President to visit Berlin this month, diaspora commissioner to be appointed

President Nikos Christodoulides said he will visit Berlin within the month as part of his efforts to break the deadlock in Cyprus problem negotiations with a more active involvement of the EU.

Following his meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, with whom Christodoulides said he had a “very constructive and substantial” discussion on the Cyprus problem this week, the Cypriot president announced his plan to travel to Berlin in May.

“We are working for a solution that will make Cyprus a normal, functioning state, without dependencies, without any anachronistic guarantees and of course without occupying troops,” the new president said.

He was speaking at the dinner hosted in his honour in London on Saturday evening by the National Cyprus Federation of the United Kingdom, after the president attended the King’s coronation.

Breaking of the Cyprus deadlock and the resumption of the settlement talks is a top priority, Christodoulides said, adding that the current status quo is not an option.

“For me, the prospect of a Cyprus settlement, the effort to resolve the Cyprus problem, is a one-way street. The division of our homeland 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”.

He referred to the need for the reunification of Cyprus on the basis of the agreed framework for a solution with one sovereignty, one citizenship and one international personality, in accordance with UN resolutions, EU principles and values and the acquis Communautaire. Cyprus is an EU member state and will continue to be so after the resolution of the Cyprus problem, he noted.

Efforts are focused on a more active role for the EU, which has “the toolbox and the incentives” to lead, through a mutually beneficial process, to positive developments.

“Our aim is to link Euro-Turkish relations with the resumption of settlement negotiations on the basis of the agreed form of solution with a European standard content,” he added.

“I am all too well aware of the difficulties, the problems, the Turkish vision in relation to the Cyprus settlement. But I am also aware that the passage of time creates more and more difficulties and further distances the prospect of reunification,” the president said.

He went on to say that his election campaign is the “social contract” with the Cypriot people.

During the event, the president also announced that a commissioner with exclusive responsibility for diaspora issues will soon be appointed.

He spoke in particular of the role that the Greek Cypriot community can play and referred to the close relationship he has developed with the Cypriot community in Britain since his years serving in London as Consul General.

For his part, the President of the National Cyprus Federation, Christos Karolios, expressed the support of the Greek Cypriots in Britain in the struggle for the Cyprus problem.

He also referred to the Federation’s Hands Off Cyprus online initiative, through which letters calling for an end to the Turkish occupation reached 73 per cent of British MPs last year.