National Guard to join Paris Bastille Day parade

A COMPANY of National Guardsmen will be part of the French Bastille Day celebrations on July 14, at the invitation of new French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Eric Sanson, spokesman for the French Embassy in Nicosia, yesterday told the Mail that, “this is the first time the President has invited all EU Member States to participate in the parade.”

He added: “Our Cypriot friends have already answered that they will be sending around 30 to 35 officers and soldiers to Paris.

“I believe that this is a really good initiative, with the images to be broadcast all around the world.”

A spokesman at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed Cyprus’ participation, describing it as, “good for European relations”.

July 14 is the French national day, marking the storming of the Bastille during the French Revolution in 1789.

Military parades are held in the morning, the largest of which takes place on the Champs-Elys?es avenue in Paris in front of the President of the Republic.

The parade opens with cadets from certain schools, then other infantry troops, then motorised troops. In recent times, it has become customary to invite units from France’s close allies into the parade.

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.