AKEL on the about upgrading the Cyprus’ ‘geostrategic value’ through a ‘proactive foreign policy’ and the pursuit of regional alliances
Statements by Stavri Kalopsidiotou, member of the C.C. of AKEL, international law expert and a member of AKEL’s Cyprus Problem Bureau, to “Cyprus Mail”
7 October 2018, “Cyprus Mail” newspaper
“We’ve been there before,” offers Stavri Kalopsidiotou, international law expert and a member of AKEL’s Cyprus desk.
Current talk of a defence pact with Greece is merely a redux of the mid-1990s, she adds.
Kalopsidiotou recalls that once the Ghali Set of Ideas (named after then UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali) fell by the wayside, attention in Cyprus turned toward beefing up the military. It all ended with the fiasco of the S-300 anti-aircraft missiles.
She was referring to the 1997-8 ‘missile crisis’ when the Clerides government purchased S-300 missiles from Russia but was forced to redirect them to Crete following a barrage of threats from Turkey.
“The parallels with today are clear. It’s the sort of rhetoric that crops up whenever the Cyprus peace process gets stuck. We start hearing about alliances – which are not necessarily bad, don’t get me wrong – and a pivot towards militarism.
“Unfortunately, I think that both the past as well as the present chatter about supposedly upgrading our geostrategic role through military doctrines are one and the same: demagoguery, to distract the public from the fact that there is no progress in peace talks.”
Qualifying, Kalopsidiotou says she hopes these are no more than idle words, otherwise “if the chicken hawks actually believe their own rhetoric, I worry they must have forgotten that negotiations are the only way to solve the Cyprus problem and achieve lasting peace on the island.”
And she calls for a reality check: “In Cyprus, do we believe for instance that in the absence of a comprehensive solution we can deter or neutralise Turkish provocations in the Exclusive Economic Zone? Alliances or not.
“And how convincing are we in demanding the scrapping of the Treaty of Guarantee when at the same time we revive talk of the defence doctrine? These are hard questions indeed.”
