CFCyprus New Year’s Reception with guest speaker the Foreign Secretary the Rt Hon James Cleverly MP

24 Jan

Foreign Secretary, the Rt Hon James Cleverly MP attended the annual CFCyprus New Year’s reception in Parliament on Monday evening, expressing his hope for a resolution to the long-standing Cyprus issue.

Organised by the Conservative Friends of Cyprus in the Houses of Parliament, over 100 guests and 18 Conservative MPs joined the reception which included the tradition of the cutting of the ‘Vasilopita’ (New Year cake) by Archbishop Nikitas.

Addressing the guests Mr Cleverly thanked the Cypriot community for its “huge and enduring contribution” to British society and added “I also want to reaffirm our understandable desire to get a resolution to this very long standing issue, because this is a friction which I think nobody should want to see continue. And we will continue to work to bring a lasting, peaceful resolution to this and I sincerely hope that can be something that can be achieved while I am in post.”

On behalf of the Conservative Friends of Cyprus, Executive Chairman Jason Charalambous asked the Foreign Secretary for “clarity of message” that the UK supports the reunification of Cyprus.

CFCyprus President, the Rt Hon Theresa Villiers MP, said it is important that pro-Cypriot MPs “are pledged to campaign for a free and united Cyprus”.

The Cypriot High Commissioner to the UK HE Mr Andreas Kakouris commented that “peace is not the absence of war; it is the presence of human rights, democracy and the rule of law, and in my country that is missing because of the continued Turkish occupation.”

The guests were also addressed by the Conservative Party Vice-Chairman Saqib Bhatti MBE and CFCyprus Parliamentary Chairman Dr Matthew Offord MP.

The vasilopita blessing and cutting was led by His Eminence Archbishop Nikitas of Thyateira and Great Britain, who reminded those gathered of the importance of working to end every form of injustice and promote truth and justice around the World.

The event was attended by the Greek Ambassador to the UK HE Mr Ioannis Raptakis, and the following Conservative MPs: Mike Wood, Shaun Bailey, Stuart Anderson, Mark Eastwood, Mark Jenkinson, Nick Fletcher, Sir Graham Brady, Suzanne Webb, Caroline Nokes, Fiona Bruce, Marcus Jones, Bob Seely, Gagan Mohindra and Martin Vickers...