AKEL on the resumption of the negotiations
Statement by the General Secretary of AKEL Andros Kyprianou
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 5th April 2017, Nicosia
We want to welcome the resumption of negotiations. This was the first step that had to be taken in the direction of the renegotiation of the Cyprus problem aiming at finding a solution. Of course now I have to say that there remains the fulfillment of second goal which is more important. Namely, to render the dialogue substantive so that it can also be effective.
As AKEL we have put before the leaders of the two communities our view on how the debate must proceed. That is, we should first and foremost focus on the important issues. We should make them into a package and a free discussion should be conducted as if there is not even a negotiating table. The views on these important issues should be expressed freely and if and provided that it is concluded that we can proceed to convergences, then the contacts should be formalized, if not it should be considered that this dialogue hadn’t even been conducted. Only in this way in our view can we effectively explore whether there is a possibility of achieving convergences and an agreement on the core issues of the Cyprus problem.
As far as AKEL is concerned, we will back the resumption of the negotiations. We will make every effort to make the negotiations substantive so that, as I said before, they should be effective. AKEL will try to play a constructive role.