The president of Cyprus, Níkos Anastasiádis, expressed thanked Pope Francis for his “initiative to transfer 50 immigrants from Cyprus to Italy.” Says that people of Cyprus know well the pain of leaving their ancestral homes …the President said
during a speech delivered on December 2, 2021, at the presidential palace in Nicosia.
“The Cypriot people have lived extensively, and know better than anyone, the pain of the uprooting and expulsion from their ancestral homes,” the Cypriot president told Pope Francis, referring to the invasion of the north of the country by the Turkish army in 1974.
After the stoning of the first martyr, Saint Stephen, Cyprus had become a refuge for the apostles, he recalled.
While saying that he was in agreement with the principles of the Pontiff in favor of migrants – “to welcome, protect, promote, and integrate”.
He asked the Pontiff for a “strong intervention” with international actors in favor of a “just solution” to the illegal occupation of its 36% territory by Turkey. There were many people exiled and missing