“Fighting for peace, within and outside Cyprus” By Vera Polycarpou, member of the Central Committee of AKEL
11th May 2014
The developments in Ukraine are dramatic. A nationalist government, with the participation of Nazi forces, took power in a coup d’état way. The European Union and the United States are evidently supporting in various ways the new political situation. The shift of Yanukovych from the financial embrace of the EU to those of the Russian Fe
deration lit the fuse. Even the US Undersecretary of State herself Victoria Nuland participated in the protests against the lawfully elected government. Perhaps the elected government did not properly handle various domestic issues, but this was secondary to what the ruling circles had long ago set as a target, that is to say, to tie the Ukraine to the machine of NATO and the United States, to lift the restrictions on capital bilaterally with Ukraine and to overcome Russia in the geostrategic sector. Such an encirclement of Russia that puts it in a violent way in isolation is completely erroneous. The principled position of AKEL is that every act that violates International Law is deplorable, wherever it may originate from. And unfortunately in Ukraine the law has been trampled on many times over.
The fascist elements are operating in an inhumane manner. They have burned the headquarters of the Communist Party of Ukraine, the central offices of the Trade Unions in Odessa and spreading violence. They have murdered and burned people. They are threatening the Russian-speaking population of a country with historical ties with Russia. The anticommunism they are carrying out is tolerated, given that they have banned and forced the Communist Party of the country in illegality. Unfortunately, this tolerance and even incitement by certain circles does not surprise us. It is the European Union itself which has funded events of an anti-communist character. The EU tolerates in the Baltic countries the abolition through legislation of the symbols and statutes of the Communists. It equates Nazism with Communism, distorting the truth, since millions of communists and non-communists sacrificed their lives against Hitler fascism. Not all the forces are the same, but this is a historical fact.
The Cypriot people have nothing to gain from the threat of a major war breaking out in Eastern Europe; nor from the foreign interventions or changing of borders, even more so when we are struggling for the reunification of our country and people against partition, for a free, federal Cyprus, a common homeland for all Cypriots, Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots, Armenians, Maronites and Latins.
The undermining of International Law is always to the detriment of the small and weak. For AKEL-Left-New Forces, it represents a challenge of struggle and an invitation for waging struggles with broader democratic and progressive forces. We are fighting against interventions in favour of dialogue and peace; for an independent foreign policy that complies with and is guided by the United Nations Charter. We do not accept any covert and public funds for the promotion of so-called “democratization” in third countries; measures which unfortunately the EU is taking and which are being used as tools and mechanisms of intervention in the internal affairs of states. We want the dissolution of NATO. The position of the Anastasiades government for Cyprus’ accession to NATO, through the door of the so-called Partnership for Peace, is rooting foreign, superior and imperialist forces in Cyprus in an institutional way. It puts our people in danger and targets Cyprus as an unsinkable aircraft carrier for plans of war.
We are struggling for these positions with consistency, both in Cyprus and inside the European Parliament with the Group of the European United Left at the forefront of this effort. The strengthening of this effort and the reinforcement of the people’s resistance will be more visible through a powerful AKEL. Cyprus, our working people and the Cypriot people need this.
