Unacceptable stance of Mr. Eide on the natural gas issue

 

Statement by Georgos Loucaides, AKEL C.C. Spokesperson

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 2nd January 2015, Nicosia

 

At a time when we are all expecting to see what Ankara’s next move will be and anticipating that the international community will exert the necessary pressure so that a new NAVTEX or other provocative actions with a negative impact on the negotiations are avoided, the statements made by the UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Cyprus Espen Eide unfortunately deepen our concerns. In an interview with the English-language newspaper “Cyprus Weekly”, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on the Cyprus problem again downgrades the fact that the suspension of the negotiation procedure was decided because of Turkey’s provocative actions within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the Republic of Cyprus. In addition, he also brings back the erroneous and unacceptable position for interconnecting the natural gas issue with the direct negotiations.

Regretfully, the timely warning issued by AKEL on the danger of being confronted by the painful dilemma of either the collapse of the negotiation procedure, either restarting the procedure with the issue of natural gas on the negotiating table, not only has not gone away but has been reinforced further as a result of yesterday’s statements by Eide.

As AKEL, we have on many occasions pointed out that the natural gas-negotiations interconnection constitutes an abandonment of the exercise of sovereignty rights of the Republic of Cyprus. At the same time it puts on the table of the talks another intractable problem instead of trying to solve the Cyprus problem which automatically also solves the issue of natural gas. Unfortunately, with his statements the UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Cyprus Espen Eide ignores once again the fact that the decisions on natural resources are not taken by the Greek Cypriot side, but by an internationally recognized state. Consequently, the attitude of the representative of the UN, an organization that constitutes the most representative guardian of International Law, raises questions. On the contrary, we recall once again that the previous convergences agreed in the event of a solution, deal comprehensively with the issue of natural gas.

At the same time, we again address an appeal to the President of the Republic, demanding that he undertakes initiatives that will either compel Turkey to withdraw the fait accompli it has set in motion, will either expose Turkey internationally. AKEL had tabled promptly proposals on the basis of principles which did not include a discussion on natural gas in the negotiations. If the President of the Republic took note of these proposals then we would not be in the position we are today. Of course, if anything, although such initiatives had not been taken in good time, President Anastasiades even at this stage must finally act in a way beneficial to the people and stop being more concerned about how popular his is on the domestic front.