In a statement issued yesterday (24 February),
the TRNC Deputy Prime Ministry and Ministry for Foreign Affairs,
stated that if the Greek Cypriot side desired a Cyprus settlement
it had to adopt a constructive approach instead of honouring EOKA
members.
The full text is as
follows:
"The Greek Cypriot
Orthodox Church, the Greek Cypriot Ministry of Education and
Culture together with the Council for the Remembrance of EOKA and
the Foundation of the Cyprus Hellenic Liberation Struggle (EOKA)
have declared 2005 as the "The Year for the Remembrance and
Honoring of EOKA Liberation Struggle". It has been reported that
the said campaign has the full backing of the Greek Cypriot leader
Papadopoulos. Within this framework, it has also been reported in
the Greek Cypriot press that the necessary legal arrangements are
underway for the distribution of the medals of honour inscribed
with the signature of Papadopoulos to approximately 21 thousand
EOKA members on the occasion of the "50th anniversary
of the EOKA Struggle".
Contrary to the
constructive approach embraced by the government of the TRNC in
order to reach a compromise settlement and to improve the
relations between the two peoples, adoption of a negative stance
by the Greek Cypriot administration by bringing the issue of the
terrorist organization EOKA on the agenda is striking.
Despite the failure of
the Annan Plan to meet all Turkish Cypriot expectations and
concerns, our people demonstrated its good will by voting in
favour of the Plan in the hope of achieving a solution based on
the principles of political equality and bi-zonality.
The Greek Cypriot people,
on the other hand, demonstrated its absolute rejection of a
settlement based on power-sharing by voting overwhelmingly against
the Annan Plan at the instigation of the Greek Cypriot leadership.
If the Greek Cypriot side sincerely desires a settlement, it needs
to demonstrate this to the entire international community,
particularly to the Turkish Cypriot people, by adopting a
constructive approach. Unfortunately, assuming a completely
opposite posture, the Greek Cypriot administration has chosen to
honour members of the EOKA, an organization established to subject
the Turkish Cypriots to ethnic cleansing and which resorted to
violence in destroying the partnership republic of 1960.
This intransigent
approach clearly demonstrates how far removed the Greek Cypriot
leadership is from pursuing a solution based on equality. As the
Turkish Cypriot side, we would like to reiterate our commitment to
finding a peaceful solution to the Cyprus problem and underline,
once again, that in order to reach that goal, the international
community should react to the intransigent stance of the Greek
Cypriot administration".
