We need a patriotism of responsibility, realism and results, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in Nicosia on Sunday during a brief trip to Cyprus.
He was speaking at a memorial service for former President Glafcos Clerides, led by Archbishop Georgios.
Mitsotakis also referred to the role Clerides played in the Cyprus problem, as well as to his legacy today. Clerides was the founder f Disy.
He said Clerides’ experience and that of the last decades “teach us that stagnation can ultimately imply retreat, but also that behind the crowns of the pseudo-patriotism of the present, the failures of the future are often hidden”.
He said Athens is always beside Nicosia and drew attention to the resumption of informal discussions on the Cyprus problem after a long period of stagnation.
The Greek government, he said, was “always in agreement with the government of Cyprus, insisting on the existing framework of the UN resolutions on BBF, with political equality, with one sovereignty, one citizenship, one political personality and rejecting, obviously, as unacceptable the arguments for a two-state solution”.
He added that “positive developments arise only with active diplomacy, not with stagnation”.
He referred to the island and Greece as “two centres of Hellenism [that] are the strongest beacons of stability in the Eastern Mediterranean” in addition to being “two European states that are developing their economies much faster than the European average, two European states that are reducing their debt faster than any other European country and, at the same time, participating in the formation of the new energy map of the Eastern Mediterranean, with important electrical interconnection projects”.
Also present at the memorial service were Disy leader Annita Demetriou, former President Nicos Anastasiades and former Disy leader Averoff Neophytou while President Nikos Christodoulides was represented by Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou.
