Turkey will be cornered if specific initiatives are taken
AKEL General Secretary A.Kyprianou replies to journalist’s question on the Cyprus problem
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 17th March 2021, Nicosia
“What we all must understand is that the five-party conference will be very important. It will not be a formal conference, as some people want to portray it. It will be very important as it will determine the next steps. If there are positive developments we will proceed to substantive negotiations and we can aspire that they’ll be a positive result. If we don’t manage to create the preconditions for a resumption of a meaningful dialogue, then things will be extremely negative for Cyprus. Of course, the precondition for us to go to negotiations is the existence of common ground. For a common ground to exist, Turkey must abandon its unacceptable demands for either confederation or sovereign equality. These things cannot and must not under any circumstances be accepted by the Greek Cypriot side.
Turkey won’t be forced to change its positions in the conventional way being pursued by the Anastasiades government. That is, by briefing and considering that things will be as they were at Crans Montana. Things have changed. Turkey is putting forth unacceptable claims, attempting to impose new fait accompli in Varosha and therefore permit me to use a Cypriot expression “we should corner it” to force it to move away from these unacceptable demands. To do that, we must take initiatives that, on the one hand, will convince the international community that we are really ready for meaningful negotiations with a view to reaching an agreement as soon as possible. We are ready to accept what has been agreed in the past, both regarding political equality and on other issues to provide solutions to the issues relating to the hydrocarbons. Only in this way, in our view, will Turkey be forced to change its approach, otherwise it will be exposed.”
The statements were made after today’s visit to the people’s bazaar at Polemidia Municipality.
