Demetriou honours Eoka, calls Holguin’s arrival ‘positive step’

House President Annita Demetriou described the arrival of UN Envoy Maria Angela Holguin as a “positive first step” at an event held in honour of Eoka fighters in Pelendri.

“The geopolitical facts as they are taking shape and the challenges we must face do not favour frozen conflicts. After so many years of stagnation, a new opportunity has presented itself in the Cyprus problem,” she said.

She added, “we do not support the notion that with [Holguin’s] arrival, Turkey will put an end to its unacceptable threatening rhetoric or stop its continuous efforts to create new faits accomplis, but this is a positive first step.”

She also said Cyprus “now more than ever needs this matter to be handled correctly, so as to show our determination and will for a comprehensive and fair settlement to the benefit of our entire people, based upon the agreed framework.”

She also spoke of how “Ankara’s narrative has unfortunately managed to make its way into the international community”, with the result of a new “international mistrust” and “a policy of equal distances” towards Cyprus’ two sides.

Moving onto the matter of Eoka, she said “we honour the struggle of Eoka and the leader [Georgios Grivas]. This, for us at Disy, is a continuous internal process of gratitude and rebaptism in the ideas and struggles of this nation.”

“Cypriot Hellenism has both a memory and a judgment and can distinguish who really honours the Eoka struggle and our fighters and who is exploiting it in their attempts to divide and misinform. We will not follow them out of respect for our heroes!” she said.