President called upon to remain firm on the positions of principle of the solution and far from any experimentations
Statement by Aristos Damianou, member of the Political Bureau of the C.C. of AKEL
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 20th May 2017, Nicosia
If the negotiations were to collapse due to unacceptable Turkish positions it would be an undesirable scenario. If the negotiations were to collapse and the Greek Cypriot community viewed as being responsible owing to procedural experimentations on our part, it would be tragic.
The history of the Cyprus problem teaches that the policy of “protaxis” (Note: the policy of setting “preconditions” that predetermine the results of negotiations), whenever it has been pursued, has led to fait accompli, given that it was used as a pretext for unacceptable Turkish actions with the simultaneous exertion of pressures by the international community on the Greek Cypriot community.
In the 1980’s we had the declaration of the illegal regime in the occupied areas.
In the 1990’s the official Turkish position for confederation was put forth.
In the 2000’s, the financial taps of the European Union were opened to the benefit of the Turkish Cypriot community with direct threats for direct trade with the occupied ones.
We must exhaust every possibility for negotiation on the chapters of the internal aspect of the Cyprus problem and on the Cyprus Conference to assert freedom from the anachronistic system of guarantees and the withdrawal of the Turkish troops. Only in this way will such an international conference have prospects of being successful.
The critical moments we are going through do not permit any regressions, nor experimentations. President Anastasiades is called upon to remain firm on the positions of principle of the solution and far from experimentations on procedural matters that have been tried in the past and failed. This is the only way the Greek Cypriot side is protected, so that responsibilities can’t easily be attributed to it.
President called upon to remain firm on the positions of principle of the solution and far from any experimentations
Statement by Aristos Damianou, member of the Political Bureau of the C.C. of AKEL
