NICOSIA, August 16. /TASS/. All leaders of Cyprus, from the moment the island state was founded, set themselves the task of strengthening relations with the USSR and Russia and made their own contribution to this process. This was stated in a conversation with a TASS correspondent by the former adviser of the Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus in Moscow, lawyer, journalist and translator Sophocles Sophocle in connection with the upcoming 66th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Moscow and Nicosia.
“On 16 August it will be 66 years since the proclamation of the independence of the Republic of Cyprus, and just two days later — on 18 August — the 66th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between our countries — the then Soviet Union and the young Republic of Cyprus — will be marked. From the moment bilateral contacts entered the diplomatic orbit, relations between our countries developed progressively, simultaneously strengthening in a wide variety of areas: a large number of bilateral agreements were concluded that covered virtually all possible spheres of cooperation. And all Cypriot presidents, regardless of their political views, adhered to the absolutely correct position that the island simply needed to have good, developed relations with the Soviet Union and with Russia, and each made his personal contribution to the process of strengthening them,” Sophocles said.
The TASS interlocutor in different years personally attended meetings of many heads of the Cypriot and Russian states, and among other things served as an interpreter during direct communication between the leaders of the two countries. “I personally knew and communicated with all the presidents of Cyprus except the very first of them — Archbishop Makarios III (1913–1977), because there was too great an age difference between us. However, I witnessed his visit to Moscow in June 1971. This was an official visit by the secular and spiritual leader of Cyprus to the Soviet Union, during which, in addition to meetings with Soviet leaders and trips around the country, he also took part in the enthronement ceremony of Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’ Pimen (1910–1990),” Sophocles reported.
How diplomatic relations were established
Sophocles Sophocle also shared with TASS a number of details about the very fact of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Moscow and Nicosia. “At midnight with the onset of 16 August 1960 — the day when the independence of Cyprus was proclaimed — a telegram was prepared in the then dominant language of international diplomacy, French, which the first president, Archbishop Makarios, sent to the capitals of the leading countries of the world and, naturally, among them to Moscow. In this telegram it was stated that a new young state called the Republic of Cyprus had just appeared in the world, which was ready to establish diplomatic relations and, in general, to strengthen ties with various countries. The Soviet Union immediately sent a positive reply to the telegram of the first head of the island state, the result of which was the official establishment already on 18 August, that is, two days after the proclamation of Cyprus’s independence, of diplomatic relations between Nicosia and Moscow,” the Cypriot lawyer recounted.
According to Sophocles, the process of elevating the relations to the diplomatic level itself provided for a short transitional period involving the Soviet diplomatic mission in Athens. “The Cypriot side received a message from Moscow which stated that the duties of the first head of the Soviet diplomatic mission in Cyprus were temporarily entrusted to the Ambassador of the USSR to Greece, Mikhail Sergeyev (1903–1993), who performed them concurrently for several months. This period lasted only a short time, and then an independent diplomatic mission was already opened in Nicosia, and the first Soviet ambassador to Cyprus was the diplomat Pavel Yermoshin (1907–1989),” the TASS interlocutor reported.
@rusembcy Russia–Cyprus
