His decision to appoint a Commissioner exclusively for Expatriate Affairs was announced last night by the President of the Republic Mr.Nikos Christodoulides, who attended a dinner hosted in his honour by the National Cypriot Federation of the United Kingdom, at the premises of the Greek Cypriot Brotherhood in London.
Before the Federation's dinner, the President of the Republic had a meeting with expatriate relatives of the missing persons, whom he informed about the ongoing efforts aimed at determining the fate of their loved ones.
He also had a private meeting with the leadership of the National Cyprus Federation.
During the dinner, President Christodoulides, in his greeting, among other things, said: "It is always with feelings of special emotion and joy that I am once again here in the United Kingdom and in London. Every visit here brings back so many experiences and faces.
It is here, several years ago, around 21, that I took my first steps as a diplomat. Our High Commission in London was my first diplomatic post and I had the great honour and blessing to serve as the Consul General of the Republic of Cyprus. It was an honour, a blessing and a great privilege to be entrusted with this position because, among many other things, it gave me the opportunity to get to know the members of the Cypriot community in the United Kingdom.
Through my capacity as Consul General, I participated with you in many events. We have shared happy times, sad times, shared personal joys and sorrows, and I have had the privilege and satisfaction of assisting and supporting, always to the best of my ability, in addressing problems you have had.
Above all, however, from my first acquaintance with the members of the Cyprus Parish, I have known and experienced the great and selfless love and concern of all of you for our country, for our Cyprus, and your interest in ending the occupation and reuniting our homeland.
Many years have passed since then, but I have never ceased to have contact with you and to visit you again and again, either as a friend or in my capacity as Government Spokesman and subsequently as Foreign Minister. I have met many remarkable members and officers of the Parish over the years. And I am delighted to see many young people among us who are the future of our parish and their presence here also shows the future that our parish has in Britain.
Some of those I met and worked with are no longer alive and some are still in this room today, they are the veterans, the backbone of the parish. So many people, but who share the double pain of being abroad and away from their beloved Cyprus and, at the same time, the tragic results of the Turkish invasion and the ongoing occupation.
I want to stress, however, that in all these years, members of the UK Cypriot community still strongly share something more important, which is the shield of all of us who are temporarily involved in the decision-making process in our homeland. They share and are essentially struggling, they have the unquenchable fortitude to return to our occupied homeland, the stubbornness not to allow the finalities of the Turkish invasion to be legitimised. They have the unquenchable flame of hope that our occupied homeland will once again be free and reunited.
I stand with you tonight for the first time as President of the Republic of Cyprus, and I want to thank you and say on behalf of the Cypriot state how proud we are of all of you, for the work you have done over the years and the effort you have offered for our homeland.
I want to assure you that this stubbornness and fortitude of the Paroikia gives all of us the strength to continue the struggle until the final vindication, liberation and reunification of our homeland.
I feel the need, even more so as President of the Republic, to mention this. I have experienced it from the first moment I have been with you, you may come from different parties, you may have different ideologies, but at the end of the day, and you prove it through your actions, your party is Cyprus, it is our homeland and I really hope that some people in Cyprus will learn, we all learn, to act on the basis of your behaviour.
The top priority of my administration is to break the deadlock and resume the talks for the resolution of the Cyprus problem, the need to reunite our country on the basis of the agreed framework for a solution, with one sovereignty, one citizenship, one international personality, in accordance with the UN resolutions, the principles and values of the EU, the acquis communautaire. The Republic of Cyprus is an EU member state and will continue to be so after the settlement of the Cyprus problem.
We are working for a solution that will make Cyprus a normal and functioning state, without dependencies, without any anachronistic guarantees and without occupying troops. That allows the state and all its legitimate citizens to live in conditions of prosperity, security, mutual respect and application of human rights for all.
For me, the prospect of a solution to the Cyprus problem, the effort for a solution is a one-way street. The division of Cyprus as a result of the invasion and occupation by Turkey is a huge anomaly in the heart of Europe and can in no way be the future of our homeland.
Our efforts are focused on breaking the deadlock, through a leading role of the EU, and always within the framework of the United Nations. And it is precisely for this reason that, immediately after taking office, I launched a major diplomatic effort aimed at mutual benefit for all parties involved in the Cyprus problem, through the security, stability and prosperity that a solution to the Cyprus problem can bring.
In particular, our aim is to link Euro-Turkish relations with the resumption of negotiations for the settlement of the Cyprus problem, on the basis of the agreed form of solution with a content of European standards. Our aim is to develop an integrated debate in the EU and, to achieve this, we are working very methodically and very concretely, we have already prepared a policy paper on this, with the key point being the appointment of a political figure from the European Union to take the lead in this direction. And we insist on the direction of the EU because it has the appropriate toolbox, the incentives to be able to lead us through a mutually beneficial process to positive developments in the Cyprus problem.
Developments that will turn the European citizens of Cyprus into first-class citizens and not second-class citizens as they are today, since so many years later they are still deprived of human rights and basic freedoms in their own country, experiencing daily the tragic consequences of the Turkish occupation.
I am in London on my way back from France, where I had a very constructive and substantive discussion with the French President on this issue, among other issues, but in particular on the need for the EU to play a more active role. I would like to inform you that in May I will also go to Berlin to see how we can coordinate our actions with a view to breaking the deadlock and resuming the talks from where they left off in Crans-Montana.
I know very well the difficulties, I know the problems, I know the Turkish approach, the Turkish vision with regard to the resolution of the Cyprus problem. But I am also aware that the passage of time is also creating new realities, creating more difficulties and pushing the prospect of reunification even further away, which is not an option for us. Legitimising the present state of affairs cannot be the future of our country.
I took over the government of this country at a difficult time, two months and a few days ago, and I am very well aware of the high, and I would say rightly so, expectations of society.
I will go through these five years, just as I did during the election campaign, together with the people, together with society, in constant consultation with them, without populism, without fine words, but also without divisive approaches.
My electoral programme is my social contract with the Cypriot people and I will proceed on the basis of it.
Apart from the Cyprus problem, from the first day I took office we have been working to address another major challenge that we have in Cyprus, a challenge that goes beyond the borders of our homeland and that is the one of price inflation, as a result of inflationary trends. Again, also on this issue, far from inexpensive parochialism and with the need to maintain fiscal discipline - for us this is a priority because if there is no fiscal discipline you cannot have a social policy - we have taken concrete, targeted actions.
Just yesterday we proceeded with the implementation of a zero VAT rate on a number of basic everyday goods to help the Cypriot family. We proceeded a few days ago to create a digital platform, a digital tool to directly and better inform consumers about prices in the market, thus attempting to ensure transparency, the possibility to compare prices on a daily basis and, by extension, to inform all households directly about prices. We have extended the measures to subsidise the cost of electricity consumption and the excise duty on fuel, we have presented new projects where we are exploiting renewable energy sources while at the same time extending the beneficiaries, while, within the framework of our social policy, a policy which has Man at its heart, we have taken the initiative, always within our capabilities, but also within the framework in which we can operate as an executive, towards banking institutions, takeover companies and the public authorities. The challenges, whether they relate to our national issue, which I know how much you are interested in, or whether they relate to internal governance issues, which again you are interested in and following, are many.
But we have the plan, we have the design, and based on that we have been working from day one, with our main objective being to vindicate the Cypriot society that was the one that put us in power and to them, I make it clear, we have to be accountable and prove through our deeds, through the day-to-day way we do politics, that they did the right thing.
In closing, I would like to say that in this course of our governance, our homogeneity is very, very high. I said before that I have been blessed to work with you, I have been blessed as a student to know the community and in the United States, I have been blessed as a diplomat to know our community in Athens, so I know very well what it means to be an expatriate, what it means to use the expatriate properly, especially at this stage where we are in a transition period with the new generation of our community taking the reins. And it is for this reason that the Government's intention, which will be announced soon, is the appointment of a Commissioner, who will have exclusive responsibility for the issues of our expatriates."
For his part, the President of the National Cyprus Federation Mr. Christos Karolis, welcoming the President of the Republic, said: "It is with great pleasure that we welcome you, together with the First Lady and your entourage, Mr. President, and we thank you very much for accepting our invitation to meet and brief the Federation and the Diaspora so soon after your election. We warmly congratulate you on your election as President of the Republic of Cyprus last February and wish you every success in the difficult task you are undertaking.
The National Cypriot Federation and our community support your tireless efforts to resume talks for a just solution to the Cyprus problem with your interlocutor Ersin Tatar. Of course, this will also depend on the elections that will take place this month in Turkey and Greece.
Today, we are all experiencing a defining period for world peace, with the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine and the death and destruction it left in its wake. We condemn the Russian invasion and at the same time remind the powers that be, and especially the country we live in, of the apathy with which they faced the Turkish invasion and occupation of Cyprus in July '74.
Unfortunately, Cyprus continues to face Turkish intransigence. Increasing advertisements to promote the pseudo-state; increasing threats to open hotels in the enclosed town of Varosha; and increasing provocative statements by Turkey and Mr Tatar about the creation of two states.
Here in England we are responding to misinformation and refuting Turkish propaganda. Last year, the Advertising Standards Agency received the third highest number of complaints about pseudo-state advertising in Britain, after a Federation campaign. In recent years, every July, our email campaign to end the Turkish occupation and free Cyprus, (email campaign Turkey - Hands Off Cyprus) has been very well received by our compatriots in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Scotland, Wales and across the UK. We congratulate and thank the diaspora, and our many British friends who helped us last year to contact 472 MPs (73% of MPs) who received emails from their constituents about Cyprus.
Today, as never before, we believe that we need to be aware of the great historical responsibility of all of us. We need unity and national unity. Despite the Turkish threats and provocations, the continuous Turkish propaganda and misinformation, we, with the cooperation of the High Commissioner, the Ambassador of Greece and the Archbishop of Thyatira, continue our united struggles to end the Turkish occupation. The National Cypriot Federation and the British Expatriate community express our sympathy and support to the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nicos Christodoulides, in this struggle. The benefits of the European Union, a peaceful tomorrow, progress and prosperity belong to all the inhabitants of our island, Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots, Maronites, Armenians and Latins."
Mr. Karolis stressed that President Christodoulides has served Cyprus from many distinguished positions, noting that his undivided dedication to Cyprus and the well-being of its citizens is an inspiration, while his guidance has been extremely important in shaping Cyprus' foreign policy.
Mr. Karaolis also referred to the presence of NEPOMAK representatives at the dinner, noting the love of the new generation of expatriates for Cyprus and assuring that, as long as the Turkish occupation of the homeland continues, future generations will continue to keep the Cyprus problem on the UK's political agenda through their own struggle.
He also assured of the determination of the Cypriot diaspora to support the President's efforts to resolve the Cyprus problem on the basis of a bizonal bicommunal federation and the European acquis.
Finally, Mr.
The President of the Republic was accompanied at the dinner by his wife Mrs. Philippa Karchera Christodoulides, while the Archbishop of Thyatira and Great Britain, Mr.Mr Nikitas, the High Commissioner of the Republic to Britain Mr Andreas Kakouris, the Government Spokesman Mr Konstantinos Letibiotis, the Director of the President's Diplomatic Office Mrs Marilena Raouna, the Ambassador of Greece to Britain, members of the Greek community and a large number of expatriates.
(PM/MB)
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