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- Ελληνικά
A feeling of sadness, pain, fear, bitterness, resentment is felt every July in our country. The images of the national tragedy, the consequences of the brutal invasion and the unhealed wound of the ongoing occupation are strongly felt.
July is the relentless month of memory. These days, inevitably, we are celebrating 50 more torturous years and the tragic events of 1974 are coming back.
Fifty years, half a century. Fifty years since the twin crimes of treason and coup d'état. The treasonous coup, an outrage that brought with it an even greater crime.
It's hard for you to chant, 50 years, 18 256 days today since that black morning of 20 July, the scars of which are still evident in the flesh and soul of our Cyprus.
Brutal and relentless is the account that tragically sums it up:
- the unjust loss of hundreds of people and the violent uprooting of tens of thousands of families from their homes,
- the missing persons whose fate has yet to be ascertained,
- the continuing illegal military occupation of more than a third of the territory of our homeland,
- the violation of basic freedoms and fundamental rights of all legal residents of Cyprus,
- the illegal Turkish colonisation,
- the trapped people who have remained, despite persecution, pressure and constant provocations in their homes, reminding us daily of the identity of Cyprus,
- the unjustifiable destruction of our cultural and religious heritage.
I belong to that generation born in the aftermath of 1974. Ten years later, the memories were still fresh, and the memories of those dark days were constantly traumatizing people's souls.
I have no memories or experiences of that black summer of 1974. I have images etched in my mind, tragic scenes and painful scenes taken from ancient tragedies. A tragedy that has been seeking, for 50 years, to bring about catharsis after hubris.
I feel the numbness and anxiety when at 05:30 on the morning of 20 July we are awakened by the chilling sound of sirens. But the sirens do not sound to warn us, but to remind us and to wake us up. But let us be honest, the 20th of July passes and passes us by, we return to our daily lives, we get on with our lives. And August comes, bitter too.
And then comes the next July, and the next, and from children we become parents, we acquire another, stronger, dimension of the stakes and of our historical responsibility.
The Cyprus we live in today is not the homeland our ancestors envisioned. As a Government, we assure you that our highest goal is none other than the reunification of Cyprus.
We remain firmly committed to a comprehensive solution to the Cyprus problem on the basis of the relevant United Nations resolutions, with one sovereignty, one citizenship, one international personality, always in accordance with the relevant United Nations resolutions, the European acquis and, of course, the principles and values on which the European Union is founded.
We reiterate this unwavering determination.
As the President of the Republic, Mr Nicos Christodoulides, has declared, our main concern is to work with all our forces to achieve a solution for an independent and truly sovereign state, free of any anachronistic guarantees and the presence of occupying troops.
We are working for the end of the occupation, the reunification of our homeland through the achievement of a peaceful solution to the Cyprus problem.
With reverence and undiminished commitment, we will continue to devote every bit of our energies to building a Cyprus that will be a symbol of peace, stability and progress in the region.
A modern, European model country that guarantees the human rights of all its inhabitants, that guarantees hope and that is based on mutual respect and solidarity, ready to chart its own unique course on the map of world history.
I express my sincere thanks to the Paphos Music Club for tonight's event and for the honourable invitation to place it under my patronage. Congratulations to all those who contributed and those who supported this effort to make tonight's event possible.
Tonight is not the night for grand rhetoric, our people are tired of it. After all, I am convinced that there are times when words cannot contain the heartbreak and anguish. But music and poetry can.
There is something in the rhythm that touches the depths of our soul, that electrifies us to the marrow, that embraces words and turns them into emotion. Tonight let's give music space to say what we are unable to compose and spell.
Music unites, narrates, touches, guides, fills with hope, travels. So tonight, let's let music take us on a journey through space and time. And we will experience it together. There are moments, like tonight, when the tragedy of the moment transcends the narrow boundaries set by time and space. Through poetry and music, our minds travel.
It dissolves the barbed wire of occupation, crosses our unforgettable occupied villages and coasts, dispels the cloud of nightmarish oblivion. Today our soul travels to the enchanting shores of Famagusta, Kyrenia and Morphou. To the castles of Pentadaktylos, to Agios Hilarion, to Vufavento. In the monasteries of Apostles Andrew and Barnabas, in the places where hundreds of our compatriots lived, fought and sacrificed.
Dead and missing, refugees and trapped, protagonists of a merciless modern tragedy.
The heavy legacy we honour today dictates our duty. To fight unwaveringly for the end of the occupation, the unity of the state, the safeguarding of human rights and the basic freedoms of all the Cypriot people. We owe it, after all, to the generations of our ancestors, but even more so to our children.
Through the lyrics of Michalis Pasiardis, I conclude my greeting from the poem "We are waiting for you", which sums up the pain of refugeeism, the agony of the families of the missing and the longing for return.
We are waiting for you to come, children
In this hour of hope.
We are waiting for you to come, children
In this hour of hope.
To come from death
From prison
From the cellar
In this corner, in this house
In this bag, in the refugee
We are waiting for you.
Today, today to come
Today to be together.
Otherwise we have no Christmas
We have no hope
We have no star
We have no joy
We have no comfort - beloved
Friends, brothers and sisters
On this day, we wait for you.
Be together.
(PM/EAth/EP)
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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