AKEL and CTP send out a message of peaceful coexistence
Cyprus News Agency (CNA), 19th March 2017
AKEL and the Republican Turkish Party (CTP) once again conveyed the message of peaceful coexistence, this time through a football match, organized on Sunday 19th March by the District committees of the two parties in the occupied Nicosia suburb of Kionelli, with the participation of children from the two parties.
The leaders of both parties, Andros Kyprianou and Tufan Erhurman kicked off the match. Both of them stressed together the importance of peaceful coexistence, but also of friendship especially between Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot young people.
“Such events are very important as they send out a message that we want peace, we want a solution to the Cyprus problem and that we want the peaceful coexistence of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. We should therefore convey this message in any possible way. I consider it important to continually convey this message to the people of Cyprus as a whole, to both Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots,” the General Secretary of AKEL pointed out in his statements.
As he said, “Our wish is to see the resumption of the negotiations as soon as possible, that the talks will be substantive in order to arrive at an agreed solution; a solution that will meet the aspirations of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots,” he said
On his part, the General Secretary of CTP Tufan Erhurman said that what matters is that “CTP and AKEL, who are working for the comprehensive solution of the Cyprus problem, are today once again demonstrating through their initiative that they are contributing towards building peace in our country and the cultivation of a culture of peace among our young people.”
“Let me just say that, we don’t need a lot of words,” said Mr. Erhurman, speaking through a translator, and continued: “Just this picture alone that we see, that is our children, young Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot children playing together after the game as well … as friends, being photographed posing together and developing friendships between them. Just that, I believe, speaks for itself and demonstrates once again the success of the initiative undertaken by the CTP and AKEL District organizations.”
“I believe,” he concluded, “that we by building peace, contributing with our joint efforts and the participation of our children we can move forward. So long as we don’t remain stuck in the past, so long as we look to the future and are building the future from today, I believe we can fulfill our goal of peace in Cyprus. “
For the record, the two groups have emerged scoreless, 2-2.
