Leaders give joint televised holiday message

PRESIDENT Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci have wished for peace and for the island’s reunification, in a joint televised message on Thursday, on the occasion of Christmas and New Year.

“I wish the new year will allow us, Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots, to live once more peacefully in a reunited country,” Anastasiades said.

“I wish the new year will bring lasting peace, serenity and prosperity to all Cypriots,” Akinci said on his part.

The two leaders expressed their wishes in both Greek and Turkish.

Talks between Anastasiades and Akinci for a settlement of the Cyprus problem will resume next month, with the two leaders scheduled to hold three meetings – on January 7, 14, and 29.

The two will also attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, from January 20 to 23.

Rumours that UN special envoy Espen Barth Eide planned to hold an unofficial meeting between the two leaders and the three guarantor powers in Davos, which had political parties up in arms over the prospect of elevating Akinci’s status to Anastasiades’ equal, have been denied by both sides.

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.