AKEL GS on the revelation about a phone call before the crucial working dinner at Crans Montana, the day after on the Cyprus problem and corruption

 

8 Jan 2021 DIALOGOS portal

The General Secretary of AKEL, Andros Kyprianou, made a big revelation about the breakdown of the talks at Crans Montana, in an interview he gave last night to Andreas Kimitris on state-owned RIK TV channel.

Kyprianou spoke for the first time about a phone call he received before the crucial working dinner, while at the same time, he spoke about various issues that concern society and AKEL in general.

“Victoras Papadopoulos called us before the working dinner and told us to pack our bags…”

Speaking about the collapse of the talks at Crans Montana, A. Kyprianou revealed the following: “Around 17:00 in the afternoon before the working dinner, a delegation of the President called us telling us to pack our bags to leave for Cyprus. Victoras Papadopoulos (Director of the President’s press office) is the one who called us all”. It is worth noting that A. Kyprianou stressed that the decisive moments of the talks were at the working dinner and not before.

In addition, the General Secretary of AKEL wondered why the government did not protest about UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ report after the collapse of the talks, which spoke of a positive will demonstrated on the part of the guarantor forces (that is to say Turkey too).

“The narrative of the EU and UN is different from the government’s,” he added.

AKEL’s proposal on the Cyprus problem will be made public

Speaking about the next steps on the Cyprus problem, A. Kyprianou stated that AKEL has submitted a comprehensive proposal to the President of the Republic, however he hasn’t given any answer whatsoever.

On the contrary, as A. Kyprianou said, the President proceeded unilaterally and sent a letter to the UN Secretary General.

“This Saturday, AKEL’s proposal on the Cyprus problem will be made public, since the President proceeded unilaterally and did not make the effort to respond to AKEL’s proposal,” he added.

At the same time, the General Secretary of AKEL stressed that partition will be catastrophic, since, as he underlined, it will be a stepping stone for Turkey to take over the whole of Cyprus.

For this reason, A. Kyprianou stressed that we must convince the international community of our intentions, while noting that not all Turkish Cypriots are the same, something that was proved in the recent vote (in the occupied territories), where 48% said No to Turkey’s interventions.

“What Kotzias writes has absolutely nothing to do with reality”

Asked about the references made by former Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias in the book he has recently published, in which he claims that Andros Kyprianou himself asked for Kotzias’ resignation from the then Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, the General Secretary of AKEL stated characteristically that “they have absolutely nothing to do with reality. I consider it is insulting for me to tell the Prime Minister of Greece how to manage his government. I would never think of entering into such discussions.”

He also stressed that what Nikos Kotzias writes is untrue, saying that such an important official of the Greek Government, went so low as to transfer gossip to a book.

“The results from the handling of the pandemic show that the government has failed miserably”

Asked about the handling of the pandemic by the government, A. Kyprianou said that after the end of the first phase of the pandemic, AKEL had elaborated and submitted 18 proposals, but was not listened to.

“The scientists who were in the team dealing with first phase of the pandemic were sidelined. I do not know what the qualifications of those who replaced them are, but we have seen contradictions in the measures taken. In the space of 40 days, they changed these measures 7 times, said A. Kyprianou.

At the same time, the General Secretary of AKEL noted that in a communication he had with members of the epidemiological team, they told him that they had no information whatsoever about the measures that were announced by the government shortly before Christmas.

Indeed A.Kyprianou added that these measures had no logic, while he made a special reference to the government’s decision to permit the operation of large shopping malls.

“Those on AKEL’s ballots will be checked that they are not involved in phenomena of interwoven interests and corruption”

Asked how AKEL deals with the phenomena of corruption, A. Kyprianou said that the Party has set specific terms of office, which it attempted to promote for approval in Parliament, but without success because other political forces had rejected AKEL’s proposal.

“We have made it clear to all our militants that whoever is involved in interwoven interests and corruption, has no place in AKEL”, added A. Kyprianou.

“AKEL should become the pole that will rally and unite movements and parties so we can achieve a change in the governance of the country”

Asked about a possible alliance with the Democratic Party DIKO in view of the Parliamentary and Presidential elections, A. Kyprianou stressed that AKEL’s goal is to become the pole that will rally and unite movements and political parties so that we can achieve change in the governance of the country.

“The parliamentary elections are very important in achieving this goal”, noted A. Kyprianou, while at the same time he underlined that, “the candidate who AKEL will support in the Presidential elections cannot be a leader of a leader of a political party”.

Regarding the events in the USA, with the invasion of a crowd in the Capitol, the General Secretary of the AKEL stated that sooner or later the movements that are racist and fascist will show their true face.

“Populism is very dangerous in all societies. My appeal to the voters is not to be carried away by words that tickle their fancies.

Fascist views are not another point of view in democracy, but they are beyond it. These movements are dangerous.”