March 20, 1957
KARAMANLIS’S REPLY TO BRITAIN: Prime Minister Constantine Karamanlis has made the following statements in response to announcements regarding Cyprus by the British Colonial Secretary Alan Lennox-Boyd in the House of Commons: «It is regrettable that the British colonial secretary has shown that, once again, his government is not approaching the Cyprus issue in the correct manner, but is persisting with its demand that peace is a condition for a solution, even though it is clear, as history has shown, that peace can only come as the result of a solution. Therefore, the request that Archbishop Makarios call for a cessation of violence is pointless, since the leader of the National Cypriot Fighters’ Organization (EOKA), in an initiative on March 14, said that he would call a halt to all action as soon as the archbishop was freed… Moreover, the liberation of the ethnarch is provided for in the relevant UN resolution, since it calls for a continuation of talks with him. Archbishop Makarios is the natural, but also the elected representative, of the Cypriots. The Greek government can only abide by the decision reached unanimously by the UN General Assembly and approved by all NATO members…»
