Cyprus News Agency: News in English, 08-09-25

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From: The Cyprus News Agency at <http://www.cyna.org.cy>

CONTENTS

[01] CYPRUS PRESIDENT - UN ASSEMBLY

[02] CYPRIOT FM CONTACTS - RICE

[03] CYPRUS - OBAMA - BIDEN

[04] ARCHBISHOP ANASTASIOS OF ALBANIA - CYPRUS VISIT

[01] CYPRUS PRESIDENT - UN ASSEMBLY

He pointed out that this was not enough for achieving a solution and that Turkey should contribute to the process in a positive way.

In an address to the 63rd Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, President Christofias said that ``the UN is important to the international community and it is particularly important to Cyprus,`` and welcomed the focus given this week to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and special needs for Africa.

``Cyprus is firmly committed to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and maintains an emphasis on Africa in its overseas development assistance projects. Our approach is to focus on a small number of countries concentrating our efforts on infrastructural development in the health and education sectors,`` he added.

President Christofias referred to the history of Cyprus, since its independence in 1960, noting that ``the Turkish invasion of 1974 was a major economic and human catastrophe.``

``But Cyprus survived. The will of the international community for Cyprus to survive is found in the plethora of Security Council and General Assembly Resolutions, regrettably most of them not implemented. But the moral support and resolute stance provided Cyprus with the sword and shield that has ensured that it has remained and will continue to remain an undivided independent country, with a single sovereignty, single citizenship and single international personality,`` he said.

The President pointed out that UN resolutions for Cyprus provide for a process of negotiations in the form of a Good Offices Mission of the Secretary General and very importantly, they define the legal political framework on which the discussions for the federal architecture of the Cyprus state will be built.

He added that ``both of these elements are crucial and our success in the new effort which is beginning now, I firmly believe, will depend on respecting these essential conditions.``

``As regards the process, Good Offices Mission of the Secretary General means negotiations in which the Cypriots themselves are the principal players. They are the owners of the process. The Cypriots themselves must build the state they envision for their society. The role of the Secretary General and of the international community is to assist and to support. Good Offices is not arbitration. It is not mediation. Recent experience has shown that any attempt to impose, even to import, non Cypriot inspired and improvised models will meet with rejection by the Cypriot people,`` he pointed out.

President Christofias said the relevant UN Security Council resolutions are also important for the new effort ``because they provide the legal political framework within which the effort must move,`` adding that ``this framework prescribes a bizonal, bicommunal federation with single international personality, single indivisible sovereignty and single citizenship.``

``The federal institutions will embody the principle of political equality as defined by relevant UN Security Council resolutions not as numerical equality but as effective participation of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities in all organs of the federal state,`` he said.

He added that a bizonal, bicommunal federation has been the only mutually agreed basis dating back to 1977 and reaffirmed as recently as a few weeks ago, noting that ``it represents a compromise and indeed the only possible compromise on which a political arrangement can be built.``

Referring to the direct negotiations that began on September 3 between himself and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, under UN auspices, President Christofias said the aim is to overcome the impasses of the past and achieve progress that would lead to the reunification of Cyprus under mutually agreed terms and to the withdrawal of foreign troops after 34 years of division and foreign occupation.

He said that ``for this effort to succeed, what is needed is political will on the part of the Cypriots but also the positive engagement of other important players which for historical reasons have been part of the problem and need to become part of the solution.``

``For my part, I want to assure you from this podium that my political will to do what is necessary to solve the problem is firm and deep rooted. My origins are in the popular movement of Cyprus, which prides itself of a long history of struggles and indeed sacrifices in defence of friendship, cooperation and peaceful coexistence between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots. On the other hand, I am one of those Cypriots that were deeply and directly affected by the foreign military invasion of 1974 because I myself and my family are internally displaced persons, refugees in our own country,`` he said.

President Christofias noted that ``the role of the Cypriots is to agree on what they want,`` adding that ``this we must try to achieve with the leader of the Turkish Cypriot community Mehmet Ali Talat, and I believe that we could achieve it.``

``But this is not enough for achieving a solution. Turkey should contribute to the process in a positive way. Turkey still maintains over 40,000 troops and tens of thousands of settlers in Cyprus and can, without doubt, determine the outcome of the issues under discussion. We believe that the solution should benefit everybody and will benefit everybody,`` he said.

He added that a solution ``would allow the Cypriots, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, to live together and work together in an independent prosperous country, within the family of the EU, without the presence of foreign armies and illegal colonists under conditions of security and respect for their identity and their rights.``

Concluding his statement, President Christofias said peace must prevail in the world and noted that ``the UN is an achievement of our fathers and a necessary tool for insuring a more stable, fair and prosperous world, and ultimately the UN is only as successful as we, the member states, allow it to be.``

[02] CYPRIOT FM CONTACTS - RICE

Kyprianou will meet his US counterpart on Thursday while Rice will meet earlier in the day Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis.

The Cypriot FM addressed the Ministerial Meeting of the Group of Friends of the Alliance of Civilizations.

In his speech, Kyprianou shared Cyprus views on the scope and goals of the Alliance of Civilizations and the Group of Friends.

[03] CYPRUS - OBAMA - BIDEN

This is included in a statement on Cyprus from the Obama/Biden foreign policy plan, entitled Barack Obama and Joe Biden: A stronger Partnership with Europe for a safer America.

According to the statement, seeking a just and lasting political settlement on Cyprus : Barack Obama and Joe Biden will show U.S. leadership in seeking to negotiate a political settlement on Cyprus.

Obama and Biden note that a negotiated political settlement on Cyprus would not only end the islands tragic division but would pave the way to prosperity and peace throughout the entire region.

[04] ARCHBISHOP ANASTASIOS OF ALBANIA - CYPRUS VISIT

According to a statement issued Wednesday by the Holy Synod of the Church of Cyprus, Anastasios arrives here on October 2 for a seven-day official visit.

While being here, he will be received by the President of the Republic Demetris Christofias and visit holy sites.

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