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Letter to Guterres on talks

01/03/2017 09:04
A letter by the President of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades was delivered Tuesday to the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, explaining the current situation in Cyprus settlement talks and the decision of the Turkish Cypriot side not to participate in talks.

As Government Spokesman Nikos Christodoulides told CNA, the letter was handed in by the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Cyprus to the UN, Ambassador Kornelios Korneliou to the Director of the UN Secretary-General`s office.

It is noted that the Deputy Government Spokesman Victoras Papadopoulos reiterated Monday President Anastasiades` readiness to resume settlement talks and added that all necessary action is being taken, in order to inform the international community about the latest developments following Akinci`s withdrawal from talks earlier this month.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. UN-led talks between Anastasiades and Akinci have been underway since May 2015, aiming to reunify the island under a federal roof.

Akinci walked away earlier this month from a meeting, in the framework of Cyprus peace talks, shortly after it began, due to an amendment passed by the Cypriot Parliament which includes a once a year discussion of ten minutes in school classrooms about the 1950 referendum held in Cyprus, which favored back then a union (or `enosis` in the Greek language) with Greece.

President Anastasiades has described the House amendment "wrong" and called on Akinci to return to the negotiating table. Akinci demands that the amendment of the Cypriot Parliament is revoked before resuming talks.

The President of the Republic of Cyprus recalled the unanimous decision of the National Council where it declared that no one is pursuing `enosis` or division, noting that “we remain committed to the unanimous decisions of the National Council, the UN resolutions and Security Council decisions for the type of solution that we are working for. This should have been more than satisfactory”.