BRATISLAVA, November 11, (WEBNOVINY) – The President of Cyprus Demetris Christofias feels at home always when he comes to Slovakia. During his Thursday’s visit here he attributed his feeling to support his state gets from Slovakia The island of Cyprus has been tortured for long years by unresolved issues between the Cypress Greeks and Turks. “Slovakia helps solving these problems in two ways, which, once the problem is resolved, will be entered into the book of history with golden letters,” said Christofias at a news conference following his meeting with Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic. He specified that he had on his mind how Slovak politicians and ambassadors help the convergence of both Cypriot communities and also the permanent presence of Slovak soldiers – blue berets in the UN mission in Cyprus.
The Slovak president ensured his colleague that Slovakia supports a peaceful and fair solution. He said that Cyprus has to maintain international legal personality adding that it is necessary to create a ‘bi-zonal’ meaning bi-communal federal republic, in which both communities will have equal status. “Slovakia wants to develop an initiative in this,” Gasparovic said. He underlined that respecting the principles of international law is crucial and mentioned his past meetings with the representatives of both communities. “I had a feeling that if there had not been many secondary interests of different sides, these communities would have agreed on living together in this country a long time ago.”
Christofias agrees with the his host regarding this point. Invited by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, he leaves for New York on November 18 to speak on the future of the island with the representatives of the Cypress Turks. He hopes significant progress will be achieved. ”I hope no unexpected situation, which would force us to accept arbitration or mediation will occur,” the Cypriot President stated. He did not want to disclose any details on the planned talks, however he stressed that it is [the people of] Cyprus who would like resolving the problem definitely – and according to the President want a unification of the island. He wishes that the citizens have single citizenship.
The Presidents also discussed preparations for Cyprus taking over the EU Presidency in 2012. Both countries would like to reach the pre-crises level of economic cooperation. Christofias said that opening of the Cypress embassy in Bratislava on Thursday afternoon means repaying a debt of his country to Slovakia. Until recently Slovaks had to visit the embassy in Vienna. The new Ambassador will be Marios Kountourides who already handed over his credentials in mid-October to President Gasparovic.
During his visit of the Presidential Palace the Cypriot Foreign Minister Markos Kyprianu signed an agreement on protection of classified materials with the director of the Slovak National Security Office (NBU) Frantisek Blanarik.
SITA