NIKOSIA – It’s been rejected by the other side a number of times already but Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides said he would sit down at the table to talk about how to reunify the island a half century after Turkish invasions seized the northern third.

Speaking on the 50th anniversary of a second wave of the invaders, Christodoulides wrote a statement saying: “I am ready to come to the dialogue table even tomorrow, on the basis of the agreed framework for the search for a solution, the negotiating acquis and of course the principles and values of the EU, of which Cyprus is a member state and will continue to be a member state after the Cyprus settlement.”

A prerequisite … “for the success of our struggle” is the existence of a strong internal front, he said, noting “the second phase of Turkey’s barbaric invasion which violently divided Cyprus, placed it under occupation, expelled thousands of our compatriots and tragically determined the future of Cyprus, its people and its modern history.”

He added: “Half a century later, we condemn the crime in Cyprus, the ongoing occupation and we do not forget. We honor and commemorate the fallen, the missing, the heroes, the women and children of the refugees.”

Turkish-cypriot leader Ersin Tatar has dismissed any idea of bringing the island back together, instead demanding the United Nations and world recognize the occupied, isolated territory, which hasn’t happened.

Christodoulides said, “We know very well that vindication will come only through a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem, liberation, reunification, when real conditions of peace and security prevail in Cyprus.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who was at the last round of talks in July, 2016 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana that collapsed after then Turkish-Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan refused to remove a 35,000-strong army, has sent yet another envoy.

But no answer is on the horizon and Christodoulides, a former foreign minister well acquainted with the decades of failed diplomacy, said, “No solution is not a solution. We do not compromise with the occupation, we remain militantly optimistic for a reunited Cyprus as we deserve,” he said.