The international press repeats statements of responsible statesmen that the Cyprus Question must be solved before April 2004. But the Cyprus Question was solved in 1960 with the independence of the island.
The present problem is solely the military invasion of northern Cyprus by Turkey in 1974 and the continued 30 years military occupation of the area since then, together with the expulsion of its Christian inhabitants and their replacement by settlers from the Turkish mainland.
On the current Cyprus problem, not a word in the international press and probably neither in intergovernmental circles. Why?
In the 1890’ s, the then Great Powers ordered the then Ottoman Empire to withdraw from Crete, then a Turkish province. And they did. When Archbishop Makarios was first elected President of Cyprus, the Greek Government had sent a small military unit to support him in his first steps. Athens was requested by friendly governments to recall them, and it did.
Why cannot the present powers of the day order Turkey to withdraw its troops and settlers from northern Cyprus as a condition for further talks on the otherwise welcome entry of Turkey to the European Union?
Why this deadly international silence on these two crimes against International Law and humanity?
This is the only current problem with regard to Cyprus.

Aeghion, 26 November 2003.
T.L. Chrysanthopoulos
Ambassador of Greece (ret.)
45 odos Aghion Apostolon
25100 Aeghion, Greece

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