Athens, 12 October 2021

Maximos Harakopoulos represents President of Hellenic Parliament at commemorative events for occupied Morphou - Meeting with President of House of Representatives of Republic of Cyprus and Cypriot Minister of Foreign Affairs

The President of the Hellenic Parliament Constantine Tassoulas was represented at the commemorative events for occupied Morphou in Cyprus by the General Secretary of the Inter-parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (IAO), Larissa MP Maximos Harakopoulos. During his three-day stay (October 9-11), he met with the President of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Cyprus Annita Demetriou, whom he thanked for the Cyprus Parliament’s full support to IAO work. As he stressed, "our common vision is to stop those who try to instrumentalise religion, as today's Islamist Turkey does, and to include it in expansionist plans. We must all eradicate religious intolerance and fanaticism, to build a peaceful future for coming generations." The President of the House of Representatives of Cyprus expressed her appreciation "for the work carried out by the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy, which aims to consolidate coexistence and mutual respect between the Christian and Muslim worlds, removed from stereotypes, religious intolerance and religion instrumentalisation serving political purposes ".

During his meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulidis, Maximos Harakopoulos stressed that "Greece remains a supporter and partner of the Republic of Cyprus in its sincere effort to restart the debate on reaching a fair and lasting solution of the Cyprus issue, in accordance with UN Security Council decisions and the European acquis. " Mr. Christodoulidis gave an extensive briefing to members of foreign delegations attending the meeting on the current situation in Cyprus, following the escalation of Turkish intransigence and the cessation of dialogue with the Turkish-Cypriot side solely because of Turkey. Maximos Harakopoulos, in his intervention, made special reference to the recent Mitsotakis-Macron agreement, noting that "the agreement paves the way, and is a forerunner of a common European foreign policy and defence policy, alongside NATO."

The Greek MP also had a meeting with the leader of the National Guard, General Dimokritos Zervakis, who briefed him on issues within his competence, and visited the Tomb of Makedonitissa.

The anti-occupation events organized by the occupied Municipality of Morphou were attended by the President of the Republic of Cyprus Nikos Anastasiadis, the President of the House of Representatives of Cyprus Annita Demetriou, the leaders of the Cypriot parties, MPs, foreign delegates, etc. In his speeches the Hellenic Parliament President’s representative Maximos Harakopoulos, stated that "the Islamist Turkish leadership, imbued with neo-Ottoman bigotry, directly undermines international legitimacy, by restoring obsolete and condemned - by the civilized world - practices, replacing the rule of law with the law of force ". Against Turkish aggression," Greece does not stand idly by" he added. "It takes decisive action, as it did in Evros in the Spring of 2020, against the attempt of tens of thousands of immigrants to invade Greek territory with the help of Turkish authorities; as illustrated by its action taken and still going on in the Aegean, at sea and in the air; employing navy and air force; at the same time, via targeted diplomatic activity, it creates a strong network of alliances with the states of the wider region. Alliance-seeking initiatives, in most of which Cyprus also participates. At the same time, it is shielded via the rapid upgrade of its defence capability ".

The Greek MP stressed that "undoubtedly, the culmination of this effort has been the agreement with France, the Mitsotakis-Macron agreement recently ratified by the Greek Parliament. An agreement that, through the clause of mutual military assistance, now puts things in our region on a new, completely different basis ". He concluded: "It is time for Turkey to realize that policies of gunners and tactics of blackmail lead nowhere. And they do not lead to Cyprus either. Because no one is going to accept the fait accompli of the 1974 invasion. No one will accept a two-state solution, or even a confederation or so-called loose federation solution, which will allow Ankara to control the Republic of Cyprus. The solution can only be based on UN Security Council resolutions, solely within the framework of a Bizonal Bicommunal Federation. A solution that will definitely provide for the abolition of anachronistic guarantees, but also for the withdrawal of foreign troops. The solution must lead to a single, functional European state, where all its citizens shall have the same rights and the same obligations. And their state shall enjoy the same sovereignty rights as any other European state."

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