February 8, 1955
PAPAGOS-CYPRUS: In an atmosphere of patriotic fervor, Parliament last night heard Prime Minister Field Marshal Alexandros Papagos review the history of the Cyprus issue and his government’s handling of it. The prime minister’s speech was interrupted repeatedly by tumultuous applause from all sides of the house as he expounded on the series of talks with British Ambassador Sir Charles Peak and the demarches from the ethnarch of Cyprus regarding the Cypriot people’s right to self-determination. He also referred to the talks in Athens with British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, who stated categorically that as far as the British government was concerned the Cyprus issue did not exist. He underlined that the Greek government thereby assumed complete freedom of action. Papagos also said that as a result, he had not accepted an official invitation to visit Britain. Finally, he explained the conditions under which it had been decided to take recourse to the United Nations. (…) The prime minister concluded with the assurance that Greece would continue the struggle for the self-determination of the Cypriot people in the certainty that the struggle would be vindicated.
