A delegation of the Committee of Occupied Municipalities submitted to the Council of Europe Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, a memorandum with their political position on the Cyprus issue, as well as informative material on the occupied territory, during the Plenary Session of the Congress held last week in Strasbourg.
The Committee said in an announcement, that the objective of its delegation to Strasbourg, ‘was to convey the request of the refugee community of Cyprus for the intensification of efforts at every international forum, so that the way is finally paved for the restoration of international law, which has been blatantly violated in 1974 by Turkey and which has continued to do so systematically ever since’.
The Occupied Municipalities Committee notes in its announcement, that, the Council of Europe, as the organisation that defends human rights in Europe, ‘is a particularly important destination’ for the purpose of raising awareness regarding the violation of human rights and basic free
doms in Cyprus.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks have so far failed to yield results. The latest round of negotiations, in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres appointed in January, María Ángela Holguín Cuéllar of Columbia as his personal envoy for Cyprus, to assume a Good Offices role on his behalf and search for common ground on the way forward in the Cyprus issue.
Source: Cyprus News Agency