Greek Cypriot parliament votes to revoke ‘Enosis Day’ bill

The Greek Cypriot parliament on Friday, voted to overturn a controversial legislation calling on secondary schools to commemorate the 1950’s Enosis plebiscite, a decision that stalled the ongoing Cyprus reunification talks in mid-February.

Recall that the Greek Cyprus parliament had in February passed a bill to introduce an annual commemoration of the 1950 referendum on the island’s union with Greece (Enosis) in public secondary schools.

Turkish Cypriot president, Mustafa Akinci had frowned at the parliaments decision and urged his counterpart Nicos Anastasiades to reverse the decision and not put his signature on the bill stating that the bill would undermine efforts to reunite the island under a federal umbrella and also argued that it is unacceptable to describe enosis, which also caused a lot of pain to the Greek Cypriot youth and Cyprus, as “sacred”.

Out o the 56 MPs present at the sitting, 30 voted in favour and 20 against with 6 undecided. According to Cyprus Mail, the ruling Disy party pushed forward the legislation through parliament and backed by the opposition communist Akel party but two Disy MPs, voted against the amendment.

Akinci who had earlier in the week said he was ready to restart the talks welcomed Friday’s decision to amend the bill, and confirmed he would be taking part in the talks from Tuesday.

Cyprus Weekly