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- Ελληνικά
The President of the Republic Mr. Nikos Christodoulides received today, at the Presidential Palace, a group of students of the Faculty of Philosophy of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. The group of students was accompanied by a group of professors.
The President of the Republic announced to the students that for one of the two pioneers of the institution of visits of the University's students to Cyprus for 35 years, Professor of Linguistics and member of the University's Committee for Cyprus, Mr. Nikos Khristodoulos, the President of the Republic announced the visit of the students to Cyprus. Panagiotis Kontos, who has passed away, by decision of the President of the Republic himself, the Republic of Cyprus, next Monday, on the day of the funeral service, will confer posthumous Cypriot citizenship to the deceased for his contribution to the development of relations between Greece and Cyprus in the field of education.
Addressing the students, the President of the Republic said: "This annual visit by the National and Kapodistrian University has become an institution. I was thinking, looking at my schedule this morning for my meetings today, that two days ago I saw students from Athens. And last week I saw students from a high school in Thessaloniki. Many times we take for granted, because of the relations at the political level, that they know enough, either the children in Greece or in Cyprus, our young people, our students, about our history and our culture and the challenges that we have to face.
And I think this institution of visits, which I had the blessing to experience when I was in the second grade, when we visited Greece, how important such visits are.
For Cyprus in particular, 2024 is a historic year.
For Cyprus in particular, 2024 is a historic year. Historical because it will be 50 years, half a century since the Turkish invasion. Half a century of continued occupation of our homeland. 50 years later there are refugees, there are missing persons, there are people trapped. And I sometimes wonder, having participated previously in my capacity as Foreign Minister and now as President of the Republic of Cyprus in various European Union (EU) Councils, seeing all that is happening in Ukraine and the reaction of the international community, which is exactly what happened in Cyprus, how important it is to remind everyone that the occupation continues in Cyprus, but at the same time to do everything possible to put an end to this unacceptable state of affairs. I am sure you will have the opportunity to see the ceasefire line. This cannot be the future of our country.
I feel a particularly great responsibility, because in the history of the Republic of Cyprus, since it became an independent state in 1960, I am the first President to come from the generation of war. I was born in December 1973. I was born and raised in an occupied homeland and under no circumstances should anyone, in Cyprus, in Greece and in general in Hellenism everywhere, be given the impression that this situation that we are experiencing today is the normal state of affairs in Cyprus. It is not the normal state of affairs. There is occupation, there are still refugees, missing persons, trapped and the next generation of all those who lived through the first years of democracy have a great responsibility to do what is necessary, what is possible to reunite our land.
Because I am really worried. I want to express this concern, even publicly, that this situation we are seeing is not static. This situation that we see is getting worse day by day. The fait accompli is clearly more every day and, by extension, it makes it even more difficult to try to resolve the Cyprus problem.
Issues that are now being discussed on the table, the last time we had talks, were not issues that were on the table in 1980, in 1984, in 1990. The passage of time creates new issues, new difficulties, new challenges and takes us even further away from the goal.
But 2024 also marks another anniversary. 20 years from the most important success of this country, its accession to the EU. An accession that when the effort towards this goal first started - and I have to say this because the effort did not start in Cyprus, the effort started in Greece, it was Greece that encouraged the Republic of Cyprus to apply for membership of the European Economic Community at that time - nobody believed that this goal could be achieved.
And yet, in 2004, with the help of Greece, the Greek Parliament, the Government, the Greek people, we succeeded in becoming a member state of the EU. And what we are trying to do today is to make use of the data created by this great success, EU membership, in order to help resolve the Cyprus problem. This is one of the objectives we are trying to achieve and we are gradually seeing a positive response from the EU, from our partners in the region. But at the same time, because we live in an anarchic international system - a British politician said many years ago that there are no friends, there are interests - we are trying as a small state, always within our capabilities, to prove not with words but with actions that the Republic of Cyprus is not only the Cyprus problem.
The Republic of Cyprus is a country which, yes, always within its capabilities, I do not want to exaggerate, can offer solutions to European, to international, to regional problems.
And because we know very well from tragedies, that is why we took an important initiative after what happened in Israel in October with the terrorist attack and Israel's reaction. Today we believe that there should be a ceasefire. We cannot experience or in any way justify this kind of behaviour, to see civilian casualties.
We started in October and first we presented to the international community - I remember in Paris the French President had a summit, where the Republic of Cyprus participated, on humanitarian aid in Gaza - a proposal which, I must say, at the beginning no one thought it could be implemented. I am particularly pleased that, almost six months later, this initiative has begun to be implemented, providing all the aid so far to a civilian population in need of this humanitarian aid, thus demonstrating that even small states, when they have clear objectives and a clear orientation, can offer solutions to regional and international problems. By extension, we can make use of this international interest or positive visibility on the occasion of the initiative of the Republic of Cyprus, so that we can achieve our number one goal, which is the end of the occupation and the reunification of our country.
In this effort, Cyprus and Greece, Greece and Cyprus are one. We are working together, especially within our common European family, within the EU. We know very well both in Athens and in Nicosia that we cannot change the geography. Geography largely determines our history. And we are here, two countries, as pillars of security and stability, not with words, but with actions, with concrete initiatives, to solve any problems that exist, with the solution of the Cyprus problem being the top priority, of course, and a prerequisite, if you like, for any effort to achieve peace and cooperation in the region.
I consider your presence very important, especially this year, when we have these two anniversaries, these two important milestones for this place."
I consider your presence very important, especially this year, when we have these two anniversaries, these two important milestones for this place.
Finally, the students presented the President of the Republic with commemorative gifts, while the students of the School's Music Department sang to President Christodoulides Cypriot songs, as well as struggle songs about Cyprus.
(PM/EAth/NG)
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