Extracts from a speech by President of PSEKA http://news.pseka.net , Philip Christopher, to the annual conference of overseas Cypriots (POMAK) in Cyprus, August 2008.


"I have been coming to this conference since 1976 ... first as President of the Pan-Cyprian Association of America (by the way Mr. President, I want you to be proud that the New York Pan-Cyprian Freedoms are champions of the United States in soccer) .... [applause] ... subsequently as President of the Cyprus Federation of America and since 1989 it has been a privilege and an honour to be serving as President of PSEKA [Co-ordinating Committee - Justice for Cyprus].

"Since the tragic invasion of Cyprus in 1974, my friends, we have gone from being the victims, to the world opinion of being characterised as intransigent, as nationalist, as aggressors, and even to the point as being characterised as [being the ones] that are isolating our compatriots the Turkish Cypriots.

"Since 1976 I have lived through the five Presidents of the Republic of Cyprus, and my message in all of my speeches and in all of my interviews have always been the same: our only offence is public relations, our only offence is advertising promotion and projection of the Cyprus problem.

"To your credit Mr. President during the last six months since you have been elected, you have changed those perceptions overseas, but the problem continues. The problem continues because world opinion has chosen to forget the 200,000 refugees, they forget that there are still 43,000 Turkish troops on the island, they have forgotten the destruction of our churches of our cultural and religious heritage, they have forgotten that our homes are being occupied and are being sold, they have forgotten that there are 100,000 settlers on the island, and they just know that since the rejection of the Annan Plan that the Greek Cypriots are the ones that are nationalist, the ones that do not want a solution, and the ones that are intransigent.

"To your credit Mr President, you have changed that, and as you embark on the September 3rd negotiations it is imperative and it is essential to unleash a campaign, a public relations campaign, that will bring back to basics the fact that the problem of Cyprus is the Turkish invasion and continued occupation of the island. It is essential and imperative that we shape world opinion so we can complement your efforts to reach a solution that is both viable and fair.

"There is no question that we need a United Cyprus. But no solution can be viable my friends unless every Cypriot citizen, whether they are Greeks, Turkish, Armenians, Russians, Serbians or others ... they have equal rights, and they are under the democratic principles and the European Law.

"There is no question that we need a solution. But that solution ... we have to make sure that we do not compromise the principles and ideals that we believe in.

"I was born in Kerenia (Kyrenia) and I want to go back to Kerenia, I want to live in Kerenia, I want to buy a house, I want to vote and I want to be elected in Kerinia [applause].

"There is no Federal Government anywhere in the world, there is no Federal Government whether its in the United States or in Europe, that prevents its citizens from living where they want, from doing business where they want, from buying or selling their
homes and living under human dignity and democratic principles of Europe, the United States and the freedom-loving world.

"We know that the key to the solution is Ankara, and many of you will say no matter how much money we spend on public relations ... and if you remember I was ridiculed in 1989 when I had the courage to suggest that the Cyprus Government should spend fifty and a hundred million dollars towards public relations [applause].

"We have to continue to present our problem, back to the basic roots. A problem of an invasion and occupation.

"There is no question in anyone's mind that we will support our President, Mr Christofias, towards these negotiations. But it is IMPERATIVE that we start these public relations.

"We have started overseas. For the past thirty four years many of us have spent millions of dollars in projecting Cyprus all over the world. We have people in this room like Peter Mougiaris, Peter Papanikolaou, Andrew Athens, Haris Sofoclides, who have spent the money.

"I call on the millionaires of Cyprus, and we have many in Cyprus, I call on the business people of Cyprus ... the time has come to undertake a serious campaign of public relations ... away from the Cyprus Government ... to demand the rights and the democratic principles that all Europeans live under.

"The Greek Cypriots in any negotiations and in any solution can not become second-class citizens of the European Union. (less info)