Speech by Giorgos Loucaides, AKEL Parliamentary Representative, at the opening of the 2nd Bicommunal Photo Exhibition organised by AKEL and GUE/NGL, Deryneia
“The barbed wire that separates us – The common future that unites us”
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 17th April 2021
Dear friends,
I, in turn, welcome you all to the opening of this special bi-communal photo exhibition. An exhibition that gives us the possibility to see the Cyprus problem through the images that Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots and of other origins have captured with their lenses. Images through different visual arts approaches from various parts of Cyprus. Pictures that show both the tragic aspect of the unacceptable partitionist status quo, but also at the same time images that send out messages of hope for a peaceful future, for the liberation and reunification of Cyprus and our people.
On behalf of the Central Committee of AKEL, permit me to warmly congratulate those who worked for the preparation and organisation of both today’s exhibition, as well as for the 2nd Bicommunal Photo Competition of AKEL and the Left Group in European Parliament (GUE/NGL). We extend our special congratulations to all the participants and especially to those whose photos stood out in the competition. Finally, I would like to congratulate the jury and organizational committee, as well as the Rapprochement Bureau of the C.C. of AKEL.
It is worth looking at these photos very carefully. Looking at them, on the one hand, the photographs depict what weighs heavy on our hearts and reminds us that this isn’t the Cyprus of the sinister partitionist status quo we want. That we do not deserve a Cyprus divided by barbed wires and roadblocks, a Cyprus of tensions and dangers and whatever else characterizes the ongoing status quo which we, both Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, have been experiencing for 47 whole years.
This status quo is neither sustainable nor static, since the barren and fruitless passage of time, day by day, is further consolidating the fait accompli of the occupation and division, both on the ground and in the minds of many of our compatriots.
We will not tire of reiterating that as AKEL, we will never compromise with a Cyprus where the partitionist status quo will be perpetuated on the ruins of properties, to which their legal owners will not have the right to return. Nor will we compromise with the notorious expediencies of those forces and circles who seek to take advantage of the unstable political situation to serve their own selfish and intertwined interests to build their political careers on based on the outdated ideological concepts of nationalism-chauvinism, which have caused so much suffering in our country.
On the other hand, the photos of this exhibition also remind us of the other Cyprus. The Cyprus we aspire to.
The Cyprus that will be based on a new vision and built on new solid foundations.
The Cyprus that we deserve and most of all that it’s worth fighting for and we have a duty to deliver to the future generations.
A reunited, federal Cyprus that will free us from the control and interferences of any external powers and that will restore all the human rights that have been denied to us for years.
A Cyprus that will heal the open wounds in a way that will not leave any room for new tragedies to be committed again, but instead in the place of today’s anomaly and the deadly dangers it poses for our people, will build a future of cooperation, prosperity and of peace, for all the children of our Motherland Cyprus.
The path to reach this Cyprus is paved and it doesn’t need more than the necessary political will from all sides to achieve our goal. The basis for a solution has been agreed by the two communities since 1977 before the international community. After years of failed negotiations, as of 2008 both Christofias and Talat began a Cypriot-owned process of negotiations, upon on which Anastasiades and Akinci subsequently built on, unfortunately, to arrive in 2017 at the Crans Montana conference which resulted in the biggest collapse in the history of the Cyprus problem for achieving an agreed and mutually acceptable solution.
As AKEL we talked a lot about the responsibilities arising from this collapse and about the period that followed, but right now we are focusing on the goal of reaching a solution, in view of the forthcoming informal five-party Conference in Geneva. A solution that the two leaders can reach, provided they both respect the acquis of the negotiations so far.
More specifically, if both leaders agree to continue from where they had remained at Crans Montana based on the Guterres Framework and the convergences that have been recorded to date, and both demonstrate the required will to go the last mile of the road that had remained, then we can arrive at a strategic understanding, which will bring us just one step before the achievement of an overall solution.
We will struggle to fulfill this goal at all levels disregarding any political cost.
We shall struggle with our Turkish Cypriot compatriots, with whom we are united by common interests for the reunification of our homeland.
We shall struggle with the entire Cypriot people to breach perhaps the most severe impasse in which the Cyprus problem was found itself, which is at the same time the most dangerous and critical in the history of the problem.
We will struggle on the streets, at the workplace, in parliament and at every decision-making level to put reunification back on course and on its rails.
At this important turning point, the upcoming Parliamentary elections will play a crucial role. To stronger AKEL-Left-New Forces emerge from these elections, the bigger will the guarantee be of the rejuvenation of hope and the prospect for the reunification of our homeland.
Dear friends,
We draw lessons from our history and ideology to create new foundations for waging the common struggle of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.
As far as AKEL is concerned, the rapprochement of the two communities is not some incidental policy pursued now and then, but an arena of political struggle and activity written and embodied in our very DNA.
For AKEL rapprochement is a history that dates back from the joint struggles waged jointly by Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot workers for a piece bread in the 1940’s and 1950’s.
It continues in the struggle against chauvinism for which comrades such as Kavazoglou and Misiaoulis sacrificed their lives for.
It continues in the struggles we waged after 1974 to heal the wounds that were opened between the two communities by the crimes committed by the chauvinists of both communities, the Turkish invasion, the occupation and the forces/agencies promoting nationalism and neo-fascism to this day.
Today we continue our struggles with these legacies in mind. We hope that we shall meet our Turkish Cypriot compatriots soon with whom we are separated by the measures applied in the crossings at the checkpoints, mainly on the part of the Turkish Cypriot side at this conjuncture.
Of course our gaze goes beyond, looking forward to the day where there will be no checkpoints, nor any barbed wires to separate us, in a new era where meeting up will be the our natural daily experience.
