Kyprianou warns earthquake sympathy could be prejudicial to Cyprus

HOUSE President Spyros Kyprianou warned yesterday that the Greek Cypriot side would face pressure to compromise in efforts to solve the Cyprus problem because of widespread international sympathy for Turkey in the wake of last week’s devastating earthquake there.

It is thought that last Tuesday’s earthquake in north-western Turkey may have killed as many as 40,000 people.

Speaking at the 11th World Congress of Overseas Cypriots in Nicosia, Kyprianou said the earthquake “had empowered Turkey’s position and had won international sympathy.”

“In the following months,” he added, “there will be such developments that in the end, the compromises will be asked from us.”

Kyprianou said the foreign interest shown in the Cyprus problem usually meant they each had ideas for a solution that was in their particular interest. He said Cyprus did not care what the plans were called, but was more concerned about their content.

Kyprianou said Cypriots overseas had an obligation to persuade the international community that Cyprus could not accept “genocide” such as that which he said occurred during the 1974 invasion.

He said the international community had gone to war against Yugoslavia in the name of preventing genocide, but would be legalising similar events by accepting a confederation in Cyprus.

The House president said Cypriots overseas had an even greater role to play than ever before, “as this period is linked to the fate of our country.”

“It is not an exaggeration to say that if there is a solution that causes division, whether we get into the European Union or not, the Hellenic element would be in danger after 20, 50 or 100 years.”

He said that Cyprus had to adopt a more aggressive diplomacy. “This is a time for vindication and confrontation not high diplomacy.”

On the issue of Cypriots living abroad, Kyprianou said that the House Interior Committee had decided to request that the government help solve problems faced by the overseas population.

He said that requested action included a minister being appointed in charge of diaspora affairs.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.