AKEL expresses its concerns about the termination of the bi-communal IMAGINE program

 

11 December 2025, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

On behalf of AKEL, Parliamentary Spokesperson Giorgos Loucaides sent a letter today to the Minister of Education, expressing the Party’s concerns about the termination of the IMAGINE bi-communal program. AKEL calls on the Ministry to proceed immediately with the full resumption of the program, with a specific timetable and public briefing of schools and the bodies implementing it.

The letter is reproduced below:

“On behalf of AKEL, I would like to express our particular concern that the IMAGINE program has effectively been terminated since the beginning of the school year, without any official briefing as to when the Ministry intends to restore its full operation. Four whole months of the school year have already been lost, depriving pupils and teachers of one of the most essential and proven beneficial programs for fostering a culture of peace and anti-racism in our country.

As AKEL, we believe that the suspension of the program, without any clear framework for its restoration, raises serious questions about the government’s political will to support a program that has been operating for many years with excellent results, as confirmed by the official announcements of the Pedagogical Institute.

We recall that the President of the Republic himself had publicly and in a well-documented way criticized the Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar when he unilaterally banned Turkish Cypriot pupils from participating in the IMAGINE program. At the time, the President of the Republic rightly underlined that the abolition of the program undermined the efforts to build trust, contacts, mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence between the two communities.

Today, however, the absence of the program from our schools, with no information on when it will resume, creates the impression that the Greek Cypriot side is unable to ensure the continuation of a valuable tool for peace and anti-racism in the Republic of Cyprus.

The IMAGINE program, as you know, has been supported by the United Nations, the educational community at all levels, and Cypriot society. It has brought together thousands of students, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, while hundreds of teachers have been trained through its activities. Its termination or prolonged suspension not only deprives our children of fundamental educational opportunities, but also carries the risk of negative references in the upcoming reports prepared by the United Nations on Cyprus regarding the functioning of bicommunal activities and Confidence Building Measures.

In view of all the above, we call on the Ministry of Education to proceed immediately with the full resumption of the program, with a clear timetable and public briefing to the schools and agencies that implement IMAGINE. There is no educational, social, or political reason to deprive our pupils of a program that has done so much to foster a culture of peace and respect in our country.

AKEL will closely monitor the issue and remains at your disposal for any cooperation that will permit the immediate restoration of the smooth operation of the program.”