What has been lost “is an argument that is non-existent,” the General Secretary of AKEL Andros Kyprianou stated yesterday, stressing that “instead of accepting that for quite some time we (Anastasiades government/Greek Cypriot side) were saying unsubstantiated things, we are trying to discover conspiracy theories.”

Replying to journalists’ questions, following a meeting with the Rectorate of the University of Cyprus, the General Secretary of AKEL recalled the Party’s position that “the Guterres framework was the one the UN Secretary-General was referring to and it was the framework that was tabled on 30 June at the Crans Montana talks. Certain other forces and circles insisted that there was a 4 July framework.

“However developments themselves have proved that no such thing exists,” the General Secretary of AKEL underlined. A. Kyprianou said that the discussion on whether or not minutes existed during the meeting of 4 July 2017 (a subject raised by the President of EDEK last Friday in statements made after the session of the Council of Political Leaders) “is insulting first and foremost for the UN Secretary General himself and I say that in the sense that if some of his associates have vanished the document, as some circles are implying, sooner or later Mr. Guterres would find out about it.” He pointed out in this regard that “the Guterres framework gives us a great deal of arguments and I am confident that the discussions that took place at Crans Montana give us even more arguments to defend the positions of principles on which we stand on. As a result I believe that this discussion must end. It is counterproductive and doesn’t serve the interests of Cyprus”.

He reiterated that “continuing this discussion is extremely counter-productive. It doesn’t serve any purpose. We must accept that the framework of 30 June exists, as the UN Secretary-General has repeatedly stated in his Reports, and build on it, as well as on what Antonio Guterres has said at the various meetings at Crans Montana.”

Asked about the way the Greek Cypriot side should react to the Turkish Cypriot leader’s statement in a Sunday newspaper interview that a precondition for a discussion on the chapters of security and guarantees is first an agreement on political equality, the General Secretary of AKEL said that we should react to this position with “the proposal of the UN Secretary-General, namely with the package discussion of the six chapters” that prevents anyone from setting anything as a precondition. He added that “all six chapters (the EU, economy, governance, property, territorial and security) will be discussed simultaneously and therefore neither political equality nor anything else will be set as a precondition.” He explained that “at one table the issues of security and guarantees will be discussed, and at the other table the issues of the internal aspects of the Cyprus problem.

Therefore, neither is Mr. Akinci justified to set the issue of political equality as a precondition, nor anybody else can set any other chapter as a prerequisite, provided of course that negotiations will resume.”

In conclusion, the General Secretary of AKEL said that “from the moment we have all since 1974 made it clear – and this isn’t disputed by anyone – that the Cyprus problem can only be solved through negotiations and if we really want to solve it, then the negotiations must resume. There is no other way”.