Press Releases

The President of the Republic of Cyprus, Mr Nikos Christodoulides, attended today the memorial for the people who lost their lives during the coup d’ état, which took place in the Saint Constantine and Helen church in Nicosia.

In statements to the journalists following the memorial service, the President of the Republic of Cyprus stated: ‘We are here to honour all those who fought to defend our most important possession, the Republic of Cyprus.

We are here to strongly condemn the treacherous coup d’état. There are no excuses. At the same time, it is important to understand the messages: All of us involved in public dialogue in our country must be especially careful to not foster unintentionally circumstances of polarity, toxicity or gaslighting, and to have full respect to different opinions and approaches. Therefore, we, as promoters of public dialogue, have added responsibility to ensure that such a state of affairs does not occur again.

In answering a question about laying a wreath by the government on ‘the other graves’, the President of the Republic stated: “I am not here to acquit anyone. Not a single person. At the same time, 50 years later, as the first President of the Republic of Cyprus born during that period, I wish to be utterly truthful. Of course, there are responsibilities and, I repeat, I am not here to grant pardon to anyone.

At the same time, I must be sincere and bold towards the people of Cyprus. I come from the new generation of Cyprus, the new generation meaning that I was born during that difficult time. I do not have any party affiliation. I can therefore express myself openly and frankly.

And I wish to say something today, because we need to look forward in this country. I will remind you that Archbishop Makarios offered the olive branch, rightly so. The true culprits of the coup, the collaborators of Junta in Cyprus have not been punished and we all consider that with this behaviour we are punishing the true accountables. We all know who the true culprits were. The offering of the olive branch was used to protect them. And as for the ordinary people, those young people, whom I do not excuse, I repeat this in order to avoid any misunderstanding: there is no excuse. I consider that I have the responsibility to say this as the President of the Republic of Cyprus, as someone who is from the 1974 generation, as someone who has no party affiliation, I must be honest, bold and to not hide behind words.

If we really want to derive lessons from those days, we must look the Cypriot people in the eye and to not hide behind slogans, because this is what it is about. Therefore, if we want to move forward, we have to be honest."

(AS/AP)