“Palestine and Cyprus: common struggle”
AKEL in solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian people until final vindication
29 November 2022, AKEL C.C. press Office, Nicosia
“Palestine and Cyprus, common struggle!” The General Secretary of AKEL summed up in these five words AKEL’s expression of solidarity with the struggle being waged by the Palestinian people, as well as the Party’s determination to continue this solidarity until the neighbouring people are vindicated. At the same time the General Secretary of AKEL stated the Party’s determination “to continue waging our own struggle to solve the Cyprus problem and to be able to offer security and prosperity to the Cypriot people, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, within the framework of a Bizonal, Bicommunal Federation with political equality so that we can determine our own future in our common homeland”.
Today, on the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian people, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of AKEL Stefanos Stefanou, at the head of the Party’s delegation, met with the Palestinian Ambassador to Cyprus, Mr. Attari, “to express our continuous, practical and selfless solidarity with the struggle of the struggling people of Palestine”.
As the General Secretary of AKEL underlined “the struggle of the Palestinian people and the Palestinian problem has many similarities with the problem of the Cypriot people. Both peoples are victims of occupation. The Palestinians by Israel, the Cypriots by Turkey. In both of our cases, agreements and resolutions remain unimplemented, and the occupying powers of both Israel and Turkey are exploiting the pending issues of our problems to impose more and more occupation fait accompli. The pending Palestinian and Cypriot problems are also an expression of the international community’s inability to implement agreements and resolutions of the United Nations. At the same time, it is also an expression of the hypocrisy that unfortunately prevails internationally with regard to the two-measure, in relation to double standard policies that are being pursued.”
Stefanos Stefanou stressed that “both the solution of the Palestinian problem and the solution of the Cyprus problem can create the solid basis on which to build peace in the long-suffering region of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East. Despite the difficulties, I am sure that the Palestinians will continue their hard and long struggle against Israel’s expansionism to solve the Palestinian problem, for the creation of an independent, sovereign and with territorial contiguity Palestinian state on the 1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital.”
Expressing AKEL’s solidarity with the struggle being waged by the Palestinian people, the General Secretary of AKEL stressed AKEL’s determination “to continue our solidarity with the Palestinian people for final vindication and the Party’s determination to continue our own struggle to solve the Cyprus problem and to be able to offer security and prosperity to the Cypriot people, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, within the framework of a Bizonal, Bicommunal Federation with political equality so that we can determine our own future in our common homeland. Palestine and Cyprus, common struggle!”!
The AKEL delegation included Neoklis Sylikiotis, member of the Political Bureau of AKEL, Vera Polycarpou the Head of the International Relations Bureau of the C.C. of AKEL and the member of the International Relations Bureau, Elias Demetriou.