"I feel a special emotion because I am not with some people who are hosting me but because I feel that I am among my family. This is how I have always felt since the late Glaucus Clerides, with the close ties he maintained, taught us to respect our fellow citizens who contributed to the good and prosperity of this country. And you may be few in number, but your contribution has been great in terms of the development of our country.
For this I thank you and am grateful to you.
What the Government did was the very least it owed to a community that struggled for so many years and managed to survive while maintaining its religious and cultural beliefs and even its own language. This is not the time tonight to take stock of what the Government has done so that all this can become a reality, that you can maintain the distinctiveness of your identity and survive among brothers and sisters.
The construction of the stadium and the rest of the works is but the minimum due from the state to a community that has contributed to the prosperity of this land.
I want to wish the Board, all of you all the best. Know that like the past Presidents and the next will always be on your side.
We are connected by unbreakable ties, we are connected by the suffering caused by the Turkish invasion, we are connected by the love of return, we are connected by the love of this country, so you can be sure and I want to wish that such conditions will be created, so that at some point - and after March 1 I will be able to visit Kormakitis, I will also see the stadium - blessed will be the time when we will see and I hope to be alive to see a vision come true, the caravans of return."
The President of the Republic was then presented by the Maronite Archbishop and the Maronite Representative in Parliament, on behalf of the Board of Directors of the Association, with an honorary plaque for his support to the Maronite religious group, which symbolizes love, peace and cooperation.0
(PM/MB)
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