Since when did it become so difficult for the government and DISY to support the end of war and occupation?

Statement by AKEL C.C Spokesperson Giorgos Koukoumas

29 October 2023, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

DISY party today rushed to defend Nikos Christodoulides and the government for abstaining on the UN resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, the provision of unimpeded humanitarian aid and the release of the hostages. If the issue were not about the dramatic situation in the Middle East, we would confine ourselves to pointing out that DISY’s two-way relationship with the government is simply continuing.

However, here we are faced with a bloodshed, a genocide that is being committed in our very own neighbourhood, with children and civilians being the principal victims. Nikos Christodoulides and DISY should have understood that Cyprus – a country that is itself a victim of occupation and invasion – not only should not have abstained, but should have been the first to defend positions of principle, the Resolutions of the UN, but also the most self-evident: ceasefire and peace.

Instead, Nikos Christodoulides and DISY have set Cyprus against the overwhelming majority of the world’s states, including eight EU member states, but has also taken a position opposite to the clear positions expressed by the UN Secretary General. The DISY leadership, which otherwise denounces internationally the policy of double standards, is now defending and advocating it.

President Christodoulides insists on underestimating citizen’s intelligence, saying that he does not disagree with the resolution, at the same time as he refused to vote in favor of it.

The vast majority of the Cypriot people and the peoples around the world don’t want the government of the country to play the role of advocate for Netanyahu in the ongoing ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people. It does not want the bloodshed and untold human suffering to continue.

The vast majority of our people joins its voice with all across the world in calling for an immediate ceasefire, an end to the war and the occupation.

Since when did it become so difficult for the government and DISY to support an end to the war and the occupation?