The Secretary General did not ask for the President’s new ideas

AKEL C.C. Spokesperson Stefanos Stefanou on the Foreign Minister’s statements

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 8 July 2019, Nicosia

On the occasion of the Foreign Minister’s statements to the daily “Kathimerini” newspaper about an expected resumption of talks, we would like to recall the following:

The UN Secretary General has long ago been saying that he must be convinced by both sides to accept the beginning of a procedure that will be meaningful and with the prospect of reaching a conclusion. Towards that end, he asked for specific things. He called on the two sides to accept the resumption of negotiations from the point where they had remained at Crans Montana, with cross-negotiation at two tables, one on the issue of security and the other on the internal aspects of the Cyprus problem. The goal, the conclusion of a strategic understanding on the six core issues, which will in essence mean a countdown for a solution. Unfortunately, so far, this has never happened and it is time that it is done now.

For the Foreign Minister’s statements to have any meaning, it is imperative that very clear positions should at long last be expressed. The Government Spokesman also needs to stop saying that the UN Secretary General has asked for new ideas to be discussed. It was our side that put new ideas on the table and as expected the Secretary General called on both sides to reach an agreement between them on any new ideas, with a sense of urgency and to subsequently address him.

What has certainly been proved is that the effort to discuss and agree terms of reference, which would have included supposedly the new ideas too, has failed miserably and must be abandoned. The only thing that has been achieved in this way is the perpetuation of the stalemate resulting in the promotion of Turkey’s strategic goal for partition. The only way to reverse this goal is through the resumption of the negotiations, as the UN Secretary General is calling for. A prerequisite for this is, of course, the termination of Turkey’s illegal activities in the Cypriot Exclusive Economic Zone. In any case, if the Presidency of the Republic acts accordingly, it is Turkey who will have the problem.