Press Releases

On the Line! Like, on a razor's edge. The balances that define us are so fine as we are called upon to deal with the migration issue. The humanitarian aspect on the one hand and the issue of the serious hybrid threat that Turkey is massively unleashing through the instrumentalization of the migration crisis, on the other hand.  

I am honoured to be here with you tonight, opening the photographic exhibition entitled "On the Line", prepared by the Press and Information Office in the framework of the MED5 Summit, in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Cyprus, as Acting President of the Republic of Cyprus.

The exhibition accurately illustrates the current facts. The continuous daily flow of irregular migrants, directed by Turkey, from our occupied territories to the areas controlled by the Republic. An extensive action aimed at the demographic alteration and alienation of Cyprus but which also deprives the possibility of supporting those who really need it.

Through the apt title, On the Line, the tragic consequences of the division of the island due to the Turkish invasion of 1974 are paralleled with the current continuous descent of the disproportionate migratory flows, as compared to its size, that Cyprus is called upon to face.

At the same time as the country has been trying to manage its own open wounds for the last 48 years, it is being called upon, simultaneously, to bear the greatest migratory burden among the Member States of the European Union, engaging huge human and financial resources.

Asylum seekers are now 6 % of the population of our country and this is why the Ministry of the Interior and the security authorities of the Republic should and must take decisive measures to implement control mechanisms on the green line.

What we are constantly pointing out is the urgent need for a comprehensive response to the migration crisis through the institutions of the European Union, by the implementation of a single European strategy, with a collective, equal and holistic approach.

I would like to welcome the Ministers and their accompanying delegations to Cyprus, congratulate all those who have worked on the preparation of the visual material that we are about to see and wish every success in the works of the meeting.

(EK/EF/IK)