Common Decleration
Yesterday, the inauguration ceremony of one of the most magnificent buildings of Famagusta held, following to its conversation and strengthening work was over. In this important day, we would like to thank for the participants either from Famagusta or elsewhere, high number of participating ambassadors from various countries and the chief of the missions, Head of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), Elizabeth Spehar, Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage, and the delegations and representations from the UNDP and EU. Yesterday, we enjoyed our common cultural heritage without any discrimination on religion, language and race.
The city of Famagusta is a mirror of the cultural mosaic of the entire island. We are children of people who come from this city, pass by, settled in, and sprinkle their cultures. We are inheritors of what our ancestors had left to us. In the years of blind Nationalism, we tried to destroy our cultural heritage, which our ancestors left us, we tried to harm each other. This was a distructive mania, without distinguishing whether it is Turkish / Greek or Muslim / Christian.
Now after years attacking to each other, attacking to ourselves, we slowly began to understand and talk about having a shared awareness and a common heritage. We started to take possession of our past and our shared values. We tried to empathise, and we are successful.
We received much support from the people who works without limitations like the Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage, UNDP and the European Union. They supported us with no limits in favour of our shared heritage. We learned to love and protect a country without dividing it, without making a difference between religion and nation.
The shared cultural heritage of this island is itself a common past of thousands of years. We believe that working to preserve our cultural heritage is an element that will unite us and will contribute to cooperation and peace in our island.
At this critical juncture, we are witnessing an attempt from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cyprus, to freeze the efforts to preserve and share our common cultural heritage, inter-communal dialogue and collective consciousness of a common country. We protest against any attempt to prevent access to our common cultural heritage, attempt which once again supports ethnic discrimination and the division of our island.
Mağusa İnisiyatifi Famagusta Our City