Provocative statements by NATO Secretary-General on Cyprus

 

Statement of Neoklis Sylikiotis, Member of the Political Bureau of AKEL

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 31st October 2014, Nicosia

 

During his contacts yesterday in Greece the new NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in reply to a question about Turkey’s aggressive action in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the Republic of Cyprus again turned a blind eye and merely called on “all sides to self-restraint”. This is the second time that the NATO Secretary-General has issued provocative statements. They were preceded by his statements made during his recent visit to Turkey in praise of “Turkey’s stabalising role for security in the region”.

It is obvious that there are moral instigators behind the provocations and violations of the Turkish government within the EEZ of the Republic of Cyprus, but also behind its continued intransigence with regards the Cyprus problem.

While Mr. Stoltenberg and NATO in general hypocritically ascertain “Russia’s provocations and aggressive policies” using Ukraine as a pretext, they completely ignore the violations of International Law committed by Turkey. Yet again, with their positions the heads of the NATO alliance remind everyone what the NATO Pact actually stands for, to which the government of the Republic of Cyprus swears alliegance to, given that it characterises them as “strategic allies”. The one-dimensional foreing policy of the government and the policy of cultivating illussions among the Cypriot people exposes it once again.

As AKEL we consider that the abandonment of the multifaceted foreign policy and principled policy in international relations, as well as the alignment to NATO interests, will lead to even more unpleasant results for Cyprus and our people.