in a constructive way to create the conditions for the resumption of negotiations for a Cyprus settlement, on the basis of UN Security Council resolutions.”
Nicosia, she went on, is seeking a solution that reunites Cyprus and sets the conditions for development and prosperity throughout the island and of its people, both Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. The solution should also contrib
ute to the stability and security of the wider region, Kassianidou added.
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. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres appointed María Ángela Holguín Cuéllar of Colombia as his personal envoy for Cyprus, to assume a Good Offices role on his behalf and search for common ground on the way forward in the Cyprus issue.
Source: Cyprus News Agency