The President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, said on Wednesday that upcoming developments will soon confirm a fresh wave of momentum on the Cyprus issue, noting that the government’s intensive efforts are beginning to bear fruit with the aim of resuming talks for a comprehensive Cyprus solution.

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the memorial service for those who fell during the 1974 coup, held at the Church of Saints Constantine and Helen, in Nicosia, President Christodoulides stressed that the diplomatic activity now seen is not accidental but the result of hard and methodical work.

“There are several developments. In the coming days we will hear other news that will demonstrate this activity” he said, adding that the goal is for this momentum to translate into concrete results.

Referring to the anniversary of the coup, the President said “we are here to condemn the treacherous coup for which there is absolutely no justification. We are here to honour all those who sacrificed so that there may be democracy in this land, so that the Republic of Cyprus may exist. Our gratitude is eternal.”

He pointed out that “the treacherous coup was used by Turkey as a pretext to impose long-standing objectives, goals that had been set even before the founding of the Republic of Cyprus, and it is precisely these goals that we have worked from the first day the Cypriot people entrusted us with power to overturn through a functional and viable solution to the Cyprus problem that will reunite in practice the Republic of Cyprus, which is a member state of the European Union and will remain so after the solution of the Cyprus problem.”

“There are several developments. In the coming days we will hear other news that will demonstrate this activity. An activity we worked very hard to achieve. An activity we continue to work on so that it is transformed into concrete results. Results that are nothing other than the resumption of talks from where they were interrupted, for a solution that is fully compatible with the principles, the values and the law of the European Union. Only in this way will we prevent Turkish objectives, as they were manifested under the pretext — the excuse — of the treacherous coup of 1974”, he said.

Asked whether a date for an expanded meeting has been set, and whether the developments he referred to will take place in that context, the President of the Republic said, “announcements will be made by those who are the protagonists. So allow me to let them make the announcements. They will be indications of this activity which, I repeat, from day one with a specific plan and specific design we brought results and we continue because for us the present state of affairs is not the future of Cyprus. We continue so as to achieve the objective, I repeat, of a functional, viable solution on the basis of the law, the principles and the values of the European Union.”

The President expressed satisfaction because he sees “for the first time such interest on the part of the European Union, a desire for a leading role, something we had, I repeat, advocated from the first moment.”