Our visit to Rizokarpaso is a debt to the heroic enclaved people in the occupied areas who, with immense patience, are yearning for the day when our country will be liberated and reunified; to meet up with their fellow villagers and their families.
We enjoyed an excellent program presented by the children of the school in Rizokarpaso, the children from the Gymnasium, Primary school and Kindergarten. I want to congratulate both the children, but also the secondary school teachers, primary school teachers and the nursery teachers. First and foremost permit me to express our gratitude to the educational staff for the work they are doing which is very important and at the same time for the very nice school performance they have prepared for us.
It is our duty and obligation during these festive days, when families meet and celebrate together, to be next to the heroic enclaved people; to convey to them the message of love and our promise that we will continue the struggle for the reunification of our homeland.
I believe that the village of Rizokarpaso in which both Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots live together can represent an example of the harmonious coexistence between the two communities. We can also draw messages about how better our homeland would be if it were united and if we lived harmoniously Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots, Maronites, Armenians and Latins. This is the message I would like to convey during these festive days.
I would like to point out that conditions are difficult not only for the school, but also for the community of Rizokarpaso as a whole. The conditions are very difficult and they are rightly looking to the day when Cyprus will be reunited. That is our goal too. Immediately after the presidential elections, I want to believe that the negotiations will resume, and to make this possible, a President must be elected who really wants the solution, understands the difficulties that exist on both sides of the barbed wire of division and who will struggle with honesty and consistency for the solution of the Cyprus problem.
This person is Stavros Malas.

Statements by the General Secretary of the C.C. of AKEL A. Kyprianou during his visit to the village of Rizokarpaso in the occupied areas
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 21st December 2017, Nicosia