Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades has said that the government will make its utmost to achieve a settlement of the Cyprus problem that will be fully compatible with the acquis communautaire, “with a view to give hope and prospect to our children and a better future to our homeland.”
He said that the current climate allows us to be hopeful, noting however that he does not want to be over-optimistic and ignore the difficulties and the role which Turkey must play for a Cyprus settlement.
The President expressed his satisfaction over the fact that the majority of the members of political parties and of the political party leaderships support efforts for the reunification of Cyprus, noting that this gives a new dimension to the hope and the prospects being created after the selection of the new Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci.
“For the first time there is a hope. I don`t want to be over-optimistic, I do not ignore the difficulties, I do not ignore the role which Turkey must play if we want to see our problem being solved, in a way that will allow us to refer to the acquis communautaire and the human rights, to speak about the establishment of those conditions that will allow us to work together with our Turkish Cypriot compatriots,” he noted.
He said that Cyprus is a small country which cannot be divided and that “we must all together seek to change the current unacceptable situation and the unacceptable status quo, and right now there is at least a climate which allows us to be hopeful.”
A new round of UN-backed talks with the aim to reunite Cyprus, divided since the 1974 Turkish invasion, resumed last month.
CNA/MK/GV/2015
ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY