“Happy birthday to all Greeks everywhere, happy birthday to Hellenism everywhere. I want to congratulate everyone who participated in the parade, especially our children, our students, who are the future of our country, all those for whom we must do more”, said the President of the Republic of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulidis, after the completion of the student parade to celebrate the national anniversary, in Nicosia.

Henceforth, the 1821 race is a race with many timeless messages. And it is very right – and this is what we will continue to do – to honor such important anniversaries through parades, events.

The most important thing, however, is to take the necessary messages, the necessary lessons and transform them into today’s reality in the way we move.

The message that I keep, especially at the present time, is that after 400 years of slavery, the Greeks did not come to terms with the Ottoman occupation and this is the message that I also want to send, that we do not come to terms with the occupation, we do not come to terms with partition.

We are very well aware of the facts, the difficulties, the problems, we are deeply concerned about the possible continuation of the illegal state of affairs, the unacceptable status quo, and we will do everything possible to turn this concern into initiatives, concrete initiatives. And we will do everything possible to liberate our country, to reunite our homeland.”

He added that, on the occasion of his elevation to the Presidency of the Republic, “we have undertaken a specific initiative, always in consultation and coordination with the Greek government. An understanding and coordination that will be strengthened every day and cannot be negatively affected by any development and we hope that soon, especially in terms of breaking the deadlock and resuming talks, after the elections in Turkey we will have concrete results” .

Asked how his proposal on the Cyprus issue was treated in Brussels, the President of the Republic said that “I mentioned yesterday that I am satisfied with everything I have heard in Brussels through my discussions with the presidents of the three institutions, with foreign leaders, either within the EPP or the European Council. We have said enough about this effort. Now is the time for diplomacy and we have to let diplomacy do its job and hopefully there will be a result with a time frame for the Turkish elections.

Right now what needs to be done is to let diplomacy do what it needs to do.”