The Citizens’ Movement for Re-unification and Co-existence yesterday stated its determination to bring the Greek and the Turkish Cypriot communities closer in its first news conference after it was founded two months ago.
“The Movement aims to contribute to all the efforts towards a just, peaceful and viable solution of the Cyprus Problem based on United Nations resolutions and the High Level Agreements and which will ensure Cyprus’ entry to the European Union,” Philippos Patouras, member of the Movement’s secretariat, told the conference yesterday.
Turkish Cypriot journalists had been invited to yesterday’s press conference but the north’s administration stopped them from crossing to the south.
Patouras also outlined the group’s plan to contribute towards the development and propagation of a culture of peaceful coexistence between Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots and all the other ethnic groups in Cyprus.
“The re-unification of Cyprus cannot materialise unless an attempt is made to promote a culture of understanding, tolerance and co-existence,” he stressed.
Stelios Georgiou, general coordinator of the Movement stated the means by which the group planned to achieve its objectives: “We intend to organise lectures, discussions, meetings, manifestations and demonstrations and issue articles and publications. We will also co-organise and support activities initiated by Greek and Turkish Cypriot organisations.”
Intercollege Dean Nicos Peristianis, the group’s Studies and Research Coordinator, said the group had asked the EU’s support to conduct bi-communal studies.
“We want to conduct a study examining the effects that the EU accession will have on the Turkish Cypriot community,” he said.
Peristianis noted that the Movement was planning an open discussion with citizens on the future of Cyprus “like the one the EU is holding with representations of European parties.”
The Movement has already kicked off a campaign to bring Turkish and Greek Cypriot individuals from the same divided villages or towns in contact. Until now it has managed to bring more than two thousand people in contact.
Functioning as an autonomous body, the group is planning to cooperate with other Greek and Turkish Cypriot organisations, groups and political parties. It does not aim to substitute the role of other bi-communal groups or participate in political elections.
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.
