AKEL Tsielepis: ‘CBM’s must not substitute the solution of the Cyprus problem, but assist the efforts for its solution’
11 Jan 2021 ‘Politis’ radio
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres “has decided to take stock on the situation and take decisions, faced with a situation where one side is talking about a two state solution, while the other is turning its attention to grandiose Confidence-Building Measures (CBM’s),” the Head of the Cyprus Problem Office of AKEL Toumazos Tsielepis pointed out on ‘Politis’ radio station.
If, as T.Tsielepis said, the meeting does not yield the desired result and the gap between the two sides continues, there is a real danger that Antonio Guterres will address the UN Security Council and hand in his mandate to mediate on the solution of the Cyprus problem.
He even expressed the view that we are on the verge of permanently consolidating partition, underlying that if the two sides want to abandon the solution of Bi-Zonal, Bicommunal Federation then no one can force them to do otherwise.
The President of the Republic sent a letter to the UN without any prior consultation with the political parties
Regarding AKEL’s proposal to the President, T. Tsielepis noted that AKEL has submitted its proposals on the Cyprus problem, with the President of the Republic not responding to the proposal, at the same time as he also sent a letter to the UN Secretary General without consulting anyone.
Regarding the proposal for Confidence Building Measures, the Head of AKEL’s Cyprus Problem Office stressed that they must not substitute the solution of the Cyprus problem, but should assist the efforts for the solution. The CBM’s proposed by President Anastasiades “open a new Cyprus problem”, given that he put forth previous CBM’s that were discussed for 2 years and which eventually led nowhere.
Regarding decentralized Federation, T. Tsielepis pointed out that the President constantly refers to decentralized Federation, while at the same time he does not mention which competences he wants to decentralize from the Central Government.
Regarding the article by DISY deputy leader Haris Georgiades (calling for a “new realism” on the Cyprus problem), Toumazos Tsielepis stated that no one understood what the former Minister of Finance of the Anastasiades government meant in his article.
What he himself has understood, as T. Tsielepis stated, is that DISY deputy leader Haris Georgiades wants us to abandon Federation.
Kotzias’ two admissions
The former Greek Foreign Minister N. Kotzias made two admissions, T. Tsielepis pointed out. “One is that up to the fateful working dinner at Crans Montana, Turkey had accepted the abolition of guarantees, the withdrawal of troops. The other admission was his revelation about the informal document for the implementation of the solution which replaced the Treaty of Guarantee, and that it was rejected by Cyprus and not by Greece.
