Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos made the following statement regarding the Joint Communiqué agreed on by the two leaders in Cyprus:
“Today is a particularly important day for Cyprus, as not just the leaders of the two communities, but also the whole of the international community accept that the Cypriot people themselves hold in their own hands the critical decisions on their future; decisions they will make by expressing themselves in a referendum, without any kind of mediation.
The shaping and safeguarding of the conditions for national unity and the greatest possible consensus – from now until the end – are an obligation of all the political forces, of all the citizens.
A solution acceptable to the Cypriot people must truly be based on the UN Security Council Resolutions, on the European community acquis, in a bizonal, bicommunal federation with a single international legal personality, a single sovereignty, a single citizenship, in a member of the UN and the European Union.
Acceptance of President Anastasiades’ proposals for the speediest possible implementation of substantial confidence-building measures can play a decisive role in establishing another climate in Cyprus.
Historical memory – more distant and more recent – regarding the Cyprus problem can and must function as a guide.
As always, with a sense of national responsibility and total respect for international legality, Greece will stand by and support the process within the above framework.”
February 11, 2014