President seeks Cyprus talks resumption, Defence Minister says

All the efforts of President, Nikos Christodoulides, are focused on the liberation and reunification of Cyprus, to break the impasse that has arisen and to create the conditions that will allow the resumption of talks, Defence Minister, Michalis Georgallas, said on Sunday.

He was addressing a memorial service at the village of Houlou, Paphos district.

Georgallas said that the president “seeks to achieve the resumption of an honest dialogue, without unnecessary communication games, blame games, non-existent and provocative claims and actions that undermine the entire effort and process and aim to create new faits accomplis”. We seek, he said, a just, viable and functional solution, a solution that will free our homeland and allow our people to live in conditions of security and prosperity.

He added, among other things, that the “solution of two independent states” proposed by Turkey is under no circumstances an option for Greek Cypriots.

On the contrary, he continued, the effort to impose a slow and silent division threatens to destroy any convergence of views and positions that exists, endangering the very foundations of the entire process.

Despite any problems and Turkey’s unacceptable claims in the Cyprus issue, we are asking for an enhanced involvement of the EU and will continue to try, to make our homeland a free state, in which peace and justice will prevail with the same determination and the same strong will, he noted.

In another memorial service on Saturday, in Nicosia district, Georgallas assured that President Christodoulides’ priorities are the resumption of talks on the Cyprus issue and the issue of the missing.