Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-11-16-Speech-4-164"
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"en.20061116.21.4-164"2
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"Mr President, Strasbourg, this wonderful city, in which the European Parliament has its only seat, and will, it is to be hoped, continue to do so in future, was proposed, after the Second World War, as the capital city of an united Europe by the British Labour politician Ernest Bevin. He said at the time, that, as no city had suffered as much from human stupidity as Strasbourg, it was ideally suited to being the place where human stupidity was to be overcome.
I wish we could soon be in a position to say something similar about Famagusta, which is symbolic of a brutal expulsion that is both contrary to international law and a violation of human rights, as brutal as it is senseless; yet it could, without difficulty, and by one simple act of goodwill, be made a symbol of the downfall of nationalism and expulsion, one whose impact would be felt a long distance away from Cyprus.
I recall how, on one occasion when I was in Northern Cyprus, I had a Turkish Cypriot driver who spoke good Greek, and said: ‘I have deep sympathy with my Greek-speaking fellow-Cypriots, and it is not the Greek Cypriots that are our problem, but the Turkish army and the settlers that have been brought into the country artificially.’ It is these people who have a vested interest in keeping this dispute alive. That is what we should do something about. We should ensure that both ethnic groups can be reconciled and that the expellees can return to their original homes in Famagusta; that would send out a message to the whole of the Mediterranean, to Europe and the world as a whole, affirming that people belonging to different ethnic groups can live together in peace under the rule of law.
Cyprus could, in this respect, become an example for many, many other troublespots, and so I am grateful to the organisers of this petition for raising this issue. We owe it to them to stand alongside them in every way and secure them that to which they are entitled and for which they have been waiting for so long, namely that Famagusta should once more become the flourishing place of commerce and culture that it has been throughout its history – a history filled with proud traditions which, let it be hoped, may be re-established in the future."@en1
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