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It is with great pleasure that I participate in tonight's event for the opening of the exhibition "Cyprus Island", which from today and for a whole year will present to the public the history of our country, both through the rich material of the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation and through many other exhibits kindly donated by public and private collections in Cyprus and Greece.
The Foundation deserves warm congratulations for taking the initiative to organise such a large-scale event, which, in addition to the display of the exhibits, will be accompanied by cultural events, guided tours and educational programmes. And in this there will be cooperation with the Government, the Ministry of Education, so that our schools can visit this unique exhibition.
The Government stands by any kind of idea, any kind of initiative, which in essence aims to provide visitors of all ages with the opportunity to come into contact with unique exhibits, such as valuable antiquities and objects of popular culture, works of contemporary art, rare publications, manuscripts, digital archives, historical maps and other valuable treasures, since, among many other things, this way the quality of our country's cultural product is enhanced.
The key to the success and development of the cultural sector lies, undoubtedly, in the utilization and recognition of culture as a driving force for social and economic progress and vitality. Culture is an eternal wealth, which should be exploited as a means of bringing educational, social and economic benefits to our society.
This is not the right place to talk about economics, although it is a Bank of Cyprus institution, but in the context of the tax reform we are working on, one of the incentives we have is to give culture, cultural actions specific economic incentives, so that we can clearly highlight the culture of our country, which for so many years - we must say it - was the poor relation.
An important effort began with the establishment of the State Ministry of Culture. We need to continue, to clearly do more, and this is the effort, and the exhibition is part of it, and the Bank of Cyprus Foundation is being approached as a partner.
As a Government, we will strengthen our efforts towards upgrading the quality of the cultural product, but also towards the full harmonization of the cultural ecosystem of our country, and of which we are proud, so that the objectives and vision of the Deputy Ministry of Culture become the vision of everyone involved in the field of culture, while reflecting the central position that it can and should occupy in the development and prosperity of society and the promotion of our country. And we have a very important milestone ahead of us, where I hope to work together, in view of the second Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) in the first half of 2026. In this journey, we believe that we have the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation by our side as a valuable partner, and together we will work to achieve what I see as our common goals.
Allow me, therefore, to express my congratulations on the 40th anniversary of the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation's establishment this year. A body that started from the initiative of a group of Bank of Cyprus executives and scholars of the Cypriot society to establish a cultural foundation in 1984, in response to the Turkish invasion and with the aim of repatriating the vandalized cultural heritage, which to this day we are trying to bring back to our country through the coordinated actions of the Government, the State and private entities.
As a result, we can say today that the initiative, which was taken in 1984 by some executives of the Bank of Cyprus and scholars of Cypriot society, was a brilliant initiative both in its conception and, much more so, in its execution.
Throughout these years, the Cultural Foundation has created a series of important and rare collections of Cyproology - I remember as Foreign Minister especially the collection of maps that we gave as gifts to Foreign Ministers of other countries visiting Cyprus or during our visits abroad and what an impression these collections made - presented a series of brilliant exhibitions of Cyproological interest in Cyprus and abroad, created a publishing series with scientific and not only publications. It has been present and a pioneer over the last 40 years in research, in the dissemination of its results to the public, as well as in social programmes and culture-related technologies.
Today, the Foundation, with the pioneering exhibition "Cyprus Island History - Memory - Reality", presents our turbulent historical course, the unity of the island, despite the occupation, presenting through modern and interactive methods various aspects of life from antiquity to the present day, on the occasion of the commemorative events taking place in our country, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Turkish invasion and the ongoing occupation.
I conclude by congratulating the curators of the exhibition, Dr. Yannis Toumazi and Mrs. Dimitra Ignatiou, as well as the entire team of the Cultural Foundation. Of course, a big thank you, on behalf of the State, to the Bank of Cyprus for its long-standing contribution, for 125 years, not only to culture, but also to all activities in our country.
(PM/MS/NYAN)
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