Τhe President is regressing and contradicting himself on the Cyprus problem

Statements by Secretary General AKEL

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 25 June 2018, Nicosia

I would like to express our deep resentment with Mr. Anastasiades’ statements made yesterday, both with regards their content, but also tone. As I understand it he was addressing a specific audience and he had to satisfy them, but I will say to him however that his angry tone won’t scare us to change the different approaches we as AKEL have.

Such type of positions are provoking damage to the efforts aimed at solving the Cyprus problem and I shall explain what I mean by beginning with whether the President is decisive as regards combating the idea in favour of a two-state solution.

When statements are made by certain circles and forces in favour of a two state solution and the government does not bother to answer or comment on them.

When you are being challenged for a whole week to clarify your position and you refuse to reply in a clear way and express your position on the matter.

When you publicly express positions in a way that refers to two separate entities in Cyprus, then justifiably at the least many questions are raised about what your genuine intentions are.

I regret to note that Mr. Anastasiades expressed his position in the way that I have described all through this period lately.

The second thing that I want to say is that, unfortunately, Mr. Anastasiades in his attempt to persuade the people about his weak arguments, but also to cultivate fear among public opinion, is adopting the rhetoric of the so-called intermediate political spectrum that he is supposedly fighting against. In his attempts to convince the people that there are problems with regards the workability of the solution to the Cyprus problem, he made a reference to the possibility of not finding a Turkish Cypriot minister to support the decisions for cooperation on natural gas with Egypt. He forgets that there are mechanisms of solving deadlocks in such cases. Of course, the most important thing is that we must work for the existence of a culture, both in the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities, which will aim to put Cyprus over and above everything else. And it is the President’s own duty to work in this direction.

He is constantly coming back to the question of guarantees and intervention rights. He is provoking AKEL in an unacceptable way as to whether it would be willing to accept such rights… I will remind President Anastasiades that the first person to raise the issue of the abolition of the guarantees was Demetris Christofias. Demetris Christofias was the General Secretary of AKEL and not of the Democratic Rally DISY party. On the other hand, up till now the only political leader who accepted the continuation of guarantees after the solution of the Cyprus problem was Mr. Anastasiades himself. No one else. That’s why he shouldn’t put such questions to AKEL, because it is, to say the very least, provocative.

In his whole speech yesterday, at least according to what we have read, he did not find the strength to defend bi-communal, bizonal federation not even once, for which he says he is working for the achievement of an agreement. So, with these regressions and contradictions, the only thing he achieves is to provoke problems and spread concerns and raise questions among society as to whether the solution of the Cyprus problem can be reached on the basis of bicommunal bizonal federation. Mr. Anastasiades must reflect on this behavior of his.

The elections in Turkey are over. If we really want a solution to the Cyprus problem, we should not sit with our hands crossed waiting for who and when any initiatives will be taken to promote the Cyprus problem. We must be the ones taking initiatives; to address the Secretary-General of the United Nations and tell him: I am ready for an immediate resumption of negotiations on the basis of everything you have outlined in your successive Reports,

He must make moves towards the leadership of the Turkish Cypriot community and with behind-the-scenes consultations that will be made, prepare the ground so that if and provided that negotiations resume, we should be ready to proceed at a fast pace. It is also important that society should be preparing itself also with regards both the correctness of the framework of the solution, but also the need to achieve an agreement on the Cyprus problem; to send a very clear message that the framework is given and that without a solution to the Cyprus problem, the dangers that lie ahead are enormous for Cyprus and the Cypriot people.

That’s what we want to see Mr. Anastasiades doing and unfortunately we see him regressing, contradicting himself and moving between serving his expediencies and containing his electoral base of support and permit me to say of himself too.