President Demetris Christofias has said that 2012 will be an optimistic year but at the same time very difficult.
He also said that talks for a Cyprus settlement are not going well, Turkey continues its threats against Cyprus, and the Republic will be holding the EU presidency during the second half of the year.
Addressing a National Guard new year's event, President Christofias pointed out the importance of the army, adding that the political and military leadership of the island should examine Turkey's policy and draw strategies that would be able to tackle Turkey's arrogance and expansionist policy.
«The National Guard is the fighting power of any government of the Republic of Cyprus to help maintain peace and act as a deterrent. If the National Guard did not exist, Turkey would exercise freely its expansionist designs,” the President pointed out.
Ankara, he said, “is arrogant and instead of learning from its successes – as many believe it has – it appears to act the way Ottoman Turkey used to act.”
Regarding the Cyprus problem, he pointed out Turkey's intransigence and noted that Turkey's policy does not serve the interests of the Turkish Cypriots.
“Turkey sees the Turkish Cypriots as second class people, hence the steady influx of settlers into the northern Turkish occupied areas of Cyprus, in an effort to change the demographic character not only of the Turkish Cypriot community but also of Cyprus as a whole,” the President pointed out.
The objective of the Turkish Premier is to equate in numbers the population in occupied Cyprus with that of the southern government controlled part of the country.
This, he said, renders the tragedy even harsher and more difficult, in particular for the Turkish Cypriots.
The UN-led peace talks, he added, are facing difficulties.
Cyprus, which joined the EU in 2004, has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third.
The latest round of UN talks began in September 2008. President Christofias is engaged in talks with the leader of the Turkish Cypriot community Dervis Eroglu and are set to have their first meeting in 2012 on Wednesday. Later this month, they will meet the UN Secretary General to assess the situation.
