The government is working consistently and persistently on the diplomatic front to pave the way for an expanded meeting and the resumption of talks from where they broke off at Crans-Montana in 2017, without losing what has already been agreed, Labour and Social Insurance Minister Marinos Mousiouttas said on Sunday. Mousiouttas was speaking at a memorial service for Spyros Chadjiyiakoumis, a fighter of EOKA, the Greek Cypriot organisation that fought British colonial rule between 1955 and 1959, at the Church of Agia Varvara in Nicosia district. He said the framework is clear: a bizonal, bicommunal federation with political equality, as defined in UN Security Council resolutions, for a European Cyprus without occupation troops, anachronistic guarantees or intervention rights for third parties. "What is missing is Turkey's political will," he said.
No two-state solution
Mousiouttas said a two-state solution would never be accepted and that the fait accompli created by the 1974 invasion would not be legitimised. He added that the demand for Turkey to open its military archives would not be dropped, so that the fate of every missing person can be established. Turning to Chadjiyiakoumis, the minister said his example shows that freedom cannot be taken for granted and that every day lived in freedom in the free part of the homeland is a gift from people like him who gave their lives. Heroism, he said, does not live only in history books but in the humblest home and the simplest person, such as a shepherd from Syrkania, adding that this message must be passed on in schools to new generations who lived through neither 1955 nor 1974 but will be called upon to keep the country standing.
Source: CNA
