President Anastasiades is destroying the Greek Cypriot side’s credibility
Statement by AKEL C.C. Spokesperson Stefanos Stefanou regarding the President’s “new ideas” on the Cyprus problem
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 10 April 2019, Nicosia
Day by day, instead of the preconditions being created for a continuation of the negotiations from the point where they had remained at Crans Montana, this prospect is becoming more distant.
It is obvious that instead of seeking an agreement on the terms of reference, a task which the UN Secretary General had asked both sides to do, essentially they have both now entered into a blame game.
No one has asked President Anastasiades to accept the Turkish Cypriot demands on the issue of a positive vote on low-politics bodies. This, however, does not mean that the President can submit new ideas, which are not included in the Guterres Framework, or which negate existing convergences.
Regrettably, the President has done this several times.
- He did so when the notion of decentralized federation was introduced at the same time as the issue of federal competences were agreed upon.
- He did so on the issue of a positive vote in the Cabinet, a convergence which was also agreed and was confirmed at Crans Montana.
- He is doing so right now by going back on the convergence for a presidential system, rehashing the notion of a system of parliamentary democracy with a rotating prime ministership which had been discussed and rejected in the past.
In doing so, Mr. Anastasiades is destroying the Guterres Framework, which he claims he wants to protect, indeed accusing the Turkish Cypriot side of trying to reverse it.
With such approaches, the President is damaging the prospect for a resumption of the negotiations and is destroying the Greek Cypriot side’s credibility. He is leaving it exposed to the international community. With this lack of credibility how is the President of the Republic going to convince the United Nations that it is the Turkish Cypriot side that is trying to subvert the Guterres Framework?
The danger of our side being held at best equally responsible for any negative developments is very big and that is the reason why Anastasiades will bear the sole responsibility.
