Press Releases

In the framework of the Ministerial Summit on Migration and Asylum (MED 5), which takes place in Pafos on October 7-8 2022, the President of the House of Representatives, Ms Annita Demetriou, inaugurated, today, the Photographic exhibition titled “On the line” held by the Press and Information Office (PIO).

The photo collection from the Photographic Archive of the PIO, as well as the data provided, are a humble effort to join the dots of an imaginary line connecting the two major plagues of Cyprus: the old but still open sore of the Turkish invasion with the contemporary wound of the migration issue.   

During the inauguration ceremony, the President of the House, mentioned that 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.

“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’, she said.

Concluding, Ms Demetriou pointed out that 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”, she stressed.

The inauguration ceremony was held in the presence of the Minister of Interior, Mr Nicos Nouris, who, in his address, mentioned that the exhibition vividly illustrates the drama our country experienced on 20 July 1974 when Turkey invaded Cyprus, occupying 37% of our territory and forcibly expelling 200,000 Greek Cypriots from their homes, who have since become refugees in their own country.

“For 48 years now we see Turkey colonizing our occupied areas, with the massive transfer of Turks from Turkey” he said and added: “Today, the Republic of Cyprus is faced with a new threat: A worse and more dangerous Attila, with the systematic channeling of irregular migrants to the government-controlled areas of Cyprus through the green line.

Following the colonization of our occupied areas, this instrumentalization of the migration issue by Turkey aims at altering the demographic profile and population balance of the government-controlled areas as well. It constitutes a hybrid threat against both Cyprus and the European Union and we, therefore, call upon all of you to support our efforts in addressing this phenomenon”.

(EK/IK)