The outgoing President is trying to hide behind interpretations
Statements by the General Secretary of the C.C. of AKEL A. Kyprianou
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 4th January 2018, Nicosia
The President of the Republic spoke of attacks against him serving expediencies, distortions and falsification of his statement on the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and the Turkish Cypriots. He also talked about an attempt to degrade his visit to Saudi Arabia. The General Secretary of AKEL replied the following:
AK: As far as the significance of his visit to Saudi Arabia is concerned, no one has taken a position. So I wonder, who tried to degrade it? I could say a lot, I will avoid doing so about the President’s specific visit.
I will focus on the President’s attempt to refute his own statements because that’s what this is all about and it’s sad. It would be much more honest if he were to admit the mistake he committed and apologize because it is a very grave mistake. Instead, he is attempting to hide behind interpretations. In the attempt to justify himself, he confirms what we have said in recent days. The statement he made was a very dangerous statement. He essentially considers that there is a separate EEZ belonging to the Turkish Cypriots and to which Turkey has the right to carry out any explorations.
This approach is very dangerous. I repeat that the President of the Republic should have found the courage to apologize for the mistake, if indeed it was a verbal mistake that had been made and of course it is much worse if these are his real views on how the Cyprus problem should eventually be solved.
As regards a journalist’s conclusion that such positions complement a chain of other statements made by the President in the past, such as his positions in relation to comments made by the Archbishop, but also on a number of other issues, such as the freezing of the Technical Committees and what preceded the summer and for that reason, the people are wondering whether they can trust the President’s handlings when before the election campaign he is saying that after the presidential elections a new initiative on the Cyprus problem will resume, the General Secretary of AKEL replied:
AK: Let me say that the concern expressed by a large section of the Cypriot people about the President’s true intentions with regards the Cyprus problem is entirely justified. What has been pointed out is all very correct, namely that he has never dared to clash with the Archbishop, who has repeatedly made clear that his choice is in favour of partition. Not only did the President of the Republic not find the courage to disassociate himself from that position, but on the contrary he says that his own and the Archbishop’s positions have a great deal of identity on matters of faith, on the country’s course and the solution of the Cyprus problem. These are statements made by Mr. Anastasiades about the positions expressed by the Archbishop.
Therefore, the concern expressed by people is justified. We have repeatedly said, following the negative developments in Crans Montana, that we are worried about where the talks on the Cyprus problem are being led to. We are not hiding our concern from you. I don’t want to rush and say that the President of the Republic seems to be flirting with other ideas now, although some of his statements are pointing towards that direction. We insist that the only way to move forward is to continue the discussion from where it had left off in Crans Montana. Substantive negotiations should be held on the basis of the framework of the UN Secretary-General and the informal document on the mechanism for implementing any agreement to which we will have agreed.
In reply to a journalist’s reference that the President said that his statement on the EEZ was divided into two parts and concerned firstly the long-standing positions of the Republic of Cyprus and of himself personally and after with regards Turkey’s positions the General Secretary of AKEL made the following comment:
AK: I think the second part of his statement speaks for itself and it is clear what Mr. Anastasiades had said. No matter how he tries to distinguish what he has said, he will not succeed, so I repeat that it would be much more honest if he himself were to admit that he was wrong and apologized so that we can move on. Instead of doing so, he chooses to hide behind words. But his problem is that he can’t hide. The President comes out and speaks, subsequently followed by the Government Spokesman and various others telling us “You know, you didn’t understand well…the President said other things”. We understood very well what the President said. I repeat, he should have had the courage to apologize for what he has said.
