The official briefing given to the political parties about developments in the Cyprus issue was positive, main opposition New Democracy’s shadow foreign policy minister George Koumoutsakos said on Friday, though noting that the briefing did not amount to a share in deciding Greece’s positions. In statements after taking part in the National Council on Foreign Policy, Koumoutsakis noted that the overall responsibility rested firmly with Greece’s government.
“The briefing and exchange of views in the framework of the NCFP does not in any way constitute participation in a joint formulation of the Greek government’s positions, nor in any way replace its responsibility for the negotiations and Greece’s overall stance, since the overall responsibility belongs to the Greek government,” he said.
Koumoutsakos said he had repeated ND’s known positions on the Cyprus issue during the meeting, adding that the current state on Cyprus was not tolerable and must change.
The only solution was the island’s reunification through a “viable, just and functional solution,” he said. “Forty-two years after the illegal invasion and occupation of the territory of an independent country by Turkey and the Turkish armed forces,” a solution was needed that would allow Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots to finally live in a “reunited Cyprus that is a part of the EU, enjoying the rights and benefits of this participation in a state of stability, democracy and certainty” and “without the outdated logic of guarantees and rights of intervention,” he added.
Koumoutsakos expressed ND’s full support for the efforts of Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades to “achieve a solution such that this has the approval and full agreement of the Greek Cypriots, in the planned referendum agreed under the process.”
ND’s shadow minister also repeated the two fundamental positions of his party: namely that, in this process, the Cyprus Republic decides and Greece supports and, secondly, that Athens and Nicosia must constantly strive for unity and unanimity as the only way to support the interests of the Greek side.
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