Marinakis: Cyprus solution is a top priority for Greece

"For Greece, solving the Cyprus issue is a top national priority," government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis said on Wednesday, during his address at a ceremony to present the Cyprus News Agency's journalism awards.

He stressed that the Greek and Cypriot people were joined by their national descent, language, religion and thousands of years of a common historic course.

With the approach in a few days time, he said, "of exactly 50 years since the barbaric invasion by [Turkiye], which caused the territorial amputation of Cyprus, with thousands of dead refugees and missing," Marinakis emphasised that "these wounds to the collective national consciousness remain open half a century later" and the Cyprus issue remains an international issue of illegal invasion and occupation, in violation of fundamental principles and the United Nations Charter.

"In coordination with the Cyprus Republic, we are working systematically for the creation of those conditions that will allow a viable, functional and mutually acceptable solutions to be found, which lies within the framework of the resolutions of the Security Council of the United Nations," he added.

Marinakis said that this solution must also take into account Cyprus' status as a member-state of the European Union and rid it of occupation troops and the outdated system of guarantors and rights of intervention, a solution creating "a bizonal, bicommunical federation".

"No attempt to create faits accomplis on the ground will be accepted and there will be no discussion of a two-state scenario," he added, noting that Athens and Nicosia proceed hand-in-hand at all international fora "until the wall of shame is finally toppled and Nicosia stops being the last divided capital in Europe."

Also present at the award ceremony were Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides and the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Cyprus, Annita Demetriou.