Statements by the General Secretary of AKEL A.Kyprianou after the meeting with the DISY President A. Neophytou
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 4th March 2021, Nicosia
First of all, I would like to welcome Mr. Neophytou to the central offices of the Central Committee of AKEL and thank him for the meeting we had.
Permit me to also welcome him to the longstanding positions we as AKEL have adhered to on the solution of the Cyprus problem, in line with the positions he has been expressing lately.
I’ll just clarify that as AKEL we have never rejected having a dialogue surrounding the Cyprus problem because we believe that the future, the survival of our country and people is something that must go beyond any petty-party frameworks, something on which there is no room for neither petty-interests, nor any narrow-minded approaches. We must all work together in an effort to ensure that our country and people have a future and perspective. Our homeland must therefore be put over and above anything else. This is how we as AKEL approach the Cyprus problem.
Developments on the Cyprus problem are worrying. Time is running out. Turkey is escalating its aggression and intransigent stand. It is attempting to impose new fait accompli which, if implemented, will bring us much closer to the final partition of our country. We need through our actions and the initiatives that we shall undertake, to respond to the pretexts that Turkey comes up with to promote the fait accompli against Cyprus, but also its intransigent positions and to escalate its aggression.
What do we need to do?
We for sure need to persist on the principles of the solution of the Cyprus problem, but at the same time we also need to show determination. We need to have very clear goals on what we want and we also need to assert them with consistency. We have submitted a comprehensive proposal on the Cyprus problem to the President of the Republic since 8th December on how in AKEL’s view he should handle developments.
We insist that the framework for a solution to the Cyprus problem must be a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation with political equality as described in the relevant Resolutions of the UN. The solution must lead to a united Cyprus which will be a continuation of the Republic of Cyprus. It must lead to one state that will have a single sovereignty, a single international personality and a single citizenship. The solution must free us from the guarantees and any intervention rights in our internal affairs and of course it must liberate us from the occupying troops. It must reunite the people, the institutions and our country of course.
On this basis I must say that we had a very frank discussion with Mr. Neophytou and I believe that we have reached a unanimous conclusion on the above findings to which I have referred to. You know very well that we are in opposition. We are a party that disagrees with the policies promoted by the government and DISY on very many issues.
I repeat, however, that the Cyprus problem must be put over and above all else. It has to do with the very future and perspective of our homeland. For that reason, regardless of the stand we adopt towards the government, towards the policies that it is promoting and implementing, provided that the President of the Republic handles the Cyprus problem in the correct way, provided that he decides to proceed with determination, insisting on principles and acts with consistency, then AKEL will support the procedure and assume its historical responsibilities.
Our homeland needs us. I repeat we have reached zero point, we have no more time to lose.
We need to make the most of the informal conference that will convene at the end of April, to oblige Turkey, as a result of the stand we will take and with the arguments that we will put forth, to return to the agreed framework of the solution so that we will have a meaningful resumption of the negotiations soon aiming at reaching an agreement as soon as possible. For AKEL the basis are the relevant Resolutions of the UN, the High-Level Agreements, International Law, the principles of the European Union and of course the Framework set out by the Secretary General of the UN, the convergences that have been achieved so far, but also the Joint Statement of February 2014. Within this context, we must demonstrate the necessary flexibility so that we will be able to resume substantive negotiations and arrive at a conclusion, I reiterate, as soon as possible.
It is AKEL’s conviction that if political will is demonstrated by all sides to solve the Cyprus problem, it will not take long to reach an agreement. It simply takes a short period of time to agree on the political issues and the details are of course worked out subsequently.
I would like to thank Mr. Neophytou for the meaningful discussion we had and I’d like to state that we are at the disposal of all political parties for a discussion in order to serve our country’s well-intentioned interests.