Monday, 31 July 2023
Further to reports that the two Cypriot community leaders met at the Committee for Missing Persons’ (CMP) laboratory last week, it was stated that the two leaders had a private meeting, the details of which have not been revealed, Yeniduzen reports.
Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides said that he had a short “private meeting” with the “Turkish Cypriot leader” Ersin Tatar during their visit to the Committee for Missing Persons, but he did not want to publicly reveal the contents of the meeting.
During a commemoration ceremony held for the first President of the Republic of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios, Christodoulides said that “neither occupation nor the status quo is accepted” and added: “The current situation cannot be the future of our homeland. This is not the future we want to leave to our children. We are fighting with the aim of restoring human rights for all legal citizens of the Republic of Cyprus”.
He went on to quote Makarios who said: “Our struggle is not against Turkish Cypriots. They are also victims“.
Christodoulides went on to state that the aim is to resume the negotiations from where they left off in 2017. “Ending the occupation and reuniting our homeland is the only option before us. We are working for a solution in line with the values of European and international law”.
The Greek Cypriot leader, after the ceremony, told journalists that he and Tatar would meet with the UN Secretary-General as representatives of both Cypriot community leaders in September in New York and that this would be decisive.
