President will not call National Council over DISY decision to go north

PRESIDENT Tassos Papadopoulos does not intend to call a National Council meeting over opposition DISY’s decision to allow a group of its officials to visit the occupied areas tomorrow, Government Spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides said yesterday.

Acting DIKO leader Nikos Cleanthous had called for an emergency session of the National Council to discuss DISY’s actions, which he claimed undermined the council’s agreement to discourage people from showing their passports to the Turkish Cypriot authorities.

On Wednesday, DISY decided to allow a group of its officials to present their passports to Turkish Cypriot authorities so that they could visit the north to be briefed on the problems faced by enclaved Greek Cypriots in occupied Karpasia. The officials on the delegation are Katy Clerides, Soteris Drakos, Phivos Nicolaides and possibly party spokesman Tassos Mitsopoulos.

Chrysostomides yesterday reiterated the government would not impose restrictions on crossings between the occupied and government controlled areas. “But it considers (Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf) Denktash’s demands as illegal and unreasonable, and insists on revoking this demand for showing passports. We believe it is inconceivable that within a state such methods exist, and that they only benefit the continuing occupation,” said Chrysostomides.

In spite of the government’s objections, tens of thousands of Greek Cypriots, including political figures, have crossed to the north. To this Chrysostomides said: “This is because citizens also want free movement just as the government wishes to ensure free movement without any restrictions, as well as safeguarding all human rights of all citizens of the Cyprus Republic.”
DIKO yesterday issued a statement questioning how DISY would explain itself in future and warned it would be judged objectively and strictly.

In an announcement, the party said: “When History asks for today’s leaders’ passports in order to record their passports in her pages, what passports will the leadership of DISY show? The ones it will show to the Denktash occupation regime?”

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