Schwimmer hails ‘very emotional moment’

By a Staff Reporter

WALTER SCHWIMMER, Secretary general of the Council of Europe, yesterday called the opening of the Green Line “a step, of historic proportion, towards a settlement of the Cyprus issue”.

“In a speech during my visit to Cyprus in January 2003, I called upon Mr Denktash to open the Green Line and let the Cypriots come together”, Schwimmer said in Strasbourg.

“For an old friend of Cyprus like myself this is a very emotional moment. One of the hopes of every good European has now been realised. I am confident that the opening of the Green Line will create an irresistible momentum and that we shall see a settlement of the Cyprus question in the very near future.”

Schwimmer said in support of the drive towards a solution, the Council of Europe envisaged inviting leaders from all Cypriot parties to Strasbourg, so that they may renew their commitment of co-operation in finding and implementing a settlement.

The Secretary general added: “it is also very important that Europe now supports the process of reconciliation in Cyprus, in order to put any political solution on a stable basis in the hearts and minds of Cypriots”.

In the near future, the Council of Europe is planning to organise a seminar on a strategy for national reconciliation in Cyprus drawing on different European experiences. This meeting could be organised in the northern part of the island, he said.

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.