Cyprus-Forum.com

[MrH]

My Debate is this: Has Christofias admitted to the wrong-doings of both Greece and Turkey under the direction of the GC-Administration just to force a Partition deal, or is he plain dimwitted? Personally, I think this is orchestrated.

REUTERS REPORTING

07:01 30Sep2010 PRESS DIGEST - Cyprus - Sept 30

NICOSIA, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Leading reports in Greek Cypriot financial and general press. Reuters has not verified these reports:

PHILELEFTHEROS
- Unions in Cyprus take to the streets in pan-European demonstrations against proposed measures to combat economic crisis.
- Tempers flare on the home front following comments made by Cyprus President Demetris Christofias about events in 1974.

SIMERINI
- Cypriot journalists reporting on democratic freedoms in Syria are singled out by Syrian authorities, as one local reporter found out during visit to Damascus.
- Unions demonstrate against rising prices.

POLITIS
- Police chief washes his hands of drugs squad's botched sting.
- Political parties in uproar over Cyprus President's remarks about the so-called involvement of the two "mother lands" in 1974 which led to division of the island.
- The U.N. gives both sides a 2 week window in October to decide if they have reached comprehensive convergences on the property issue.

CYPRUS MAIL
- Cyprus President Demetris Christofias returned home to a firestorm over comments he made in the U.S. that appeared to equate the 1974 Athens-instigated coup with the Turkish invasion which followed.
- A massive fire destroyed one square kilometre of pine forest in the Nicosia district.
- Church of Cyprus met with Vitol Tank Terminals International (VTTI) to discuss oil product terminal on Church land in the Larnaca district.
((Nicosia newsroom 357 22469674 fax 357 22662487))

Keywords: CYPRUS PRESS/
Thursday, 30 September 2010 07:01:38RTRS [nLDE68T03N] {C}ENDS

[Get Real!]

My Debate is this: Has Christofias admitted to the wrong-doings of both Greece and Turkey under the direction of the GC-Administration just to force a Partition deal, or is he plain dimwitted? Personally, I think this is orchestrated.

You're a TOTAL desperate bore...

[Gasman]

So 'boring' that the CYMAIL article has 77 comments already! Surprised you aren't on there pasting in your UN resolutions GR (or have they blocked you?)

Following a successful tour in the US where he addressed the UN General Assembly, met Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and several world leaders, and inaugurated the Cyprus exhibition at the Smithsonian museum in Washington, Christofias declined to make any comment, particularly relating to his statement which had left all of the political parties other than AKEL furious yesterday.

It was a comment the president made during an address to the prestigious Brookings Institution that caused opposition parties to slam him yesterday for “insulting” Greeks and Greek Cypriots.

Some called on him to apologise for trying to justify the Turkish invasion using Ankara’s own arguments. The Palace also came under fire because the comment had been ignored by state-run media outlets reporting on his Brookings speech.

During his talk on the Cyprus problem at the Washington DC-based think tank, Christofias said Cypriots should take their bitter past into account and draw lessons from it. “But we have to look forward. We have to solve the problem,” he said.

The president said there was no alternative other than peaceful negotiations between the two communities “and of course the involvement, at the end of the day, of the three guarantor powers (Greece, Turkey, UK) which all played a negative role unfortunately towards the developments in Cyprus.”

“The two so-called main lands, in fact, invaded, both [of them],” the transcript of his comments reads.

Christofias added that fortunately for the people of Greece, the criminal action of the junta (ruling Greece at the time) led to its downfall and “the restoration of democracy in the country in which democracy was born. But Cyprus paid a very high price for this restoration of democracy."

The ‘invasion’ comment however sparked outrage among the opposition parties.

Main opposition DISY said Christofias had provoked the feelings of Greeks and Greek Cypriots and insulted the Greeks who died defending Cyprus.

“What we heard yesterday (Tuesday) leaves us speechless,” DISY spokesman Haris Georgiades said. “We heard the president of the Republic of Cyprus adopt the Turkish arguments of 1974, equating Greece with the invader and occupier of Cyprus.”

Georgiades urged the president to apologise and withdraw his unfortunate comment .

He also accused the state-controlled media – the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) and broadcaster CyBC of a news blackout on the comment.

“In a four-page (CNA) report of the president’s speech there was no mention of this unfortunate and historically inaccurate statement,’ he said.

Asked if maybe it was just the judgment of the reporter, Georgiades said it was an “amazing assessment.”

“This comment, which has upset the Cypriot people from the moment it was reported, apparently went unnoticed by some at CNA and CyBC news bulletins. Strange,” Georgiades said.

Government partners DIKO said the president’s comment was “unfortunate and wrong.”

“It is wrong to equate Greece with Turkey in the responsibility for the Cypriot tragedy,” spokesman Fotis Fotiou said. “No one disputes that the treacherous coup by the Athens junta on July 15 and the Turkish invasion on July 20, 1974 constitute two acts of the same crime against Cyprus and it is now historically and politically substantiated.”

EDEK said the comment was a “tragic blunder”. “We are truly sorry, because President Christofias once more voices comments which falsify the historic truth … creating wrong and misleading impressions,” EDEK spokesman Demetris Papadakis said.

Ruling AKEL denied that the president had equated the July 15, 1974 Athens-backed coup with the subsequent Turkish invasion five days later.

The Greek junta was part of the coup against the Republic of Cyprus and essentially implemented plans drawn at NATO, together with the local EOKA B (Greek Cypriot armed group), and contributed towards Turkey finding an excuse – it was seeking for years -- to invade the island, AKEL leader Andros Kyprianou said.

“The coup does not justify the Turkish invasion in any case, and more so, no one can justify the continuous Turkish occupation in Cyprus,” Kyprianou said.

He added that this was the party’s position all along and expressed his regret that one phrase was isolated in an attempt to disprove this when the speech had many examples, which clarified things.

Last night in another bid to play down the statement – and the subsequent heated reactions - Deputy Government Spokesman Christos Christofides said the president’s comment was taken out of context.

“When someone extracts one line out of a ten-line sentence, you understand other conclusions can be reached,” said Christofides.

He said Christofias had done nothing else but fight for the good of Cyprus, and called on the critics to “apologise”.

“We are saddened and disappointed to observe this malicious attempt to attribute views and positions to the President of the Republic, when Demetris Christofias’ real, steady and diachronic views have been well known for the past 20 years, while he has been at the centre of the state’s political scene,” said Christofides.

“It is obvious that certain people haven’t even bothered to read the president’s speech because if they had, they would understand that the president was referring to the junta; unless, of course, these people associate junta with Greece,” he added.

[boomerang]

why...it's the truth ain't it?...we got fucked by both motherlands...with the exemption the free areas got fucked once while the tcs 36 later are still being fucked...here you go gasfart rejoice...what a dickhead you are...

[boulio]

i think christofias should have not used the word motherlands but instead should have blamed the three gurantoeres.

1)greece for initating the coup
2)turkey for invading and what it did afterwards
3)GB for not doing anything.

[Gasman]

He seems to have left the Brits out of it! But then they didn't 'invade' they were already here. And, like the TA, they still are.

[boulio]

GB is entitled to be in cyprus as is greece with 950 men and turkey with 450 men,not 40,000.

GB had a responsibilty to both stop the coup and what turkey did after wards.

[bubblechris]

I DON'T SEE THE PROBLEM HERE. THE OTHER PARTY'S ARE JUST DOING THEIR NORMAL SHIT STIRRING AND SHOULD BE ASHAMED.

He was merely stating facts, blamed noone and certainly didn't blame the main culprits for the whole mess DISY, Clerides and friends should hang their heads in shame and Anastasiades should stfu and leave those who have suffered to sort out the problem.

If this was such a big blunder wtf do you not hear the Greeks complaining about what he said. Facts are facts and the sooner the guilty party accept that it was all their fault the better.