It is with a sense of imperative duty and responsibility towards history and our country that we have gathered today to pay our due tribute to a statesman, a pure fighter of democracy, an honest patriot, the second President of the Republic of Cyprus, the late Spyros Kyprianou, whom the Cypriot people bid farewell 21 years ago.
We are here today to pay tribute to the man who linked his life to the history of our country, to the establishment of the Republic of Cyprus and its foundation at the international level, to the efforts to end the occupation and reunify our homeland, and to the man who led the effort, after the death of the National Lord Makarios, to deal with the tragic and most serious consequences of the Turkish invasion.
Spyros Kyprianou was born in Limassol on 28 October 1932. He attended Limassol High School and studied Economics and Commerce and Law in London. While still a student in Britain, he founded the National Student Union of Cypriots in England and remained its first President until 1954, when he took over the Ethnarchy Office in London, with the aim of promoting the struggle for self-determination. From August 1956 to March 1957 he represented the Cyprus Ethnarchy at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.
Subsequently, his very active presence, as the first Foreign Minister of the Republic of Cyprus, contributed decisively to the upgrading of the international status of our country, a very necessary component for a newly established Republic, building the necessary network of bilateral and multilateral relations of our country at the global level. In May 1972, refusing to submit to the threatening moods of the Athens Junta, he resigned from the post of Foreign Minister and did not hesitate to break directly with the dictatorial regime in Athens.
From 1976 to 2000, he was the founder and President of the Democratic Party, while in 1977 he was elected to the highest office of President of the Republic of Cyprus for more than ten years. He worked hard, continuing the work of his late predecessor in difficult times for Cyprus. He contributed decisively to the revival of the economy, to what has been described as the "economic miracle of the 1980s", and to the social development and progress of the Cypriot people after the open wound left by the Turkish invasion of 1974.
At the same time, as Speaker of the House of Representatives, both in the period 1976 - 1977 and later between 1996 - 2001, he acted with respect to all factions, ensuring the necessary consensus for the smooth and productive functioning of the House, while at the same time placing special emphasis on Parliamentary Diplomacy.
As one of the people who played a leading and decisive role in the modern political history of the Republic of Cyprus, Spyros Kyprianou identified his name with the nurturing of the Cypriot state - devastated by the Turkish atrocity - but also with the development and political maturation of Cypriot society. In this context, when any speaker is asked to refer to the life of Spyros Kyprianou and to record his political path, he cannot but be treated with due respect. And it is precisely for this reason that even those who disagreed or disagreed with his belief system and political decisions never, ever ceased to recognize him as a pure patriot.
In our modern political history, Spyros Kyprianou has associated his name not only with the struggles for the vindication of the aspirations of Cypriot Hellenism, but also with the emergence of the political maturity and wisdom that requires every responsible leader to seek solutions through assertive realism, which ensures credible diplomacy abroad, as well as the synthesis of positions and policies that ensure the necessary unity at home.
I would like to share something more personal with you. In a series of meetings I had with Spyros Kyprianou in the context of preparing my doctoral thesis, shortly before he passed away, I had the opportunity to have a thorough conversation with him and I appreciated his educational capital and his keen perception of the course of history. In his way of thinking I had observed an unbroken relationship of cause and effect, as his political positions were always linked to his belief system, which was largely the product of his own personal experiences. Indeed, with a deep sense of historical consciousness, he was anxious about the final judgment of history and the conditions in which future generations of Cypriots would be called upon to live. And it is of the utmost importance for those who are called upon to serve the Cypriot people to always have the same anxiety about the final judgment, not necessarily of the citizens through the electoral process, but of history itself.
Spyros Kyprianou noted in his last speech in Parliament on 19 April 2001, shortly before he retired from active political activity and about a year before he was defeated by the disease:
"This people deserves a lot. It deserves to see the sun shine on a free and united Cyprus. It deserves to enjoy everything that every free people is entitled to enjoy.It deserves to work, to create, to sleep and to wake up in the land of its fathers in peace, without the threat, without the occupation, without the uncertainty of the future.[/I]It deserves to work, to create, to sleep and to wake up in the land of its fathers in peace, without the threat, without the occupation, without the uncertainty of the future.This land and this people deserve a better future so that they can walk unhindered in optimism towards progress and prosperity. I firmly believe in the strengths of our country and our people."
This is also the legacy that Spyros Kyprianou left: the path of unity, faith and struggle. And today, in these critical moments, with a revisionist Turkey that is now openly working for a two-state solution, challenging the Republic of Cyprus and its international status as never before, the broadest possible consensus is needed. The broadest possible cooperation and understanding of all political forces and the whole of Cypriot Hellenism, with absolute respect for any different perceptions and approaches. The effort to end the occupation and reunite our homeland can only be a common goal. Despite possible different approaches, especially on tactical issues, which, I repeat, are perfectly legitimate within the framework of democracy, we must keep the level of dialogue high and, through collective effort, strive to achieve the common goal that no one alone can achieve. We must appreciate the value of consultation and internal deliberation and reflect on the dead ends to which conflicts, baseless criticism and pointless confrontations can lead us. Unity on the internal front was then, and undoubtedly still is today, a necessary condition, a historical necessity and a weapon in our struggle for vindication. Only in this way will we be able to strengthen our negotiating position on the Cyprus problem, on the basis of a realistic and assertive strategy, demanding what we are entitled to and what we deserve, with the sole aim of ending the unacceptable status quo, which for decades has forced us to live in conditions that do not exist anywhere else in Europe.
The current unacceptable state of affairs does not allow any citizen of this country to enjoy the rights, freedoms and level of prosperity that all other citizens in the European Union consider indisputable and acquired. On the contrary, the unacceptable status quo is, among many other things, a permanent source of disruption and insecurity and should in no way be a source of complacency. For us there is no other option and no other way but to end the occupation, reunite our country and finally bring peace to our land. Our goal and aspiration is, through a meaningful dialogue that we wish to resume, to hand over to future generations a homeland without occupation troops, without foreign guarantees, reunited, modern and European.
It is in this very context that we believe that the prominent and active involvement of the EU, both in breaking the deadlock and in the resolution of the Cyprus problem, is imperative, and it is in this direction that we have been working from the first day of taking over the governance of the country, and I intend to discuss more specifically during my presence in Brussels in the coming days, always in coordination with the Greek Government.
The struggle for the restoration of freedom and the establishment of democracy in this land was forged through the national dignity, philanthropy, insight and militancy shown by leaders such as the late Spyros Kyprianou.
We continue to strive to end the current unacceptable state of affairs and to reunite our country, always within the agreed framework, with the same tenacity, learning from our history. Always, however, within the framework of realism, but also within the framework of determination. This will be the best memorial offering we can make.
May his memory be eternal.
(PM/MG)
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