Yesterday, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, asked for support from Cyprus during his afternoon speech in the House of Representatives of Cyprus. 

However, the Ukrainian President, who in all his speeches so far in foreign parliaments has tried to parallel the sufferings of these countries with the Russian invasion of his country, even to the point of paralleling it with the Holocaust, made no reference to the Turkish occupation in Cyprus. This of course was commented on and caused dissatisfaction.

Zelensky asked Cyprus to close all Cypriot ports for Russians, to stop issuing “golden passports” to Russians, to stop dual citizenship (noting that there is no need to do so for Russians who do not support the invasion; however, data should be provided) and an embargo on imports of Russian fossil fuels from Russia should be imposed. He also asked for Cyprus’ support for Ukraine’s accession to the European Union.

According to V. Zelensky, the Russian invasion of Ukraine will determine the survival, not only of Ukraine, but of the whole of Europe. 

“Russia’s goal is to create discord among the member-states of the European Union. Russia sees most of them as a useful tool, or in case a country is not so strong, Russia sees it as a territory to be conquered,” he said, adding that Russia’s invasion began in 2014 with its conquest of Crimea. “At the moment there is no honest dialogue with Russia,” he said.

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Concluding his speech – during which he did not make the slightest reference to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus – the Speaker of the Cypriot Parliament, Annita Dimitriou, spoke, putting things in perspective.

As she said, among other things, “we understand very well what you are experiencing because the same invasion, albeit with other protagonists, took place in 1974 in Cyprus from Turkey. Cyprus, like Ukraine, is a victim of invasion and occupation by a stronger neighbor. For more than 47 years we have been experiencing the consequences of Turkey’s insane violations of the principles of international law and fundamental human rights.”

However, at this point, this relation was “cut” so that the position of Volodymyr Zelensky could not be heard due to a technical problem. In fact, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed that an attempt was made to reconnect, so that the President could respond, but with no success.

According to the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Zelensky will state his position in writing and send it to Nicosia, while diplomatic sources in Kyiv stated that Ukraine has supported and adopted all the UN resolutions on the Cyprus issue and, therefore, not recognising what Cyprus has experienced since the Turkish invasion is out of the question.

After the speech of the Ukrainian President, leaving the Plenary Session of the Parliament, the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nikos Anastasiadis, expressed his annoyance towards Zelensky’s attitude.

Prior to Zelensky’s speech, which took place in the presence of the President of the Republic, Nikos Anastasiadis, a minute of silence was observed in memory of the war victims.

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