Clip 3 - Spoken in Greek. National Federation of Cypriots President Peter Droussiotis, speaking in English, welcomes Turkish Cypriots in the audience attending the meeting, then invites President Christofias to address the meeting.
Republic of Cyprus President Demetris Christofias, speaking in Greek, expresses appreciation for the feelings of solidarity expressed by Peter Droussiotis on behalf of the expatriate community and says this places a greater burden on him to work with the diaspora, but also to work harder in his efforts to to work for the reunification of Cyprus which has now suffered for 36 years from the continuing occupation. Because he had not had the opportunity to meet with the community in London for some months due to the heavy load, because there have been many developments during that time, and because within the 'internal front' we continue to experience the usual 'fragmentation' - he would be speaking for longer than he had done on previous occasions, in order to provide a lengthy analysis not only about what is happening in Cyprus but also in the international scene, and an analysis of what is happening with Turkey. We are now entering a period where a major feature is the change in the leadership of the Turkish Cypriot community. The rise to power of Dervis Eroglu with his often repeated positions on the Cyprus problem has given rise to significant concern on the part of all the political parties in Cyprus regarding the future of the negotiations for a solution of the Cyprus problem. It is the common conclusion of all the political parties in Cyprus that the rise to power of Mr Eroglu will make the search for a solution to the Cyprus problem even more difficult, despite what Mr Erdogan, possibly for reasons of public relations, may be saying on the matter.
The Cyprus Government reacted immediately with a letter to the UN Secretary General and other parties reiterating our desire for a continuation of the negotiations and so it has alrerady decided these will restart very soon, on the 26th of May. We stressed that the negotiations should continue on the same basis as agreed by the two leaders in their joint statements of May and July 2008, in other words on the basis of a bizonal bicommunal federation with political equality, as described in relevant UN resolutions for a single state with a single and indivisible sovereignty, a single citizenship and a single international personality.
We also stated that we wish the process to remain as it had been in the past, and as confirmed in UN resolutions from 1974 onwards which call on the two communities to come to an agreement on matters regarding internal governance. This dialogue continues as always under the aegis of the UN Secretary General. Such continuation means the continuing avoidance of tight time frames, and arbitration. The negotiations continue under the principle that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed which has been a fundamental position of the Greek Cypriot side which was accepted by the Turkish Cypriot side. The aim of the negotiations is to find a mutually agreed solution which will be placed before the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots at separate simultaneous referenda for approval, once agreement has been reached, and when it has been reached. The third point made to the Secretary General was that the negotiations should continue from the point where they were interrupted. The work produced during the 18 months of direct negotiations with Mr Talat must not be lost, nor that of the preparatory work during the 4 months of work by the working parties and technical committees.
The United Nations have publicly reacted positively and accepted the positions which had previously been approved by votes at the Security Council. We expect Mr Eroglu to act within this framework. Mr Eroglu has already reacted positively to this basis for the continuation of the negotiations. The most important thing is for the new leader of the Turkish Cypriot community, Mr Eroglu, to reaffirm the basis of the negotiations and for us to continue from the point where we had reached with Mr Talat.
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Athinë, vizita e Erdogan, digjet flamuri turk në shenjë protesteby TRAZUAR4,323 views
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