The government is intensifying its efforts to curb the intransigence and refusal of the occupying power to cooperate to end the tragedy of the missing, which it has created and maintains with tactics, increasing the pain and suffering of their families, the Commissioner of the Presidency, Fotis Fotiou, said at a ceremony to decorate the Christmas Tree of the Missing Persons in Athens.
In his address at the ceremony, which took place at Syntagma Square, the Presidential Commissioner said that the Government's request is to finally give full and clear answers to all relatives about the disappearance of their loved ones, to note that "these answers should of course be provided by the occupying power, Turkey, which all these years has refused to work honestly and in good faith to clarify all the cases of the missing persons."
As Mr. Fotiou said that "this is an inhuman and unnatural situation that invalidates the values and principles of civilized humanity", adding that "we cannot and must not allow this tragedy to continue."
"The world's powers, the United Nations and the European Union have a moral obligation to finally take humanitarian initiatives to end this tragedy," he said.
On behalf of the President of the Republic, Nicos Anastasiades, the state and everyone, the Commissioner of the Presidency expressed their full and sincere support to the families of the missing persons, assuring that they continue together in the sacred struggle for the restoration and respect of the human rights of the last missing person and his family.
Finally, Mr. Fotiou congratulated the Youth of the World Federation of Expatriate Cypriots for their initiative and noted that the decoration of the Christmas tree of missing persons in the various countries where Cypriots of the Diaspora live, symbolizes the support and solidarity of NEPOMAK and everyone in the tragedy experienced daily by the relatives of the missing persons and expresses sincere feelings of love and solidarity with the families of the victims.
"Turkey should move towards de-escalation"
Turkey should move towards de-escalation and international law should finally prevail, said Presidential Commissioner Fotis Fotiou at an event on the Asia Minor Catastrophe in Athens.
Mr. Fotiou said that we must stand united and strong against the exacerbation of Turkish provocativeness, as it has been developing lately with the rise of Turkey's intransigence on the Cyprus issue and its threats and blackmail with regard to our sovereign rights in our maritime areas and the Aegean islands, rights which are based on international law and non-negotiable.
As he said, the theme of the Exhibition of Memory and Honour for the 100th anniversary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe is "From I Do Not Forget" to "I Do Not Forget": Asia Minor Catastrophe; Genocide of Pontian Hellenism; Turkish Invasion and Occupation of Cyprus; Three Tragedies; A Trilogy", captures in absolute terms the sad state of affairs that the nation experienced and continues to experience in this period of time.
A period of which, he said, the current Turkish leadership draws its horrific memory with genocides, violent raids and the inhumane treatment of human lives, in order to expand its ambitions and threats against Hellenism with its revisionism and neo-Ottomanist approach and tactics, by exploiting the Aegean and seeking complete destabilization.
He also mentioned that the Turkish "Blue Homeland" narrative, the illegal Turkish-Libyan memorandum which seeks to encroach on Greece's rights in its maritime area, as well as Turkey's other actions in Libya, Syria, Iraq and Armenia, as well as of course in our Cyprus, demonstrate, precisely, that the same instincts of inhuman violence and systematic aggression and terrorism that the Turkish state has inherited since then, unfortunately survive today with all the insolence that characterizes the Turkish leadership and the entire state apparatus of Ankara.
It is with feelings of deepest emotion that we pay tribute to the innocent victims of the Asia Minor Catastrophe. We bring to mind all those people who left in terror, with horror in their eyes and unhealed wounds in their souls, leaving behind their home, their entire livelihood and their land, he said.
He recalled that in 1998, the Greek Parliament unanimously voted to declare "September 14 as the National Day of Remembrance of the Genocide of the Greeks of Asia Minor by the Turkish State" and that in 2002, the Cypriot State established by law September 14 as an official Day of Remembrance and Honour for the Greeks of Asia Minor and the Asia Minor Catastrophe.
This year, he said, one hundred years later, 2022 was officially proclaimed as the year of commemoration of the 1922 Catastrophe in Cyprus, as well as the year of appreciation of the contribution of Asia Minor Hellenism.
Mr. Fotiou said that Cyprus, which, like other places of Greeks everywhere, welcomed and gave a second homeland to refugees from Asia Minor, was united with the rest of Hellenism in an effort of remembrance, historical consciousness and reflection. Commercial and intellectual, educational. Several Cypriots participated in the Greek campaign, while the mobilization of the Cypriots to welcome the 2,400 or so Greeks of Asia Minor is characterized in the period's publications as unprecedented, including the pressure on the colonial government for the abolition of the restrictions it said.
He said that with the same brutality and savagery the Turks turned against Cyprus in 1974, wreaking havoc and destruction.
That is why Hellenism as a whole, he stressed, must be, and is, constantly vigilant, fully aware of reality, but also with an intact historical conscience.
We must all together stand united and strong against the exacerbation of Turkish provocativeness, as it has been developing recently with the rise of Turkey's intransigence on the Cyprus issue and its threats and blackmail with regard to our sovereign rights in our maritime areas and the Aegean islands, rights that are based on international law and non-negotiable.
He also said that we are particularly concerned about the revisionist attitude of the Turkish leadership and the escalation of its hostile rhetoric at a time when the international community is watching with deep concern the developments with Russia's military invasion of the territory of Ukraine.
What we stress at every opportunity is that international law cannot be applied differently in one case and differently in another. Both Russia and Turkey have militarily invaded the territories of other countries and continue to illegally occupy parts of their territories. In both cases it is a question of invasion, illegal occupation and violation of fundamental principles of international law, such as the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of states, he stressed.
It cannot be allowed to walk on the path of absurdity encouraged by the tolerance of some, but at the same time ignoring strong signals it is getting about its unacceptable claims and aspirations.The international law should finally prevail, he noted.
He thanked the Federation of Cypriot Organizations of Greece OKOE for organizing the event, and the Municipality of Neapolis-Sykeon, the World Council of Pontian Hellenism and the Foundation "No Lismono-Georgios Karamanos" for their cooperation.
Source: CNA
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