Palestinian corrects name slipup for Cyprus as it lists those recognising its state
The Palestinian president’s office on Wednesday swiftly corrected an announcement after it had initially made reference to the “Greek Administration of Southern Cyprus”.
The office had put out a statement on Wednesday morning welcoming the decision of Norway, Spain and Ireland to recognise Palestine as an independent state.
In that statement, it had added that it was “noteworthy” that eight European Union member states now recognise Palestine, before listing them as “Bulgaria, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Greek Administration of Southern Cyprus and Sweden.”
Asked about the terminology, Palestinian ambassador in Nicosia Abdallah Attari told newspaper Politis the original announcement in Arabic had referred to the Republic of Cyprus, and that it was a translator who had changed the terminology when writing the statement in English.
“As soon as it was noticed, Palestinian President [Mahmoud Abbas], who appears strongly annoyed with the translator, immediately rushed to request a correction to the English text,” the paper said.
The corrected version of the text in English now refers to simply “Cyprus” in its list of EU member states which recognise Palestine’s independence.
Cyprus first recognised the State of Palestine in 1988, shortly after its official declaration of independence on November 15 that year.
In 2012, Cyprus voted in favour of the United Nations General Assembly’s resolution which granted the State of Palestine observer status at the UN. Following the adoption of this resolution, Cyprus upgraded the status of the Palestinian delegation in Nicosia to a full embassy.
Cyprus’ official position on the issue of the Israel-Palestine question is that it “supports a comprehensive and final two-state solution on the basis of the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital of an independent and viable Palestinian state.”
The term “Greek (Cypriot) Administration of Southern Cyprus” is used by the Republic of Turkey and the north to refer to what the rest of the world recognises as the Republic of Cyprus.