Speech by the General Secretary of AKEL Stefanos Stefanou at the Plenary of the Parliament on the black anniversaries

 

15 July 2024, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

Fifty years have passed this year since the twin crimes of the treasonous coup and the barbaric Turkish invasion. Since then, many of those who lived through the painful events have passed away. Their tragic life experiences are giving way to memories that, with the passage of time, are also slowly fading away and gone forever.

No matter how many years pass, however, we must not permit forgetfulness to erase memories, much less alter them.

It is a moral obligation to the fighters of the democratic resistance against the coup to remember the events and defend the historical truth.

It is also a moral obligation to all those who defended the freedom and territorial integrity of our country against the Turkish invasion, and especially to the dead, the missing persons, the prisoners of war, the disabled and wounded of the unequal and betrayed struggle.

It is also a moral obligation to the refugees, the enclaved people in the occupied areas, the war-stricken people and to all our people who are still suffering. On behalf of AKEL, I express our respect and love to them all.

Knowledge of history has another important dimension beyond the moral one. That of charting our course for the future. On the necessary pre-condition, of course, that history records and assesses historical truth.

This also proves that our people suffered the tragedy of 1974 because of foreign plans, but also because of internal subversion. The aim was to remove or even physically eliminate Makarios in order to achieve the goal of partitioning Cyprus and thus trapping it exclusively in the sphere of influence of the West. The aim was also to ensure the cohesion of the south-eastern wing of NATO. This had been decided at the NATO Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Lisbon in 1971. After all, coups and assassinations of Presidents are NATO’s favorite tactics. The list of its crimes is long.

The plan to the partition of Cyprus would not have been implemented had there had not been any willing collaborators on the domestic front. This role was played by the Greek junta and EOKA B. They were the ones who undermined the state, it was they who executed the coup that not only gave Turkey an “alibi” to invade Cyprus, with a malicious interpretation of the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee, but also facilitated the invasion.

As the coordinator of the Turkish army forces that landed in Cyprus, Muzafer Severs, told our compatriot journalist Anna Andreou: “The invasion could have failed had there had been the elementary resistance”.

But how could there be any resistance given that, as one of the leaders of the coup, Greek junta General Bonanos, cynically admits, he did not alert the General Staff of the Cypriot National Guard to the invasion at dawn on 20 July, because “he had other things to do”?

For that precise reason, the coup cannot be examined separately from the invasion, nor the invasion without the coup.

Consequently, those who forces and circles trying to reduce the treachery of the coup to some “civil strife”, “dissension” and “division”, seeking to cover up the murderous actions of EOKA B by promoting the narrative “violence and anti-violence”, are doing nothing but acquitting the crime committed against our people, the consequences of which we are still suffering.

As for the untrue claim of a “foolish@ coup, it is enough for any well-intentioned person to take a look at the newspaper front pages of the time. The repeated warnings that a coup would cause Turkey to invade are there for all to see, and no one can write them off.

The coup is an act of treason, not an action of fools.

Colleagues,

Fifty years after the twin crimes of 1974, I want to send a strong message of danger from the floor of this House: we are at a historic point where the permanent partition is as visible as ever.

We must hasten to prevent such a dangerous development. We must overcome the illusion of security created by the temporary nature of our life since 1974. AKEL will not tire of stressing that there are no ‘frozen’ conflicts. Let us look at what is happening next door to us in Gaza.

Turkey is taking advantage of the seven-year deadlock that has existed surrounding the Cyprus problem since 2017 to create new occupation fait accompli. The UN Secretary General in his Reports doubts the existence of political will on both sides for a solution. This is what he wrote in his recent Report too on the renewal of the mandate of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus UNFICYP. Whatever initiatives, ‘milestones’ and efforts were announced by the President of the Republic have not yielded any substantive results. Despite the efforts of the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy on Cyprus María Angela Holguín Cuéllar, no point of contact between the two sides has been established.

It is imperative that we take substantive initiatives on our part in an effort to create momentum for the resumption of the negotiations. These initiatives can be part of a positive agenda to persuade Turkey to return to the negotiations. The President himself has spoken of a positive agenda many times and rightly so. But we are of the opinion that the momentum we want to create with EU-Turkish issues alone will probably not emerge.

 

We need to include in the positive agenda issues that are high on Turkey’s priorities. One of them is the issue of energy in Cyprus and our region. We can raise it without violating our “red lines”. As to how we could do this, we have submitted a relevant proposal since December 2020.

For the umpteenth time, I call on the President of the Republic to put our proposal to the National Council for discussion. The proposal is open and can be supplemented with other ideas. Such a discussion will not only do no harm, but will help a meaningful collective reflection that is imperative in the critical moments we are going through.

It goes without saying that any initiative taken on the part of the Greek Cypriot side should be accompanied by our clear position that we remain consistent to the agreed basis for a solution of the Bizonal, Bicommunal  Federation with political equality as set out in the relevant Resolutions of the UN Security Council and that we are ready to resume THE negotiations from the point where they were interrupted on the basis of the Guterres Framework, preserving all the convergences that have been recorded so far.

It is also imperative that we turn resolutely towards the Turkish Cypriot community and try to win its confidence by promoting policies in its favour. The Turkish Cypriots are our natural allies in the struggle for a solution and we must have them with us, as fellow travellers and partners.

Mr. President of the Republic,

You have the responsibility of handling the Cyprus problem. I am sure you would not want to face the nightmare scenario of linking your Presidency to the permanent partition of Cyprus. We are trying to make our own contribution. It is up to you to make use of that help.

We will continue to wage our own fight against the occupation, against partition, against the two-state solution.

We will continue to struggle for a free homeland and a state where Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots will co-manage and build their future. Our future!

Honor and Glory to the heroes of our people who gave their lives for democracy and the freedom of our homeland.

15.07.2024