At this critical juncture for the Cyprus issue, DISY is ready to “step up,” said the party’s president, Anita Dimitriou, on Tuesday evening in her speech at the Democratic Alarm’s anti-occupation event in Dasaki, Achna, titled “Tracing Memory… We Demand.”
“We cannot reject out of hand every possible solution or security framework on the altar of ideological rigidity,” she added, noting that we must consider the cost of stagnation.
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
“The greatest tribute to history, after all, is not clinging to the past. It is to create the conditions so that future generations can live in a Cyprus that is truly free and secure,” she said.
Ms. Dimitriou noted that, five decades after the invasion, “our mission remains alive. The Democratic Rally is a force for responsibility and stability during the country’s most difficult times.” It is the party, she said, that does not shy away from crises but shoulders the burden of decision-making, “that does not invest in populism but in seriousness and vision.”
At this critical juncture for the Cyprus issue, he added, “our party is ready to step up,” noting that their cause is not built on easy slogans, but is grounded in strategy, seriousness, and consistency.
“Because the goal remains one and non-negotiable: the liberation of Cyprus and the reunification of our homeland into a single state, with one sovereignty, one citizenship, one international legal personality, which will operate in accordance with United Nations resolutions and the principles and values of the European Union,” he added.
This goal, he continued, is not served by policies of isolation, by condemnations, or “by rejecting any effort out of hand before it even begins.”
“On the contrary, it is advanced through persistent negotiation, leveraging every international opportunity, and expanding our alliances,” she said, among other things.
Ms. Dimitriou noted that the new initiative by the United Nations Secretary-General, his upcoming visit to Cyprus, and the appointment of a European Union Special Representative, are creating a window of opportunity for diplomatic action. “We do not have the right to let this opportunity go to waste. We must be present, credible, and constructive, consistently articulating our positions and claims,” he said.
At the same time, he said, Turkey’s European path “cannot proceed without the Republic of Cyprus.” “No progress in EU-Turkey relations can be made without respect for the sensitivities of every European Union member state, without respect for international law, and without substantive steps on the Cyprus issue,”, he said, adding that in this effort, coordination with Greece “has long been a key pillar of our national strategy.”
Cyprus, he said, “needs policies that win over our allies, not policies that drive them away.”
“If we ourselves appear to be straying from the agreed framework for resolving the Cyprus issue—which is supported by the international community, the United Nations, and the European Union, what we will certainly achieve is not to isolate Turkey, but to risk isolating our own country,” she added.
“We must also,” said Ms. Dimitriou, “be honest with our citizens.” “We cannot reject out of hand every possible solution or security architecture on the altar of ideological dogmatism, simply because it is linked to NATO or Western institutions, without presenting a realistic alternative that would ensure the definitive abolition of Turkish guarantees and the withdrawal of the occupying army,” he said. “The discussion on the security of a reunified Cyprus requires seriousness, not prejudices and fixations. The priority is to ensure a truly secure future for all Cypriots,” he said.
We must also consider the cost of stagnation, she added.
Noting that frozen conflicts do not remain frozen forever, Ms. Dimitriou said that partition is not a static condition and that with every passing year, “works to the detriment of Cypriot Hellenism, to the detriment of the prospect of reunification, and to the detriment of historical justice itself.” The status quo is dangerous for our very survival, she added.
The country’s strength lies in its credibility, he added. “In our status as a member state of the European Union. In our strategic partnerships. In our close cooperation with Greece. In making the most of every international forum and every alliance that strengthens our country’s position,” he added.
“Today, more than ever, we need greater responsibility. We don’t need slogans and false patriotism that merely flatter the ears. We don’t need media gimmicks or petty partisan squabbles. We need consistency and rationality. Strategies and policies that serve our country,” he added.
He noted that history has taught us that every time division prevailed, “Cyprus has paid a heavy price,” and that, whenever unity, composure, solidarity, and strategy have prevailed, the country has moved forward.
Ms. Dimitriou also said that “we have no right to stop remembering” or to stop standing up for our rights, and that memory that does not become responsibility fades away.
In closing, she referred to passages in Seferis’s letters stating that “Cyprus is a miracle that still works… But the problem is that people don’t see the miracle; they see only profit or destruction,” noting that the poet “proved to be prophetic.”
“Enough with what keeps us stuck—the self-pity, the toxicity, the divisive rhetoric,” he said. It is time, he continued, “to turn our gaze toward the miracle,” noting that DISY is the party “that has proven it can strive for and achieve the miracle.”
Source: CNA
