It was the second foul by the Ukrainian President in the same day after Azov Battalion member addressed Greek parliament during Zelensky’s speech
Zelensky addressed the Cypriot Parliament, at the special sitting of which the President of the Republic of Cyprus was also present.
In particular, the Ukrainian President asked Cyprus: to close all Cypriot ports for Russians, to stop issuing “golden passports” to Russians, to stop dual citizenship and asked for an embargo on imports of Russian fossil fuels. At the same time, the Ukrainian President asked for Cyprus’ support for Ukraine’s accession to the European Union.
Zelensky’s speech, however, did not include any reference to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, despite the obvious similarities with the Russian invasion.
Immediately after the conclusion of Zelensky’s speech the Speaker of the Cypriot Parliament Annita Dimitriou took the floor to address this issue. At that moment, the video link with the Cypriot Parliament was closed with the House Speaker continue her address to President Zelensky, even saying “and I hope you still hear us”.
After the speech, leaving the Plenary Session of the Parliament, and in a journalist remark that the President of Ukraine in his speech did not condemn or even mention the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, the Cypriot President said that “it is not what we expected today. Of course this should be done, I want to be straightforward and categorical, (but) what we expected today was to hear what the Ukrainian people are suffering now, as we ourselves suffered in 1974.
We are disturbed by the fact that there was no such reference. The rule of law does not distinguish between states with the rights of ones being violated, but the rights of others being ignored. What we have done is our duty to international legitimacy. If there are others with more flexible consciences or who can tolerate similar actions as long as they are not influenced themselves, this is completely foreign to the principles of a European country and especially a country that has experienced and is still experiencing the sufferings of an invasion, which was based or justified on the exact same arguments and on the same, unfortunately, non-existent facts”.
Finally, when asked if during their meeting today he discussed with Ms. Nuland about the US readiness to give F-16 to Turkey, the President said “no. I focused my attention on the Cyprus issue, on what should be done, on what should not be done and not on the policies that America pursues towards third countries. Of course, I did not fail to point out that I would like to see the same determination shown towards Russia towards a country which, in fact, refuses to implement the decisions on the sanctions taken by NATO or the EU, a candidate country of which is Turkey”.