Ladies and gentlemen,
After two years of pandemic, we return today from the "Filoxenia" Conference Centre to our traditional building with today's first plenary session, which is the first since the last elections of 2021. Parliamentary committee meetings also resume in the building on Monday.
I want to stress that despite the adversities of the past two years, we are proud because the Parliament, through collective work, managed to rise to the occasion and produce important legislative work, supporting society during the pandemic.
We are here today, all set and ready to continue, to intensify our efforts and to promote important government bills and legislative proposals for the benefit of citizens.
I would like to take this opportunity to mention that the installation of e-mails on the new platform has begun and everyone's cooperation is necessary for their activation. The process should be carried out in the presence of either each Member of Parliament or his/her partner.
Dear colleagues,
Today is the Day of Remembrance of the Pontian Genocide and our gaze cannot but be focused on the three hundred and fifty thousand or so victims of the genocide of the Greeks of the Asia Minor Pontus and the hundreds of thousands of refugees who fled to Southern Russia, Greece and Cyprus. A century ago, the Greeks of Pontus experienced in the most painful way the crime carried out by Kemal Atatürk's Young Turks with massacres, murders, persecution, rape and torture.
The House of Representatives unanimously recognized the genocide of the Pontian people, one of the most heinous crimes under international criminal law, by a unanimous resolution on 19 May 1994. On the other hand, Turkey, behaving defiantly, has designated this day as a day of remembrance for Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. As representatives of Cypriot citizens, we continue to support the Pontian community in its struggle for universal recognition of the crime, with the aim, on the one hand, of the moral vindication of Pontian Hellenism everywhere and, on the other hand, of ending every criminal act against humanity.
In memory of the victims of the Pontian genocide, I call upon you to observe a minute's silence.
(One-minute silence)
Eternal memory!
(Text as sent by the House of Representatives)
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