Statements by the General Secretary of AKEL S.Stefanou

 

29 January 2024, ‘Astra’ radio station

On the AKEL electoral list for the European elections:

One of our goals was to ensure a gender balance. We achieved that objective. We want to send the message that AKEL is making efforts within the prevailing conditions to give space and a voice to women on an equal basis. In addition to securing a gender balance, AKEL’s list has people who, with their actions and presence from different springboards, have the knowledge, experience and willingness to contribute. It includes the core of AKEL, namely three members of the Central Committee, one Turkish Cypriot – we took that historic step in 2019 – and personalities from a broader spectrum.

On the municipal elections:

We are very close to completing our lists. We have agreed several names. The C.C. does not decide, as we did with the European elections candidate list. The candidates are decided in the respective electoral assemblies held. We have made a lot of progress, there are still a few pending candidates to complete the whole set.

On the measures announced for the Turkish Cypriots:

Last May AKEL submitted a comprehensive package of measures to the President of the Republic because we considered that he had to address with specific unilateral measures, at the disposal of the Republic of Cyprus, the Turkish Cypriots. The aim is for the Turkish Cypriots to feel that the Republic of Cyprus is theirs too and that regardless of the anomalous situation that has prevailed since 1974, the Cyprus Republic wants to help the Turkish Cypriots.

We believe that the President has delayed, however we have now the announcement of measures. We are satisfied as measures have been announced, measures that we had proposed and adopted, but we wanted more, such as measures to promote the policy of rapprochement. We will continue to put pressure in this direction and submit specific proposals, but also with our policy and activity with parties and movements we will continue to promote rapprochement. There are measures that have been announced which need further clarification. We need to see the substance on what the Government means. But as a start, the announcement is a positive step.

On the arrival of the UN Secretary General’s envoy on Cyprus

The UN Secretary General’s envoy on Cyprus arrives amidst a climate of pessimism with expectations low. But that should not deter the President from stating in a clear way the Greek Cypriot side’s position – if of course the President of the Republic shares what we believe should be the Greek Cypriot side’s position and which we have included in the letter we sent to the President. I am sure he won’t be reading it for the first time. We have outlined our positions immediately after his election as President.

There are four key pillars.

The President of the Republic needs and must clarify at every opportunity, tomorrow too, that the Greek Cypriot side remains consistent to the solution of Bizonal, Bicommunal Federation with political equality as set out in the Resolutions of the UN, consistent to its readiness to continue from where we had remained in 2017, preserving all the convergences that have been recorded and expressing our readiness to negotiate on the Guterres Framework, to take a stand on the issue of a positive agenda.

The President himself had taken a stand on this issue at the beginning of his term of office and now the reference to the formulation of a positive agenda has disappeared from the government’s rhetoric and that is erroneous,

Furthermore, AKEL believes that the EU-Turkish issues he raises in the positive agenda are not enough to create a momentum for the resumption of negotiations. The President should at least read and discuss the proposal we sent him on how hydrocarbons in Cyprus and energy developments in the region in general can be used as a tool to break the deadlock. The fourth is the measures, the President has moved on.

The Turkish Cypriot leadership under Mr. Tatar is very negative. He has shifted his position in favor of a two state solution and that’s precisely why we must remain consistent to the agreed basis for a solution. Other than that, I don’t expect the Turkish Cypriot leadership to take any positive steps. But that should not distract us as we must adhere to clear positions and take specific initiatives to promote them.

We point this out because the President is adopting ambiguous and half-hearted positions on what we should do and that’s because there are disagreements within the government camp. For example, we don’t see him making references to the convergences recorded and the Guterres Framework. He was asked when he spoke at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe about political equality and he did not mention it, which is a very important chapter and has already been agreed.

We’ve heard his positions on the Framework that in fact opened up convergences or expressed a different approach as to negotiating the Framework. It is not the Framework that we have to negotiate, it’s on the basis of the Framework that we have to negotiate. You can’t pick and choose, because then the Turkish side will be given the opportunity and the right to choose what it wants from the Framework and hence we would simply be perpetuating the stalemate and deadlock that Turkey is exploiting to impose fait accompli.

Nobody said that the Framework is ready to be signed. The Framework isn’t just headings. If one reads the 2017 Report submitted by the UN Secretary General, one will see that he writes down the content of the Framework as it was formulated after the negotiations, how far they [the two sides] had gone, what issues remain open and in some of them he puts forth his own views.

For example, on security issues and the unilateral so-called intervention rights, about which the UN Secretary-General takes a clear stand and states that the solution will put an end to the existing system of guarantees, that it will be replaced by a mechanism for implementing the solution, that any unilateral intervention rights will be terminated, that within a short period of time the occupying troops would be withdrawn and the only issue that was left open was the question of the TOURDYK and ELDYK contingents, whether there would be a deadline for withdrawal or a clause to revisit the issue when the period set out in the agreement expires.

So we have to preserve that and we do not have the luxury to pick and choose what we will be discussing. We have to discuss and come to an agreement on those issues that are pending.

On the President’s press conference:

We have been invited. It is unprecedented procedures. I think the President should deal with substance rather than sticking to communication games. It is his right to inform [the people], but he must get the message that he can’t go any further by employing communication tricks alone. The government has already made many blunders and mistakes and these have led to a fall in the government’s acceptance by a large section of society to a degree that has never happened before since opinion polls have been carried out. This should have given the President pause to deal with the substance of things rather than putting so much emphasis on pursuing communication games.