Anastasiades’ erroneous policy facilitates Turkey’s aggression

Statement by AKEL C.C. Spokesperson Stefanos Stefasnou

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 7 May 2019, Nicosia

Turkey’s behavior is unacceptable, provocative and violates International Law, which is precisely why the government through representations and diplomatic interventions must continue to denounce the occupation power and demand effective ways of countering Turkey’s aggression.

Developments have been totally predictable. We have many times issued warnings that with the policies being pursued by Mr. Anastasiades he will not be able to prevent Turkey from proceeding to these actions. We are still waiting to see the notorious shielding of the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Republic of Cyprus, which the government ruling forces have been talking about all through this period.

With the policy Mr. Anastasiades has followed, he facilitates Turkish aggression, relieving Turkey of its responsibilities and at the same time has led to the Greek Cypriot side being assigned equal responsibilities with the Turkish Cypriot side for the collapse at the Crans Montana conference and the ongoing, protracted deadlock.

We aren’t the ones saying this, the UN Secretary General himself says so in his Reports. Besides, it is no coincidence that the Secretary General’s representative, apparently in response to the President of the Republic’s letter, has called simply for efforts to be made for the reduction of tensions and reiterated the UN’s long-standing position that natural gas can benefit the two communities, referring to the relative convergences that have been agreed.

We reiterate our position that the best shielding of our sovereign rights would have been the resumption of negotiations from where they had remained on the basis of the Guterres Framework so that Turkey could either co-operate for a solution or be exposed before the international community.