Cyprus-Forum.com

[fanourıo]

Lillikas rejected resignation call
By Fanos Droushiotis
It was reported that he was called to resign, he rejected the call, would you? Money is so sweet when you haven't worked for it.
Greek Cypriot Foreign Minister George Lillikas hit back over a call for his resignation by a group championing the opening of Ledra Street.
The group accused Lilliaks and the government of failing to prevent a group of nationalists from disrupting a peaceful demonstration on Ledra Street on Saturday morning.
It was a follow-up event to the dismantling of the wall in a surprise move late on Thursday night.
Twenty of or so nationalist youths showed up during the event, waving Greek flags and shouting slogans at the other group, who were listening to two Greek Cypriot singers playing peace songs. They began shouting anti-Turkish slogans and calling government officials “traitors” for knocking down the wall.
The group calling for Lillikas’ removal, the Committee for the Opening of Ledra Street, said the statements condemning the incident from the government “were not enough to combat the actions of such fascists and protect the rights of citizens to express themselves freely”.
“George Lillikas should leave and give his place to those who want the barricades to fall and who want the reunification of the island,” a statement said.
“Verbal statements do not constitute an answer to violence, especially when it is linked with the notion of betrayal.”
Lillikas hit back by asking how the group thought he should have acted in the circumstances.
“The presence and the intervention of police deterred the possibility of any violent episodes, other than verbal ones, which were unacceptable and reprehensible,” a written statement from the Minister said.
He said the democracy and freedom of expression that the committee invoked also required and presupposed that the same tolerance be extended to counter protests.
“Only in authoritarian regimes are such events repressed,” he said.
He also pointed out that it was the current government that had taken the giant leap to take down the wall at the end of Ledra Street.
“No previous government ever dared to take such a measure,” he added and wondered why the Committee’s event was not held in the north, since they were the ones now preventing the opening of the crossing point.
“The Committee, in the framework of democratic dialogue, should also learn to accept criticism,” Lillikas said.
“I condemn every chauvinistic, extremist organisation and symbols that only damage our national cause, but this does not vindicate the erroneous policy of the Committee for the opening of Ledra Street, which seems to have closed its eyes to the presence of Turkish forces that are exclusively responsible for the division.”
In the north, Turkish Cypriot President Mehmet Ali Talat was yesterday quoted as saying it was unacceptable for the Greek Cypriot side to put conditions on the opening of the crossing point, such as the removal of Turkish troops from the immediate area.
“The Lokmaci gate [Ledra] will be opened the way the others opened,” he told reporters.
He said that in any case the soldiers at the crossing area were Turkish Cypriot and not Turkish.
“They have got their soldiers on their side and we have got our soldiers on our side, in line with our laws,” he said.
It is believed that even if the two sides manage to agree on the conditions under which the crossing will be opened, it will take the UN six weeks to clean up the Green Line area and prop up precarious buildings. Some of the funding for the job will come from the EU.