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The President of the Hellenic Republic, Mr Nicos Christodoulides, delivered a speech today, Thursday 8 June 2023, at the opening of the photography exhibition entitled "Mother, you left the window open...for 49 years", organized by the Rotary Club of Famagusta, at the "PLEYSIS" Multiplex, Old Port of Limassol:
"It is a special honour for me and that is why I responded with pleasure to the invitation of the Rotary Club of Famagusta to inaugurate today the photo exhibition entitled "Mother, you left the window open... for 49 years".
An exhibition that really shocks, since it manages to convey in images so vividly, the feeling of pain of the forced abandonment of our ancestral homes, which the brutality, unfortunately, of the Turkish Invasion made us experience and continue to experience to this day.
Both the foreshadowing title of the exhibition and the exhibition itself vividly depict the tragic aftermath of August 1974, the moment when time froze, with the signs of the invasion and the refugees being more visible than ever before.
At the same time, today's exhibition offers us a bitter taste of the invasion and the chain effects of the occupation, capturing what the enclosed city of Famagusta ended up being like today. At the same time, however, and for me this is the most important thing, the exhibition also serves as a bell to further strengthen our efforts to do everything possible to end the occupation and reunite our homeland, to return to Famagusta and our ancestral homes.
The Rotary Club of Famagusta, which inspired the idea for tonight's event, was founded in Famagusta in 1954, and since 1974 and the Turkish invasion, after receiving special permission from Rotary International, has been temporarily hosted in Limassol.
Since then, although it has been active in the refugee area, far from the homeland, it has a rich charitable work to show.
1. The Group's scholarship fund has so far given over €400,000 to students from Famagusta Province and Famagusta Town for the completion of their studies.
2. With the initiative of the Club and the support of 10 Rotary clubs in Cyprus, the Rotary Foundation for Umbilical Placental Transplants was established at the Karaiskakio Foundation.
3. Participated in the purchase and installation of special equipment for the detection of childhood leukaemia at the Karaiskakio Foundation.
4. It has undertaken many other small-scale public benefit projects both in the Free Famagusta District and in the city of Limassol, where it is temporarily hosted.
Indeed, it is worth mentioning that it is the only organisation in which Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot groups work together. Over the years they have been participating in international conferences and missions under the flag of the Republic of Cyprus and there is close cooperation between them.
Today's photo exhibition is part of the Group's charitable work, as the proceeds from the exhibition will be used to financially support the "Little Heroes" Foundation, supporting children suffering from cancer and their families.
Allow me to warmly congratulate photographers Eleni Kesta and Giorgos Pantazis, as well as filmmaker Marcus Schuetz for producing the video that captures the current, tragic situation in Famagusta Town.
As harsh as the image they saw is, they found the courage, because of their love for the City of Evagoras, to bring it to our eyes through their lens.
The exhibition includes photographs of the enclosed city and its sea and this short journey to the historical and cultural core of the "Ghost Town" will, I am sure, be overwhelming.
Time and abandonment may have worn away the beloved city of Famagusta, but not the historical memory. During the Turkish invasion of 1974, the town suffered significant damage and all these years later the situation is clearly worse. The effects of isolation are now visible in all buildings and infrastructure. Thousands of human stories were brutally interrupted in 1974, forcing thousands of 'dreams' to be moved and/or abandoned.
So many years later, however, Famagusta lives on in our hearts and the photo exhibition we are inaugurating today is another way to remember our obligation and duty to never turn away from the effort to reunite our land to overturn the unacceptable Status Quo, which sees our refugees gazing at their ancestral lands with heartbreak.
Despite the problems, the difficulties, the frustrations, we are working tirelessly to break the deadlock and resume talks to reach a mutually beneficial solution on the basis of the agreed framework, the basis of a bizonal bicommunal federation with political equality as provided for in the relevant UN resolutions. We are working sincerely towards the resumption of negotiations from where they left off in Crann Montana and we declare our readiness to work for the resolution of the Cyprus problem, the return of Famagusta to its legitimate inhabitants and the reunification of Cyprus and our people.
We keep the desire to return to our beloved Famagusta as a guide for our actions, as a flame that shows us the way and reminds us daily of our obligation to succeed. For us there is no other choice.
I would like to share with you that coming to Limassol from Nicosia - and you all know about the initiative I have taken in particular for a more prominent role on the part of the EU, always within the framework of the UN and under the auspices of the UN for the resumption of the talks - I received a phone call in which there seem to be prospects in this direction and we will make use of these prospects until the end, so that the talks can finally resume. What we must all realise is not only that the current state of affairs cannot be the solution to the Cyprus problem, but that this state of affairs is getting clearly worse day by day and if we do not achieve the objective of reunification, of a solution to the Cyprus problem, we will certainly face serious challenges. So, for us there is no other choice.
In conclusion, I would like to express again my congratulations to the Rotary Club of Famagusta and its President Maria Kaparis for the initiative to keep the memory alive. It is particularly important that Maria comes from the younger generation and this initiative honours her and her colleagues to keep the memory alive through this great photo exhibition and, at the same time, to help the "Little Heroes" Foundation financially.
Initiatives such as today's are both political and human, and unravel the tangle of the past, with the aim of highlighting the present and becoming - and we must not just stick to words, to fine statements - in practice, a beacon for the struggles we must undertake in order to achieve the longed-for goal of the reunification of our country. Struggles and claims for which we cannot afford to fail."
(RM/IS)
Contents of this article including associated images are belongs PIO
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or PIO
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