Nicosia has expressed satisfaction over the fact that the Russian Federation, both via its Ambassador in Nicosia, Stanislav Osadchiy, and a statement of its Embassy, made it clear that there is no issue for any actions or contacts on its behalf with the Turkish Cypriot puppet regime aiming at setting up a Russian consulate in the Turkish occupied areas of Cyprus.
Replying to a question by CNA, Government Spokesperson, Marios Pelekanos, said that “we are satisfied by the fact that the Russian Ambassador, through his statements on Sunday evening, and the Russian Embassy, through its official statement, have confirmed the position of principles of the Russian Federation as regards the framework for a Cyprus settlement.”
He added that “it is also noted that there is no issue of proceeding to any action or any contact with the illegal regime, while they make clear that there is no intention by them to recognise any other authorities apart from the Republic of Cyprus.”
“There is a number of Russian citizens who are living in the occupied areas. As they note in their statement – an issue that was raised in the past as well- they are looking into various ways through which they could serve the Russian citizens who are living in the occupied areas,” the Spokesperson noted.
Pelekanos said that the Russian Federation, both through the statements of its Ambassador and the statement of the Embassy, even more strongly, “makes it clear that it does not intend to proceed to any action or have any official contact with the so-called authorities of the pseudostate to set up a consulate in the occupied areas.”
Asked about the reference in the Russian Embassy statement to “consular posts of a number of Western countries, including several EU members” that operate in the occupied areas of Cyprus, Pelekanos noted that “it is a fact that for years now there are some states, as for example the UK, the USA, and Australia, that operate citizen service points, but have no institutional relation with the illegal regime.”
He underlined that these are not official consulates and that these citizen service points have no official institutional form or institutional relation with the pseudostate.
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.
Source: Cyprus News agency