As a resumption of UN-led peace talks on Cyprus gets closer, Cypriot communities in Australia and New Zealand will meet in Melbourne next week to discuss their most pressing priorities, as well as the role they can play in promoting a just solution for the island.
The Federation of Cyprus Communities of Australia and NZ annual conference – which takes place between February 14 and 16 – will see delegates from every Australian state (bar Tasmania) and from New Zealand, discuss how a stronger voice can emerge to articulate ‘the Cyprus issue’, and closer to home, how the communities can increase their young people’s involvement in community affairs.
Federation President Michael Christodoulou AM told Neos Kosmos that one of the most vital issues for the conference was how ties to each community’s youth could be reinforced – in order to pass the torch to a new generation – a generation who too often see their traditional community organisations as peripheral to their own ambitions.
“The theme this year is how we are to engage young people. We’re failing with the youth,” said Mr Christodoulou, who sits as a commissioner for the NSW government’s Community Relations Commission.
“It’s a universal problem. Younger people today have different ideas. The long-term aim is to make sure they take over the reins [of the Communities]. Unless they participate today in the community’s life, they will never come back later on.”
Aged care provision and the challenges faced by new models of support for culturally-appropriate care will be another major topic on the conference agenda. The Federation’s annual conference said Mr Christodoulou was the ideal environment to share ideas and forge new approaches.
“It’s very important for us to keep in touch with one another, and to work together.”
On the international front, assisting Cyprus as it continues to struggle with the effects of its own economic crisis is also uppermost as the kind of new interventions Christodoulou would like to see Cyprus communities in Australia and NZ develop.
“There have been major issues in Cyprus in 2013, and I’ll be bringing to the table a suggestion we should raise money to send back to Cyprus, to help needy people,” said Mr Christodoulou.

“The theme this year is how we are to engage young people. We’re failing with the youth.”

“Here in Sydney we’re looking at collecting clothes and sending a full container later this year.”

Developments in relation to ‘the Cyprus issue’ are due to be discussed at length during Saturday’s conference sessions.

PASEKA President Constantinos Procopiou told Neos Kosmos that a continuing challenge was to improve the effectiveness of communities’ activities “to make the people of Australia [and NZ] aware that the injustice the people of Cyprus suffered in 1974 is still continuing, regardless of the numerous resolutions of the UN Security Council and the requirements of the EU.

“We’ll try to find ways to persuade the international community – including Australia – to exert pressure on Turkey to withdraw their troops from Cyprus and let all Cypriots to live in peace and harmony as they had done for so many years,” said Mr Procopiou.

Last month UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that he was hopeful of a resumption of UN-brokered negotiations on Cyprus in the near future. The United Nations has been working on the wording of a ‘joint statement’ to restart negotiations which broke off in mid-2012.

In a televised address in Cyprus on Thursday, President Nicos Anastasiades said there were “serious prospects” that the long-stalled talks to reunify the island could resume between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities, and that from the Cyprus government’s side – the wording of the joint communiqué had been finalised.

President Anastasiades travelled to Athens to brief the Greek government on the joint communiqué yesterday.

The opening ceremony and reception of the 42nd Annual Conference of the Federation of Cyprus Communities of Australia and New Zealand takes place on Friday 14th February at 7.00 pm at the Cyprus Village Community Centre. 100 Forrest Street, Ardeer, VIC 3022.

Registration of delegates will take place at the same venue between 8.30-9.00 am on Saturday 15 February. Conference sessions will run from 9.00 am until 5.00 pm.
For further information contact Chris Christofourou on 0418 177912.