Nicosia to take up resolution on Soviet famine in Ukraine

Cypriot House Speaker Annita Demetriou told her Ukrainian counterpart over the weekend that Turkey ought not to assume any mediator role in international conflicts, as Kiev continues to call on EU capitals to stay the course against Russia.

Demetriou had a meeting with Ukrainian parliament chairman Ruslan Stefanchuk over the weekend in Prague, where the Cypriot House speaker and her delegation went to attend the Conference of Speakers of the European Union Parliaments.

The Cypriot and Ukrainian teams had a meeting on the sidelines of the conference, with Demetriou and Stefanchuk exchanging views on Kiev’s call to EU capitals to boost sanctions against Russia.

Stefanchuk, who went to Prague also as a representative of an EU candidate country, called on Nicosia “to continue to impose sanctions at the national level on Russian business and assets” while he also invited Cyprus to join the establishment of a “special tribunal for the crime of Russian aggression against Ukraine.”

The Ukrainian official called on the Cypriot parliament to adopt a resolution recognizing last century’s Soviet famine in Ukraine as “genocide of the Ukrainian people.”

In 2006 the Rada adopted a law on “the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine.”

Moscow has accused Kiev of attempting to rewrite history and further claimed the famine was common at the time among Soviet people.

According to the Cyprus News Agency, Demetriou made a commitment to submit a recommendation to adopt the resolution.

The Cypriot House Speaker also said Ukrainians were defending European values and principles, according to additional official reports about the meeting.

“And this, among other things, is the reason why we fully support Ukraine’s accession to the EU,” Demetriou was quoted as saying.

Demetriou, who also leads the conservative party in Cyprus, also said “Turkey must not assume mediator role in international problems,” according to RIK News.