Famagustians have been waiting for 50 years to be able to return to their occupied city, Famagusta Mayor Simos Ioannou said on Wednesday the anniversary of the second leg of the 1974 Turkish Invasion.

“We have been waiting for 50 years for the blessed hour of return to our occupied city,” he said.

He also expressed the hope that this hour will not come too late.

Speaking at an extraordinary open session of the Famagusta Municipal Council, held just before noon at the Municipality’s Cultural Centre in Dherynia, he said that “it is with great sadness and pain that for yet another year, 50 years now, we are at the curbs of our beloved city and we are waiting for the blessed hour, which I hope will not be too late, to return to our city”.

He said that on August 14 all the people of the sealed off area of Varosha and the Greek Cypriots in Famagusta left, for fear of the invasion.

They all left believing they would soon return, he added.

Ioannou also said that everyone knows “who the causes of the people leaving the city are. It is not the people of Famagusta, as some people used to criticize people for leaving the city, because the reality is completely different. One day those who left the city defenceless must be held accountable while they are still alive.”

From my own personal experience, he continued, “I know exactly what happened that day, because I was a conscript soldier. I know that we passed through Famagusta on the evening of August 14, and we began to shout to the Battalion Commanders from where to go to Anglissides and not to stay inside Famagusta; unfortunately the orders were different,” he noted. 

Reading a statement, he said, August 14, “marks 50 years of Turkish occupation of our city, 50 years of our refugee status. The City Council is a tribute to the people of Famagusta, who fell fighting for the defence of our homeland, and to all our fellow citizens who died as refugees.”

The Municipal Council “stresses that the people of Famagusta remain loyal to the struggle for return, freedom and reunification and that the achievement of this goal is a guarantee for the future of Famagusta, Cyprus and all Cypriots. To this end, the Municipal Council reaffirms its firm position in favour of finding a comprehensive solution to the Cyprus problem, based on a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation, with political equality between the two communities, as defined by the relevant United Nations resolutions, and which provides for a state with one sovereignty, one international personality and one citizenship”.

At the same time, the council “condemns Turkey’s illegal and provocative actions in Famagusta, which create new de facto situations that work against the prospect of return to our city in violation of the relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions. Turkey’s aim is to make the partition permanent and legal, which cannot be achieved as long as the possibility of returning to our city remains feasible and realistic.”

For this reason, the City Council “looks forward to the immediate resumption of negotiations, from the point where they were suspended in 2017 in Crans-Montana, based on the Guterres Framework and all the convergences achieved so far. The resumption of talks under the auspices of the UN Secretary General is the only way to save our city and reach a peaceful solution to the Cyprus problem.”

The mayor and members of the municipal council, holding a banner that read “50 years away from you…” and placards with the parishes located within the municipal boundaries of occupied Famagusta, were photographed with the occupied city as a background.