President Glafcos Clerides stressed that the aim of the UN initiative on Cyprus should be the achievement of a bizonal, bicommunal federation.

In a message on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the coup and the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, the President noted that the Greek Cypriot side shall not accept any deviation from the parameters of the relevant UN resolutions. President Clerides said Cyprus and both Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots still suffer from the "terrible consequences of the criminal coup," engineered by the Greek junta and the "illegal and brutal Turkish invasion of the island".

He further said that since the invasion, all governments of Cyprus have "shown good will and have even made painful concessions" in UN efforts to find a settlement. Unfortunately, he added, "the Turkish leadership was always intransigent" and its policy was always to secure recognition of the illegal regime and afterwards, if it should desire, "to seek a solution based on confederation."

The 20th of July has been proclaimed at a special ceremony hosted on 21 July by New York Governor George Pataki "Justice for Cyprus Day".

On July 20, 1974 Turkish troops invaded Cyprus and since then Turkey occupies the 37 per cent of the territory of the Republic.

On July 15 the City Council of New York condemned in a proclamation the continuing Turkish occupation of the northern third of Cyprus, pointing out that Turkey has deployed American military equipment in its illegal occupation of the island.

An estimated "200 million US dollars worth of American military equipment is deployed by the Turkish government in its illegal occupation of Cyprus", the proclamation says, noting that the "expense of maintaining Turkish troops in Cyprus equals half of America's more than 500 million US dollars of annual foreign aid to Turkey."

The House of Assembly of the South Australian Parliament unanimously passed a resolution supporting the reunification of Cyprus.

The motion, which was adopted only a few days before the anniversary of Turkish invasion and occupation of Cyprus' northern third, also recognized the government of the Republic of Cyprus as the legitimate authority on the island.

During the debate, South Australian Labour's Opposition leader, Mike Rann, MP, called for stronger action by the Australian government and by Australia's special envoy on Cyprus, Stephen Spender.

As it was announced on 28 July the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative in Cyprus and Chief of Mission of UNFICYP, Dame Ann Hercus, resigned from her post, the UN Operation in Cyprus.

The UN Secretary-General and Hercus have agreed that she will remain at her post until the end of September. According to a statement attributable to the Spokesman of the Secretary-General, Hercus has submitted her resignation to Kofi Annan for "family reasons".

"The Secretary-General respects the reasons that have compelled Ms Hercus to take this step and he has accepted this resignation with deep regret," the statement said.

The Cyprus President Glafcos Clerides was informed firsthand about the intention of outgoing UN Special Representative, Dame Ann Hercus, to resign from her post and expressed regret over her decision. This was stated by the Government Spokesman Mr. Serezis who told reporters that before Hercus left Cyprus last month, "she had visited the President of the Republic and informed him that she would submit her resignation to the UN Secretary-General."

The US embassy and the British High Commission in Nicosia have expressed regret at a decision by the newly-appointed UN Secretary-General's special representative in Cyprus, Dame Ann Hercus, to resign.

According to an opinion poll conducted this Spring, Cyprus ranks fourth in the preferences of European Union member states as a candidate for accession to the EU, a position it also held at a previous poll in Autumn.

According to the opinion poll, 42 per cent of those asked were in favour of Cyprus' accession, 33 per cent were against and 25 per cent did not express an opinion.

The Metropolitan Pavlos of Kyrenia in a letter to the ambassadors of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council condemns the continuing destruction of the church of Saint Epiktetos in his diocese in Turkish occupied Kyrenia.

According to the Turkish Cypriot newspaper "Yeni Duzen", the church of Saint Epiktetos has been converted into a mosque and its tower and belfry were removed silently by the so called "authorities" of the illegal regime.

On July 14 Cyprus was elected to the vice-presidency of the World Federation of UNESCO Associations and will be responsible for Europe.

United Democrats MP, George Christofides, was elected vice-president of the Federation for the next four years during the UNESCO world meeting, which was concluded in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

Back