H.E. Dr. Michalis Stavrinos:

On the question about education, Deputy O'Sullivan has experience of this issue. There are still thousands of missing people. Civilians - who were not fighters - were killed in cold blood. There is an atmosphere and propaganda from one side that does not allow the people to think clearly and positively. Before 1974 the two communities were living very peacefully together. Every village and city had a church side by side with a mosque. People followed their own religion without any real problems until some expansionist plans came on the scene. There is a renewed effort in parallel with the talks to improve the texts used in books and to preserve the monuments and churches in the occupied part and which had been impossible for the past 40 years. I refer to a very good gesture with regard to the Apostolos Andreas monastery. This was a positive step which would have been unimaginable a few years ago.

Deputy O'Sullivan asked for clarification on the terminology of identification. There is Cypriot nationality.

This is clear and it is provided in the constitution of Cyprus. Then there are two communities - the Greek Cypriot and the Turkish Cypriot - signifying their national origins or their religious beliefs. However, there is no distinction. That is why we have other minorities who keep their traditions and culture but who remain Cypriot citizens as well.
It was recognised as a positive gesture by the Turkish side that the church of Cyprus welcomed the joint communique and expressed its support for President Anastasiades in his effort to achieve a solution. Just two days ago, there was a meeting between the Archbishop of Cyprus and the Turkish Cypriot Mufti, and they agreed to exert every effort in order to preserve the monuments on each side, and also to allow people to access churches and mosques freely.
The British bases represent a very hot issue. During the talks for the Annan plan, the British Government offered to abandon half of the area covered by the bases in favour of a future federal state. Although there was no specific discussion of the issue, our understanding is that it remains valid for the new effort as well. It is true that the whole area covered by the British bases is too big for merely military or defence purposes, and there was a recent agreement between our Government and the British Government that the development of those properties should be allowed to go ahead after so many years without any limitations, unless they obstruct military or defence purposes per se.
The last question was about the IMF and the economic situation in Cyprus. We entered the programme just a year ago and all the signs were not good. Cyprus was the victim of experimentation in respect of the bail-in and other things that we could not imagine before. These things damaged not only the Cypriot economy but also trust in the euro internationally. If the free economy - based on respect for the value of money and accounts - was damaged, then the damage was done by those who made these decisions. Unfortunately, the Cypriot people were the victims of it. A kind of acceptable propaganda was used against the foreigners who were investing in Cyprus. Talk about money laundering, dirty money and so on proved to be completely wrong. All that money moved to other EU countries and nobody is talking about the colour of that money now.
Cyprus is doing very well. We have had the third visit of the troika and its members expressed their satisfaction that the economy is performing better than initially expected. We hope to follow the example of Ireland in a couple of years and return to the markets.