Center-right leader Nicos Anastasiades addressed civil servants in the capital city of Nicosia today, just one day after banks reopened across the country following a nearly two-week shutdown. Amid jabs at banking authorities in Cyprus and Europe, Anastasiades insisted that despite the crescendo of international concern, Cyprus would remain on the EU’s single-currency system.

“We have no intention of leaving the euro,” he stated this afternoon, adding, “In no way will we experiment with the future of our country.”

Economists are now warning of the possible emergence of a ‘parallel currency’ of sorts as banks open with strict capital controls, meaning that a euro trapped on the island will become less valuable than a euro floating around the rest of the EU. Some have even gone so far as to predict Nicosia’s eventual printing of its own currency if transactions remain shackled long enough.

Though Anastasiades assured his people that the controls would eventually be lifted, he offered no time frame as to when this might occur. Such controls have never been imposed in the currency bloc since the EU begin circulating coins and banknotes in 2002, but similar measures in other parts of the world have been the catalyst for economic and political unrest in the past.

“Everyone will have to make sacrifices as our financial situation, in the violent way in which it has developed, will oblige all of us to share the burden,” the president admitted to his embattled nation today. His statement rings tragically true for wealthier foreign and domestic depositors, since his hastily-assembled bailout deal greenlights a raid on all deposits over 100,00 euros. This plan marks a historical departure from all previous euro zone rescues because it is the first time that bank depositors have been forced to accept a loss.