We the undersigned welcome the announcement by the UN on Wednesday that all crossing points will be reopened on Friday 4 June, more than 15 months after they were unilaterally closed. The closure split families, friends and loved ones and risked cementing the division of our country permanently.
Yet another male-dominated, “leader”-led round of talks collapsed in Geneva yesterday. All those who took part bear responsibility.
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Our thoughts go with the people injured during the protest against corruption and authoritarianism on Saturday. One of the slogans used in the protest "Corruption and division go hand in hand" has also been our key message and concern for years. We do not want to live in a divided, increasingly militarised and corrupt police state but in a united country under the rule of law where our fundamental democratic rights, including the freedom of assembly can be respected.
It has been almost a year since restrictions on crossings were unilaterally imposed. This led progressively to the banning of all crossings over the Green Line within the measures taken against Coronavirus. Instead of cooperating to coordinate measures to stop the virus coming from abroad into our small island so that we can keep internal mobility, economy and life as a whole as intact as much possible, impotency and a divisionist mentality prevailed, making a huge damage on the lives of ordinary Cypriots.
Today marks the anniversary of the start of the intercommunal conflict in Cyprus.
It is a sad and bitter day for our country when Cypriots turned against fellow Cypriots on 21 December 1963. Regardless of what the official rhetoric and history books of both communities want us to blindly believe, we now understand that it was the failure of former generations to establish a common understanding and acceptance of each other that was the real reason behind this fallout.
With reference to the recent statement by Turkish Foreign Minister Mr Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu to the UN that Turkey considers the “federal project no longer sustainable” and “promotes a two-state settlement based on equal sovereignty” instead, we would like to remind all parties involved in the Cyprus problem that it is ultimately the Cypriot communities who will have the final say in deciding their own future.
