Panicking the DISY leadership is engaging in distortions
Statement by the General Secretary of AKEL A.Kyprianou
6th May 2019, Cyprus News Agency (CNA)
The leadership of DISY is panicking, using lies and distorting what AKEL is saying so that wrong messages are conveyed to the Cypriot people, noted the General Secretary of AKEL Andros Kyprianou, and called on the ruling government forces to reflect on why the people are criticizing them heavily.
In statements made at Larnaca Airport before his departure for Athens, Mr. Kyprianou reiterated that “Turkey’s actions in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the Republic of Cyprus are unacceptable. First and foremost, they are illegal actions and as such they must be denounced by the Republic of Cyprus in all international directions.” He went on to say that “the fact that denunciations will be made, that there will be condemnations on a political and diplomatic level does not solve the problem” and that the problem remains and is on two levels.
“First and foremost there is the damage that is being done to the attempts for the resumption of negotiations on the Cyprus problem and, secondly, the fact that Turkey is provoking new fait accompli in the Cypriot EEZ”, he pointed out, adding that “I see that DISY is reacting to statements we have made” and reiterated that “we have been warning all this time that so long as the deadlock on the Cyprus problem continues, Turkey will escalate its provocative actions and aggression and we say that it will attempt to provoke faits accomplis in the Cypriot EEZ”.
“The reply”, the General Secretary of AKEL continued, “we had on the part of the government, the President, the Government Spokesman, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the President of DISY, is that all the necessary measures are being taken, that the tripartite meetings and the upgrading of Cyprus’ relations with the US are shielding the Cypriot EEZ and that no one would venture to take provocative actions in the Exclusive Economic Zone”, while “we see these actions being taking place today and we want to see all the big talk the government was saying put in practice”.
And if this critical approach annoys DISY and the government, I will tell them that it is their own problem, he said, stating that “we are interested in how the interests of Cyprus and the Cypriot people are best served. We are currently under great pressure, both with regards the Cyprus problem and the issues related to the EEZ. We are therefore waiting to get answers instead of excuses and attempts through lies and distortions to convey different messages to the Cypriot people.
In his statements, the General Secretary of AKEL also said that “it is obvious that the DISY leadership is panicking. This is what the statements made in recent days by the DISY leadership and Mr. Anastasiades prove of course. They are using lies and I regret that, while they are distorting what we say in order to transmit erroneous messages to the Cypriot people.”
After noting that “we will not follow them on this downhill path on which they have chosen to take,” adding that “what we will say is that life continues after the European elections and that the country will have to address the many problems that have accumulated as a result of the bad governance of Nikos Anastasiades and DISY. So if they want a political level of dialogue to be maintained that will permit us to talk the day after the election, then they should be careful in what they say.”
Referring to his visit to the Greek capital, the General Secretary of AKEL said he would attend political meetings to be held in Athens and Thessaloniki “with the aim of transmitting our messages to the Cypriot voters currently living and working in Greece so that they have a full knowledge of the positions of political parties and candidates in order to be able to make their own choices.”
