Statement by the General Secretary AKEL A.Kyprianou on the President of the Republic’s interview yesterday
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 21st October 2020, Nicosia
- On the Cyprus problem
In this critical period we are going through, especially after the assumption by Mr. Tatar of the leadership of the Turkish Cypriot community, we decided not to open issues that would generate confrontations on the Cyprus problem. However, we cannot but comment on the President’s references last night.
The President once again states that he is following “myths being propagated that he is responsible” for the failure at Crans Montana. The “myths”, however, as the President characterises them, come from the Secretary General of the UN himself, who in the consecutive Reports he submitted relieves Turkey of responsibilities and apportions the blame on the two leaders for missing a “historic opportunity”.
There is the question, which we have put many times, but the Presidency has never answered: why did the government not react to the Secretary General’s Report in 2017 if it considers that things did not develop the way the President says? What representations were made to correct the Secretary General’s Reports? The answer is quite simple. He did absolutely nothing. He was content to reply to his critics in Cyprus, ignoring the fact that the Secretary-General’s Report has now become an official document of the UN Secretary-General. And unfortunately this is the tactic that the President of the Republic follows on all issues. He is interested in replies serving communication purposes on the domestic front, while being indifferent about the ramifications abroad. Something similar is happening right now with the issue of the golden passports scheme and the decisions of the European Commission.
Mr. Anastasiades states that he is not responsible for the barren period that has elapsed since the collapse of the Crans Montana Conference to date. The question arises: why did the President not respond positively to Mustafa Akinci’s proposal in April 2018 to discuss the Framework of the UN Secretary General so that they reach a strategic agreement? Do you remember what the President said to Mr. Akinci back then? “Do you have Turkey’s permission to submit this proposal?” This was his first question. And the second question he put was: “What framework are we talking about – about the framework of June 30 or of July 4th? “ (which subsequently was confirmed to have never existed).
The President notes the annulment of convergences that were made by the Turkish side, which indeed made the situation difficult. We agree with him on that. But what was his response to these negative actions by the Turkish side? He did the same. In his TV interview last night, he admits that he changed his position on the one positive vote in the federal government, on which there was a convergence. These moves provided the perfect pretext to Turkey.
The President explained why he did not insist on sanctions against Turkey, which were being proposed by both himself and the government ruling forces in general all the time in the run up to the EU Summit. The President should say what he says in his interview to his Foreign Minister, who stated otherwise in public. What was the government’s policy on sanctions eventually? The conclusion citizens draw is that the President proceeded in line with his logic of “let’s wait and see” on an issue of great importance for Cyprus and the Cyprus problem.
The President stated that he had not heard anything about which course he should take. This doesn’t apply to AKEL. From 2017 to date, we have told him many times which policy he should pursue and how to handle the Cyprus problem. He did not listen to us. That’s his right, he is the President. But he also has responsibilities, which he must take on for the results of his policies. And the results are unfortunately woeful for Cyprus. We really regret to say that unfortunately – a thousand times unfortunately – we were vindicated by developments themselves about everything we had been warning about.
- Mr. Anastasiades stated yesterday arrogantly that he is completely innocent and clean.
In what other European country does the President’s close family circle and law firm earn tens of millions of Euros from decisions approved by the Council of Ministers he himself chairs?
In what other European country does the President accept luxury travel gifts with a private jet of a foreign tycoon who obtained illegal passports from the Government?
In what other European country, do these things happen and the President declares without any difficulty that he is the ‘cleanest” person in the whole country?
When asked about all this, he gets annoyed and waves his finger at us, pretending that everything that has happened was accidental.
Quite by accident a few days before the haircut on bank deposits was agreed by the President, his in-laws transferred millions of Euros abroad, because completely by accident they had to make a purchase.
It was completely coincidental when the selling off of Cyprus Airways was discussed with Ryanair at the Presidential Palace and it just happened – completely by accident again – that some lawyers of his own law firm were present.
Quite by chance, a Russian tycoon who came to invest in Cyprus was interested in some plots of land which by coincidence happened to belong to the President of the Republic and his relatives and wanted to buy them so that he could make his investment there.
Quite by chance a Russian tycoon got a passport from the Presidential Palace, an apartment from the groom and became a sponsor of events organised by the ruling DISY party.
Quite by accident, the President and his family decided to go on holiday to the Seychelles and found out that his Saudi Arabian friend – by chance – was going to the Seychelles too and so they traveled together.
Shouldn’t have all these coincidences made the President of the Republic reflect on things? The people though are reflecting on all these coincidences.
- The President stated that he considers the Auditor General to be a very capable official.
Then why did the Council of Ministers issue announcements that the Auditor General is “undermining the credibility of the institution” and why did the former Minister of Finance Mr. Haris Georgiades accuse the Auditor that “he has lost his independence and objectivity”.
So they take a position according to the occasion – depending on the messages they want to convey to society at any particular moment?
- The President claimed, as the Government Spokesman did too, that AKEL and the Democratic Party (DIKO) in 2016 prevented the Auditor General from carrying out an investigation into the Cyprus Cooperative Bank, and unfortunately this is being reproduced by the media.
What’s the truth about this issue? Indeed, in 2016 a mistake was made by AKEL which supported a proposal of the President of DISY on this issue. When we found out the mistake we made by voting for the proposal of the President of DISY – and I stress this – the following week we corrected it. In a week the mistake was corrected. And it is on the basis of that proposal that the Auditor General is now carrying out an investigation on the Cyprus Cooperative Bank, the first part of which he has completed. The Auditor General has presented it to the House of Representatives and said that he is continuing the probe for 14 Politically Exposed Persons. The investigation is therefore ongoing. The error was indeed corrected. As they have no arguments or don’t follow developments – I don’t know what to say – they lie to the people. At least they should stop saying that.
- The President notes that interwoven interests and corruption have always existed.
He is absolutely correct, but the EU says that during the period 2014-2018 Cyprus tops the table in the increase of corruption and interwoven interests. Who was the President of the Republic during those years? People say, 95% according to Eurostat polls, that there are interwoven interests and corruption in Cyprus and that this people’s perception cannot be justified by the fact that this is the supposedly first time that some people who participated in interwoven interests and corruption are being punished. These absurdities cannot convince anyone.
We repeat, then, that the least one would expect from the President of the Republic in his interview was that he should reflect on matters, both as regards the Cyprus problem and on the issues of interwoven interests and corruption. Is it the case he isn’t confronting some problems well? On the contrary, Mr. Anastasiades believes that he is doing everything perfectly and is extremely critical, even characterizing as immoral those who criticize him. What a pity…
