By Constantinos Psillides
PRESIDENT Nicos Anastasiades has asked Turkish Cypriots to “trust him”, adding in an interview with Turkish daily Hurriyet, that his vision for Cyprus resembles that of US civil rights leader Martin Luther King.
“A dream in which my kids and grandsons live in a country where they are evaluated on their personalities and principles, not their national roots or religions,” he explained.
Anastasiades went on to say he comes from a village where Turkish and Greek Cypriots lived together. “My family had brotherly ties with families that I respect and appreciate. As a citizen of Cyprus and a Cypriot politician, I want the nation to unite,” the president said, adding that his father, Chrysanthos Anastasiades, saved Turkish Cypriots from Greek Cypriot fanatics in 1974 when he was working as a commissary at the village of Silikou, Limassol.
Anastasiades also said he didn’t want to imagine a scenario in which the two sides fail to reach an agreement, noting that it will be “a day of mourning, anger and shame when a deadlock is officially announced. Each day passing without a solution is a day of sadness for Cypriots.
“For more than 40 years, we Cypriots haven’t been able to achieve simple things. Uniting our island and people, healing past wounds and accepting our mistakes,” said the president, admitting that reaching a solution will be difficult.
Asked about his opinion on Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Anastasiades said he met him four to five times in the past and that he left him with a positive impression, despite their political differences.
“If I were to meet with him, I would tell him that the Cyprus problem needs to be solved for all our sakes. Solution will benefit Turkey as well, as the country’s shoulders are burdened with a heavy financial and political load. There is a chance before us. It is our duty to utilise it,” said Anastasiades.
Asked on Turkey’s EU accession process, the president said: “Turkey’s moving away from the EU does not serve our interests. We have a thousand reasons to want our neighbor to be closer to Europe and not one reason to isolate them”.
