Tourism Deputy Minister, Costas Koumis, has called on the international community and EU to exert pressure for the termination of the illegal Turkish occupation in Cyprus, pointing out that Ankara is called upon to abandon positions that are not within the agreed framework of a Cyprus solution and to contribute to the efforts for peace.
Addressing an event on Sunday for the occupied Acheritou community, the Deputy Minister also noted that Cyprus will continue to demand full cooperation from Turkey as regards the fate of the missing persons in Cyprus. He pointed out that this is an obligation both to the families and to humanity.
He vowed that the President of the Republic and the government are persistently continuing their efforts to resume substantive negotiations and achieve a comprehensive, functional, and viable solution, based on UN Security Council resolutions, the agreed framework, international law and the principles and values of the European Union.
He said that the solution must end the occupation and division, reunite our homeland and our people, and create conditions of peace, freedom, and security for all the lawful inhabitants of the island.
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 due to Turkish intransigence. The latest round of negotiations, in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, whose term nears its end, announced he would convene another meeting in broader format, after adequate preparation, but gave no timeline. He secured to that end the consensus of both sides and of the guarantor powers. María Angela Holguín, Guterres’ Personal Envoy on Cyprus, is tasked to engage with the parties. Executive Vice-President, Raffaele Fitto, acts as the European Commission’s Special Representative for Cyprus, succeeding EU special envoy Johannes Hahn.
Since 1974, the fate of hundreds of people remains unknown. A Committee on Missing Persons has been established, upon agreement between the leaders of the two communities, with the scope of exhuming, identifying and returning to their relatives the remains of 492 Turkish Cypriots and 1,510 Greek Cypriots, who went missing during the inter-communal fighting of 1963-1964 and in 1974.