The people of Cyprus will not reconcile themselves with the faits accomplis created by the 1974 Turkish invasion, Minister of Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Sofoclis Aletraris has stressed.

Addressing a memorial service in Nicosia for those who perished during the fighting in Morphou area, on the northwest, Aletraris said the struggle for the reunification of Cyprus continues and will not cease until the Turkish occupation comes to an end.

He spoke of the need to find a solution which will truly reunite Cyprus and its people, its institutions, the economy and its territory based on the High Level Agreements of 1977 and 1979 and all relevant UN resolutions, which provide for a bizonal bicommunal federation.

“The people of Cyprus will not reconcile themselves with the faits accomplish of the Turkish invasion. We shall continue to struggle and ask for the respect of human rights”, he said.

Turkey’s armed forces, which invaded Cyprus on July 20 1974, continued their offensive on August 14 of the same year, occupying the best part of Mesaoria, Famagusta, Karpasia and Morphou.

The troops occupied the town of Morphou on August 16, violating in their path all rules of international law, including the UN Charter despite a ceasefire agreement. Turkish troops invaded Cyprus five days after the legal government of the late Archbishop Makarios III was toppled by a military coup, engineered by the military junta then ruling Greece.

Over the years, a number of unsuccessful rounds of peace talks were launched under the auspices of the United Nations to find a settlement that would reunite the island under a federal roof.