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Our side is ready for the resumption of talks, President of the Hellenic Republic Nicos Christodoulides said today.
In his remarks on the sidelines of the Pancyprian Congress of ETYK, the President of the Republic, in response to a journalist's remark that while there was a de-escalation of tension between Turkey and Greece with the suspension of overflights by Turkey in the Aegean Sea, The Turkish President said that "indeed, especially after the earthquakes in Turkey and possibly because of the elections in the country, we saw a different approach on the part of Turkey, we saw a new climate being created in relations between Athens and Ankara.
You understand that the elections (in Turkey) have been completed, and as far as our issue in particular is concerned, what we expect is that there will be concrete results towards the resumption of talks, and that is where our efforts are focused.
Following the conclusion of the electoral process in Turkey, we are in contact with European capitals, with EU heads of state, as well as with the EU institutions, to see how this proposal, the new approach that we have put on the table about the need for the EU to have a more active, leading role - because we believe that the EU has all those incentives to create or lead to a mutually beneficial state of affairs through the Cyprus solution - can be taken forward.
There are milestones, we have a European Council at the end of June, there is an important summit beforehand that I think there will be discussions on the sidelines, there is the NATO summit that will take place in Lithuania before the European Council, and what we expect is to create facts that will lead to the breaking of the deadlock and the resumption of the talks. We will all be judged through developments, through concrete actions."
In response to a journalist's remark that, according to analysts, there is a strong government in Turkey, a strong government is expected in Greece, while there is a strong government in Cyprus, so there are chances of a solution to the Cyprus problem, the President of the Republic said that "there are three important facts. At the same time there is another fact. It is the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the destabilizing tendencies that are being created, the EU's reaction to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. There are exactly these facts, and these are some of the facts that we are also using in our efforts, which, yes, should lead to a result - and we hope it will have a result, the result will determine everything - in the direction of breaking the deadlock and resuming the talks.
We are ready. I can say this with absolute certainty, with absolute awareness of what I am saying, with very concrete proposals that we have shared to some extent with EU member states that we have asked to mediate or have a leading role in the direction of the EU. And for the avoidance of any doubt, we always speak within the UN framework. The EU should come to support the actions of the UN."
Asked to refer to a joint exercise between Poland, Spain and the pseudo-state, the President said that "relevant inquiries have been made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As far as I understand from the first information I received, it was a Turkish exercise involving the countries you mentioned and Turkey had invited the Pseudo-state as well. This is not the first time this has happened. It is for this reason that we ask the states that are invited to participate in Turkey's exercises, exercises that Turkey sometimes organizes within the framework of NATO, to be particularly careful and to investigate beforehand which others will participate, because it is one of the efforts that Turkey is making to supposedly upgrade the status of the pseudo-state."
(PM/NG)
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