The Ministry of Education has been banned from providing any support to schools in Turkish occupied Rizokarpasso since last May.

Invited by reporters in Parliament to comment on the checks on books at schools which the Turkish occupation authorities performed on Monday, the Minister of Education, Sports and Youth, Athena Michaelidou pointed out that yesterday’s actions and activities of the occupation regime “simply confirm what we were saying, what we discussed at the level of the European Parliament. ”

The Minister said she was personally invited at the European Parliament and with the assistance of the Cypriot Members of the European Parliament, presented this specific aspect of the Cyprus problem. “We have been going through this drama for the last 50 years,” she noted.

Yesterday, she added, “it was confirmed that things are very serious and we should all understand that since last May we have been banned from providing any support to the schools of Rizokarpasso, no visits by inspectors, no training of teachers in their school, no repairs of their buildings or any other kind of support.”

Therefore, Michaelidou continued, the issue has been taken over by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

This is another report against the regime, she added.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks have so far failed to yield results.