I want to hope that the situation in Ukraine will not last indefinitely and perhaps the prospects are being created from the ashes of a war of the need for peaceful resolution of disputes, including the Cyprus problem, President Nicos Anastasiades said tonight.
In his remarks to reporters, while attending the inauguration ceremony of the Takis Pattichi Museum of Industrial Pharmacy in Limassol, and asked about the resumption of the Cyprus-Greece ferry connection, he said that "it is indeed a historic day to reconnect Cyprus with Greece. It will make it easier for many people who, because of fear, do not travel by plane. Therefore, I can only welcome this effort which has finally been a success."
Asked to comment on new provocative statements by Turkish Cypriot leader Mr. Ersin Tatar that Varosha will remain under the "sovereignty" of the pseudo-state and that he will not accept to be the subject of discussion in relation to confidence-building measures, the President of the Republic said that "it is a repetition and an identification of intransigence with the positions concerning the solution of the Cyprus problem.
They have abandoned, as they have also expressed in writing to the Secretary General, the position for a bizonal bicommunal federation, adhering to something that humanity at large, the international organizations, the EU, but also a number of states do not accept because, if it were ever accepted, it would open Pandora's box for many other separatist tendencies observed in various countries.
It is not what Mr. Tatar wishes and seeks but what international law dictates, and we will stick to that without backing down not only on Varosha but more generally on one of the Secretary General's six points which was territorial adjustments."
In response to another question, President Anastasiades said that "at this time, without a doubt, world attention is turning to a catastrophic, unfortunately, war. But I want to hope that this situation will not last indefinitely and perhaps the prospects are being created out of the ashes of a war, the need for a peaceful resolution of disputes, among which, of course, is the Cyprus problem."
(PM/MG)
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