The government ruling forces should read the Guterres Report again

Why do they reject the document on the mechanism for implementing the solution?

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 12^th February 2020, Nicosia

The government spokesman and ruling DISY party consider that yesterday’s statement by Turkey’s Foreign Ministry and the interview of UN Under-Secretary General Jeffrey Feltman vindicate their narrative and policy on the Cyprus problem.

1. As regards to what happened at Crans Montana, it doesn’t matter what Turkey subsequently says. The UN Secretary General in his Report of 17^th September 2017 notes that the three guarantor powers – that is to say Turkey too – had shown a constructive disposition to find mutually acceptable solutions on the issue of security. If the government was of the opinion that the UN Secretary-General had distorted reality, why has it never complained so far about the content of the Report? Why has it not reacted strongly to Turkey being relieved of any responsibility and that responsibilities were assigned solely on the two communities for the collapse of the Crans Montana conference? Not only does Mr. Feltman, whom the government cites, not vindicate Anastasiades’ narrative, but he reiterates in his interview what is recorded in the Guterres Report on the issue of security.
2. At Crans Montana, the UN, the EU, Greece and even Britain had backed our position for an end to the guarantees and any intervention rights, and indeed from day one of the solution. So why does the government so far reject the informal document on the mechanism for the implementation of the solution, which was clearly abolishing the guarantee and intervention rights, given that it left today’s guarantor powers with only an advisory role?
3. The government spokesman calls on US to abandon the ‘quarrelling’ and to continue the effort for a solution from the point where we had remained at Crans Montana. If the government does means what it says then it must stop demonizing political equality and return to the convergence recorded on effective participation, which includes the one positive vote in the Ministerial Cabinet. When this has been done, then Turkey won’t be able to invoke the issue of political equality as an excuse for the continuation of the system of guarantees, as it is otherwise doing in the statement it issued yesterday. It will be possible for Turkey to be judged in practice, that is to say, whether it consents to a solution of the Cyprus problem based on principles or if it will be exposed internationally, something which is not the case today.

The government spokesman can be sure that when the regressions and contradictions cease, at least as far as AKEL is concerned, the “quarrels” will cease too, as he calls our criticism of Mr. Anastasiades’ policy.