‘Turkey must decide if it wants a normal, modern state’

Turkey must decide if it wants a normal, modern state in Cyprus or the north to be a satellite state, presidential commissioner Fotis Fotiou said on Sunday repeating the Greek Cypriot side’s willingness to return to negotiations at the point they broke up in Crans-Montana.

Speaking at a memorial for the heroes of Avgorou, Fotiou said “Forty four years later and they still continue to ignore about 850 of our nationals.

“We do not plan on accepting the plans and the methodology of Turkey to close the tragedy of the missing. We will carry on and will never stop fighting until the last case of the missing has been solved,” he continued.

With our main weapon being our independence, we must proceeed united, Fotiou said, to “face Turkish plans.

“Our struggle is for a country that is free, without an occupying army, a country reunited with basic human rights and freedoms for all of its legal citizens. Without the guarantees and intervention rights of any other country, especially Turkey which seeks to control the whole of Cyprus.”

He underlined the government’s readiness to restart negotiations where they left off last July.

“The Turkish stance then was the cause of the deadlock. It must now clarify its position. Does it wish or not a normal, modern state on the island for both communities as outlined by the United Nations Secretary General or does it insist on a satellite state in the north?”

Either way, he said, “we reject such a solution. Our efforts support international justice and the values of the European Union”.

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.