Despite the difficulties and challenges due to the intransigent attitude and ongoing illegal actions of the Turkish side, for the Greek Cypriot side, the reunification of the country is the only way, Interior Minister, Constantinos Ioannou, said on Monday evening in his speech at the event organised by the Digenis Akritas-Morphou sports club to mark the dark anniversaries of 1974.
The current state of affairs cannot be the future of our country and will never be accepted, he noted, adding that the intransigent stance of the Turkish side has been, over the years, the biggest obstacle ‘to any of our efforts to reach a just and viable solution to the Cyprus problem’.
Ioannou assured that the President of the Republic was ‘working tirelessly, methodically, through the diplomatic channel, for returning to the dialogue table, claiming the just demand for a comprehensive solution to the Cyprus problem’. He noted that the effort made in recent months by the UN Secretary-General, through his personal envoy, ‘confirm
s his commitment’ to the resumption of meaningful talks.
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