UN reports, over time, try to maintain a balance, said President Nikos Christodoulides on Monday, adding however that everyone knows, both the foreign diplomatic missions on the island and the international community in general, who is militarising and who is constantly violating the buffer zone.
The President was invited by the press to comment on a statement by the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in Cyprus, Colin Stewart, who implied on demilitarizing the buffer zone, without naming the Turkish occupying forces.
He said that Colin Stewart is the head of the peacekeeping force in Cyprus and we recently all witnessed who was attacked by the Turkish occupying army.
Replying to another question that Stewart raised the issue of the illegal migrants stranded in the buffer zone , President Christodoulides said that the issue of immigration is not included in Stewart’s mandate. He said that the government is in contact with the United Nations High Commission for the refugees in Cyprus.
The Pr
esident went on to say that the Republic of Cyprus has many times provided written examples of how it approaches this specific issue, on a humanitarian basis. But he said that at the same time we cannot allow the creation of a new road of the migrants entering the Republic, namely via the buffer zone.
The President said that the matter was discussed with Stewart in their afternoon meeting, and he raised the issue following public statements made by the UN Spokesperson, adding that such statements are not helpful.
He said that if we want to resolve an issue, we don’t come out with these kinds of statements, adding that he felt the need, to raise the issue in the meeting he had with Stewart in the afternoon. The President explained that the substance of the matter was not discussed, as it is not in the framework of Stewart’s mandate.
Asked to comment on the statements of Turkish leader Ersin Tatar after his meeting in London with the personal envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Cyprus, Maria Angela Holguin
, the President of the Republic said that we shall be waiting for an official briefing on what was said.
But he went on to say that he didn’t expect to hear anything different from Tatar, as this is what he has been saying for a long time.
He said he does not wish to comment on repeated statements and he will wait for the official briefing before making any statements.
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.
Last January, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres appointed María Ángela Holguín Cuéllar of Colombia 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