Papadopoulos’ so-called “New Strategy” a repetition of well-known and older positions

Statement by Stefanos Stefanou, AKEL C.C. Spokesperson

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 29^th September 2017, Nicosia

We listened with great care to what Mr. Nicolas Papadopoulos presented today as his “New Strategy”. We didn’t hear anything new. Quite the opposite, it represents a repetition of well-known and older positions that have been heard repeatedly all through the history of the Cyprus problem.

We have the following observations to make:

1. Mr. Nicolas Papadopoulos avoided like the plague replying to the question as to whether or not he accepts Bi-communal, Bi-communal Federation. Contrary to what Nikolas Papadopoulos claimed, the state structure is indeed a substantive issue and has a direct relation to the strategy. Of course the reason why he avoided giving an answer is obvious. He is trying to walk a tightrope between the positions of DIKO, EDEK and Solidarity Movement, who on this specific and primary issue are jostling uneasily with each other.
2. Mr. Nicolas Papadopoulos presented as a new strategy the revival of the never to be forgotten the “Common Defence Dogma”. We recall that this was one of the slogans propagated for the re-election of Glafcos Clerides, with the well-known negative consequences for the Cyprus problem.
3. Mr. Nicolas Papadopoulos wants the position for the continuation of the Republic of Cyprus to be explicitly expressed. Our own position too is that the solution should provide for the continuation of the Republic of Cyprus. This can be achieved if the solution provides for the continued membership of International Organizations, if the treaties signed by the Republic of Cyprus will continue to apply and if secession will be prohibited. That’s how the continuation of the Republic of Cyprus is safeguarded and not by sloganeering, whose only result will be the destruction of the negotiation procedure.
4. Mr. Nicolas Papadopoulos wants the withdrawal of troops before an agreement comes into force. This sounds nice, but it is unfeasible, and moreover, this position excludes the possibility of the guarantees and rights of intervention and the withdrawal of the occupying army within a specific, short timeframe being abolished immediately, as advocated by the UN, the EU, Britain, Greece and the Greek Cypriot side at the recent Crans Montana conference.
5. The fact that Nicolas Papadopoulos wants an agreement to demarcate an Exclusive Economic Zone with Turkey before the solution of the Cyprus problem makes us wonder whether we should ask just how he will achieve this or whether we should just disregard it as a joke. Turkey and Greece recognize each other as states, they have been discussing for decades and have not yet been able to agree on a demarcation of the Exclusive Economic Zone. Each and every one can imagine what will happen if our official position were to be that the EEZ should be agreed and then afterwards we should agree on a solution. If this were to occur there will never be a solution. We recall that in the convergence recorded it is safeguarded that in a future negotiation with Turkey after the solution, the Federal Republic will determine its position on the EEZ based on the relevant provisions of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Nicolas Papadopoulos is mocking this and other convergences every day.

We could continue for hours commenting on what Nicolas Papadopoulos outlined as a “New Strategy”. The only result that this “New Strategy” can bring is to facilitate Turkey to fulfill the goal of the definitive partition with all the catastrophic consequences this would entail.