Statements by the General Secretary of AKEL A.Kyprianou after his meeting with the President of the Republic
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 8th December 2020, Nicosia
Today we had a meeting with the President of the Republic during which we gave him our proposal which we prepared as a Party on the Cyprus problem, namely about how the preconditions can be created for a resumption of substantive negotiations aimed at resolving the Cyprus problem on the basis of the agreed framework. The need to elaborate this proposal stems from our concern about how the given situation has evolved, following the assumption by Mr. Tatar of the leadership of the Turkish Cypriot community, but also after the sharp escalation of Turkish aggression and provocation in the Eastern Mediterranean and especially in the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Republic of Cyprus, but also in Famagusta. Given these facts, we consider as AKEL that the only way to stop the Turkish aggression and provocation, the only way to force Turkey to return to the correct basis of discussion on the Cyprus problem is through the immediate resumption of substantive negotiations with a view to reaching an agreement, provided of course that the Turkish side will cooperate towards reaching a correct solution.
We have handed our proposal to the President of the Republic which consists of two parts. One part concerns the negotiation procedure and how it can be encouraged. The second part is on hydrocarbon issues and how they can be turned into an incentive to resolve the Cyprus problem.
The President of the Republic will study our proposal and after his return from the European Council, he has told us that he will ask for a new meeting to discuss the proposal that we have submitted to him.
During the meeting, the President of the Republic briefed us about the meeting he had with Mrs. Lute, but also about the deliberations of the European Council that will convene at the end of this week. I would like to thank the President of the Republic for this briefing and I want to say that as AKEL we shall continue our efforts to create those preconditions that will enable the resumption of a meaningful dialogue to reach an agreement on the Cyprus problem based on – as I said previously – the relevant UN Resolutions, the High-Level Agreements, international law, as well as the principles on which the EU is based on.
