We need to take initiatives for a resumption of negotiations and go to these talks with consistency and committed to the agreed solution – not with contradictions, regressions and very questionable ideas and thoughts

Reply of the General Secretary of AKEL to a journalist’s question

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

Replying to a journalist’s question about what AKEL’s expectations are from Mr. Anastasiades’ scheduled meeting with Mr. Akinci and from the departure of UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Cyprus Mrs. Lute, the General Secretary of the C.C. of AKEL Andros Kyprianou stated the following:

I’ll say what I wish for, but unfortunately don’t believe will happen. I hope that those preconditions will be created through the initiatives that Mr. Anastasiades should undertake for a resumption of substantive negotiations.

We know what Turkey is. It is aggressive, expansionist, intransigent and provocative. We know what Turkey is, we know what we are dealing with.

To solve the Cyprus problem, we need to take initiatives for a resumption of the negotiations and to go to these talks with consistency and committed to the agreed solution – not with contradictions, regressions and by projecting very questionable ideas and thoughts.

If we really want to either force Turkey to cooperate so that we can arrive at an agreement, or to expose it for its intransigence, aggressive behaviour, provocation and expansionist aspirations, then this is the path we should pursue. There is no other way.

I also want to say this. Given that the opinion of certain forces and circles is being heard that we should abandon Bi-Zonal, Bi-communal Federation because we have been discussing it for years and we haven’t been able to reach an agreement, the question I would like to put to them is very simple. Do we understand what the alternative option is? Do these forces and circles consider that Bi-zonal, Bi-communal Federation, which they characterize as submissive and treacherous, can’t succeed and tell us that we will achieve the solution of a unitary state? On what basis? What logical person can accept that a submissive solution can’t be achieved and that we will achieve an ideal solution as Greek Cypriots want? They should explain to us the methodology and the way in which we will arrive at such an outcome. It’s easy to engage in sloganeering. But I will repeat. With the slogans promoted in 1974 and empty words we lost a big part of our homeland and today we are struggling to liberate and reunite it with the rest of our homeland.