Statement by the General Secretary of AKEL A.Kyprianou

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 12 April 2019, Nicosia

I wish to express my regret at the constant barrage of statements made by the President of the Republic, which at the very least can be characterized as unacceptable.

The President of the Republic says he wants to promote unity which is the reason why is restraining himself. I haven’t seen any self-restraint on his part in any way.

But I sincerely wonder – how is he forging unity?

Is he promoting unity by proceeding unilaterally to violate long-standing decisions of the National Council and by advancing his personal views, without even discussing them with the National Council? Look at the example of his opening of decentralized federation and a system of parliamentary democracy. These are proposals he himself has tabled without coming into an understanding with anyone at all.

Is he forging unity by ignoring issues of vital importance for the Cyprus problem, such as the case of the chief negotiator, but also the head of the Committee on Missing Persons? He violated legislation and law in both cases and says that he will bring amendments to the House of Representatives to change the relevant laws.

The second thing I want to say is that, yes, Mr. Anastasiades, despite the fact that he verbally states that he respects the Guterres Framework, all that he is in practice proposing and promoting essentially is dismantling the UN Secretary General’s framework which has promoted serious positions on very sensitive issues for the Greek Cypriot side, such as security and guarantees.

And because the government spokesman naively asks me whether AKEL accepts the Guterres Framework as a whole, we reply without any hesitation whatsoever, yes we do. AKEL accepts the Guterres Framework as it was submitted by the Secretary-General of the UN at Crans Montana.

Mr. Anastasiades is asking us about the demographic change taking place in the occupied areas and wants us to reply whether we are ready to accept Turkey’s undeniably irrational interpretation for the equal treatment of Turkish and Greek citizens.

We’ll remind him that Demetris Christofias had agreed, a conclusion was reached with Mr. Talat on this very issue. It is Mr. Anastasiades who tried to improve it and thus gave Turkey the opportunity to table irrational demands.

Consequently, he should look for responsibility from himself rather than asking AKEL about these issues. The position of AKEL is very clear and is expressed in the convergence Demetris Christofias achieved with Mehmet Ali Talat for a population ratio of 4:1[1].

Mr. Anastasiades said that it is obvious that for some party interests take priority over the country’s interests. AKEL’s positions emanate from our concern over Mr. Anastasiades’ handlings of the Cyprus problem which are leading us ever closer to the permanent partition of our country. We will never accept this and because we are worried about it we are reacting. We are reacting in a well-documented way and by putting forth arguments, and not in a destructive and opportunistic way as the President himself behaved and acted during the period of the Demetris Christofias government.

It is obvious that certain other forces and circles are putting the country second by choosing to attach more importance to election battles. And we have very clear examples of this in 1993 too of what the governing Democratic Rally DISY party did in 1998, in 2003, in 2013 and in 2018. Mr. Anastasiades chose in the last election campaigns to put his personal ambitions over and above the country’s interests for him to be delivering lessons to AKEL.

To conclude, I will comment on the President’s reference to Turkish Cypriot “borrowed” votes. He has hit rock bottom with this position he has expressed. He shows that he is incapable of understanding the political role that AKEL plays in Cyprus. We want to create such conditions in which Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots will be cooperating on the basis of their political positions, on the basis of political criteria and not on the basis of their ethnic origin. If the President does not realize that this is the only way to succeed in reunifying Cyprus and create conditions of peace and stability, then I regret to point out he does not understand the essence of the Cyprus problem.

[1] With regards citizenship, this refers to a Christofias-Talat convergence regarding the four freedoms for Turkish citizens to be implemented after the solution of the Cyprus problem, in order to avoid the unrestricted settlement of Turkish citizens. The restriction is based on the fundamental need of respecting the ratio of 4:1.