CYPRUS: Reunification can drive the country out of the crisis

The parties met at Ledra Palace, in Nicosia and discussed the topic “The way out of recession and forward to a common future of growth, peace, prosperity and further integration in the European Union family”.

After the meeting, Slovak Ambassador Anna Tureničova read the joint communiqué which states that “the leaders have agreed that reunification can drive Cyprus out of the economic crisis, also by enabling peaceful cooperation in the energy sector amongst all countries in the Eastern Mediterranean, in a way that will also benefit our European Union partners”.

Greek Cypriot party United Democrats (EDI) was the host of the meeting.

In an introductory address EDI President Praxoula Antoniadou Kyriacou expressed the view that the emergence of the area of the Eastern Mediterranean as a new source of energy obliges all countries to consider how this new variable can be jointly addressed in a way that it will yield growth and prosperity for all.

“Turkey has a real opportunity to become a true leader and peace maker in the area of the Eastern Mediterranean”, she noted.

Referring to Turkey’s external policies, she said that it can “prove that respect can be gained not only on the basis of military strength but also on the basis of peaceful cooperation creating mutual benefit, in areas that address the future of the area, rather than to persevere on anachronistic problems of the past”.

She referred to the financial gains of reunification, outlining the findings of three PRIO reports, namely that Cypriots will benefit from a peace dividend of 12,000 euro per year per family as a result of a three percentage increase in GDP growth per year, over a five year period – which would also lead to the creation of 33,000 new jobs in the island.

Concluding, Antoniadou called on Cypriots to grasp the opportunity of the moment to get out of the misery of the past and out of economic disaster and move forward to a new time of peace.