President says the state is working to break deadlock on Cyprus problem
The government is working with a specific plan to break the deadlock on the Cyprus talks and through the solution reach a mutually beneficial state of affairs for all, President Nikos Christodoulides said on Monday.
Speaking at the unveiling ceremony for memorial t the fallen and missing of Zodia at their building in Strovolos, Nicosia, he said that the current state of affairs cannot be the solution to the Cyprus problem.
“As we can see from development in our neighbourhood, there are no frozen crises,” he said.
The President said that the passage of time is creating new faits accomplis and these unfortunately, further distancing the prospect of a solution that can be accepted by the Cypriot people.
“And it is because of this reasoning that we are working with a specific plan, so that we can make it possible to break the deadlock and through the solution of the Cyprus problem reach a mutually beneficial state of affairs for all parties involved,” he said.
He added that despite all the problems, difficulties, and disappointments, “we continue our efforts to achieve our goal”, saying that “for us there is no other option than freedom, reunification, a solution on the basis of the agreed framework, the principles and values of the European Union”.
Speaking about the missing persons, Christodoulides said he wishes he could bring them back adding that what the Republic of Cyprus has been doing over the years since it dared to open this tragic story in 1999 is “everything possible by strengthening the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP) precisely so that the relatives know the fate of their missing persons.”
He referred by name to the fallen and the missing of Zodia village from the October 1931 (“Octobriana”) to the Turkish invasion of 1974, noting that the blood tax paid by Zodia is heavy, while the list of heroes and the missing that the community generously offered on the altar of freedom is long and glorious.
The unveiling of the monument was created by George Moses, in honour of the heroes and missing persons of Zodia.