AKEL Declaration on the anniversary of the Turkish invasion
20 July 2021, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia
Yet another July that finds the refugees far from their homes, our compatriots enclaved in the occupied areas, the relatives of the missing persons looking for answers, our people separated and our homeland divided. Forty-seven years have now passed since that fateful day of 20 July 1974 when Turkey illegally invaded Cyprus, seizing the opportunity offered to it by the fascist Greek Junta and its Cypriot collaborators, the traitorous EOKA B organisation, to implement the next act of the pre-determined NATO plan to partition Cyprus. With the second phase of the invasion in August that followed, Turkey seized 37% of the territory of the Republic of Cyprus that it illegally occupies to this day and completed the separation of the two communities by the force of arms that began in 1963.
With its eyes fixed on the occupied Pentadaktylos mountain range, on all our occupied villages and municipalities, AKEL denounces the Turkish invasion and ongoing occupation. It honors and pays tribute to the heroic fallen and fighters of 1974 who resisted the Turkish invading army with self-sacrifice and self-denial. It honors the sons of our people who sacrificed their dreams and lives for the sake of Democracy and Freedom, not those who, serving treasonous dictates, opened the back door to the Turkish Army.
At the same time, AKEL conveys to all Cypriot people a message of unity and a call of struggle for the liberation and reunification of our homeland. It will continue to stand by the mass of victims of the Cypriot tragedy, the people of our homeland, those who have suffered massacres, looting, torture and rape, the violent uprooting from their family homes, and those who are still mourning for their missing persons.
For almost five decades now, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots have been living a precarious reality that is undermining any prospect of development and progress, with Turkey plotting the final partition of Cyprus. The incessant colonisation of the occupied territories, the policy of cultural assimilation, political subjugation and economic control of the Turkish Cypriot community confirm that the partitionist status quo is not unchanging, but instead is changing dangerously and escalating. This is what the Turkish aggressive actions in the Exclusive Economic Zone also confirm, which are once again damaging the sovereign rights of the Republic of Cyprus, as well as the provocative and illegal actions in Varosha, which are further altering the facts on the ground.
Turkey and the partitionist Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar are in a suffocating manner limiting the possibility of finding a comprehensive solution within the agreed framework of a bicommunal, bizonal federation with political equality, while the two-state “solution” has been turned into their official position.
However, AKEL will not remain a silent observer. More urgently than ever before, it will stand against the destructive developments that are ongoing, in cooperation with all the progressive forces of the country. AKEL will continue its representations to the international community, demanding more effective reactions, instead of the insufficient verbal solidarity that is being expressed today. At the same time, AKEL will continue to remind domestic public opinion of how dangerous the continued reproduction of nationalism-chauvinism in the two communities is and that the prolonged absence of negotiations facilitates the creation of new fait accompli and driving us to the brink of the final partition of Cyprus. It will continue to strongly support that, more than ever before, the need to take initiatives now to open up the prospect of a resumption of meaningful negotiations is urgent. Recalling that there is no other path that can lead to the redemption of our long-suffering people and vindicate the sacrifice of our heroes.
AKEL will never compromise with the occupation and partition, nor will it cease fighting nationalism-chauvinism. AKEL will continue to tirelessly serve the goal of the liberation and reunification of our homeland and people, the restoration of the human rights of all Cypriots and the termination of any intervention rights of the so-called “mother countries”. It will continue to struggle so that the future generations can live in a wholly sovereign and reunited homeland, without any barbed wires of division and foreign armies.