Distance needs to be covered for the UN Secretary General to take an initiative
Statement by the General Secretary of the C.C. of AKEL A.Kyprianou on the Cyprus problem
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 2nd October 2019, Nicosia
The UN Secretary-General’s meetings with both Mr. Anastasiades and Mr. Akinci have been completed, as well as with Mr. Erdogan and Mr. Mitsotakis.
We do not know right now what the UN Secretary General’s intentions are. It is evident that there is still some distance that needs to be covered for the UN Secretary General to undertake an initiative.
I would like to reiterate that Mr. Guterres has clarified in a very strong manner: to undertake a new initiative he has said in a very clear way what the basis of the negotiations must be, namely his Framework, the convergences agreed so far that exist on the Cyprus problem, as well as – he himself referred to the informal document which he attempted to table at Crans Montana on the implementation of the agreement – the two leaders referring to the Joint Communiqué of February 2014. Regarding the procedural part, the Secretary-General insists that we must continue from the point at Crans Montana. That is to say, talks on two separate tables. On one table Security and Guarantee issues are discussed and on the other internal governance issues. And most important, in my view, is the Secretary General’s demand that the two leaders and any other interested parties – principally Turkey, I say – should convince him that if negotiations were to start this time we will be ready to go to the very end.
We don’t know, I reiterate, how the Secretary-General intends to proceed. We express our concern and state that the government must in a very clear way send out the message that this time it will be ready to go to the very end, if and provided that negotiations resume, without obstacles and any preconditions. The Secretary General’s framework covers both Security and Guarantee issues and the issue of political equality, effective participation of the Turkish Cypriots and the issue of the one positive vote.
The UN Secretary-General was quite clear. The need for the cancellation of the Treaty of Guarantee may on the one hand not be recorded, but in the positions expressed by the Secretary-General at the dinners (at Crans Montana) he was quite clear. As for the one positive vote, he again makes it clear that it cannot be accepted in all institutions. As a result, our government must with determination proceed, to fall behind the positions of the Secretary-General and seek the resumption of negotiations.
The view is expressed by various sides that Turkey is escalating further its aggressive actions. This approach is totally correct. Mr. Cavusoglu has given an interpretation because he says the Greek Cypriot side is not ready to enter into negotiations. We don’t believe him. However, we stress that if and provided that negotiations resume it will be extremely difficult for Turkey to continue acting in the same provocative way in the Exclusive Economic Zone of Cyprus and in the same provocative way with regards its plans against Famagusta.
We therefore insist that the resumption of negotiations will force Turkey to end these provocative actions. We wish and hope that this is done as soon as possible. When we have been briefed by the President of the Republic and other sources which we seek to keep in touch with, we will be in a position to say a lot more.
