The President opened the issue of decentralized federation and in the end it seems that either he has no proposal or he has one but doesn’t want to tell us about it

Statement by the General Secretary of the C.C. of AKEL Andros Kyprianou on yesterday’s session of the National Council

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 24 October 2018, Nicosia

After yesterday’s session of the National Council some self-evident questions are raised, which I will put in the hope that we will get answers.

1. Why did Mr. Anastasiades raise the issue of decentralized federation to the Turkish Foreign Minister Mr. Cavusoglou and subsequently asked to hear the views of the political parties on what they think he should do? How does this help in the collective handling of the Cyprus problem, which the Government has been promising, and about which recently the Government Spokesman is trying to persuade us that is guiding the government’s actions in recent days?
2. What powers and responsibilities does Mr. Anastasiades want to remove from the central government and transfer to the constituent entities?
3. How is the workability of the state improved by transferring powers and competences to the constituent entities?
4. How are the key issues cited by Mr. Anastasiades himself on the issues of security and guarantees, the equal treatment of Greek and Turkish citizens, the effective participation in governance, territory and property etc. solved?
5. For what reason did Mr. Cavusoglou say today that the Greek Cypriot side should clarify which solution it wants, federation, confederation or two states? Why does he say that the Greek Cypriot side does not want negotiations before May? The briefing we have from Mr. Anastasiades is that exactly the opposite is true. Why isn’t the Government clarifying the issues by issuing a public statement?

The President of the Republic opened the issue of decentralized federation and in the end it seems that either he has no proposal or that he has a proposal but does not want to tell us about it. Consequently, he is either handling the principal problem of our country with irresponsibility and sloppiness, or he does not want to tell the National Council what he really has in his mind.

In any case, the problem doesn’t lie with AKEL, which puts forward self-evident questions at the National Council, but with Mr. Anastasiades and governing DISY who are unable to answer them.