Statements by former General Secretary of AKEL A.Kyprianou: Anastasiades and the government are trying to deceive the people with leaked documents – They think we are stupid”
1 August 2022, “Astra” radio
Former General Secretary of AKEL Andros Kyprianou spoke to ‘Astra’ radio about the report published in “Fileleftheros” newspaper on the Guterres Framework, clarifying that only one framework exists and it is the one of 30th June.
Andros Kyprianou said that “whenever Mr Anastasiades and the government feel cornered, they try to deceive the people by leaking documents – and I say this fully aware of what I am saying – to a certain journalist, Michalis Ignatiou. Documents that are presented in the way Mr. Anastasiades himself wants.”
“The content is one thing, substance is another. They are presented in a different light because the government ruling forces consider that people forget easily. Their aim is to bring back issues that have been discussed at length in the past, trying to convince the people about their own version of events,” he added.
Referring to the debate on whether there are one or two UN documents, A.Kyprianou said that this issue was discussed for a whole year.
Indeed he stressed that in April 2018 Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu had come to Cyprus and exerted pressure on the then Turkish Cypriot leader Akinci to put the demand for a two state solution on the negotiating table, while as he said he asked him what he would say in the event Mr.Anastasiades put it on the table.
“The Anastasiades – Cavusoglu discussion had preceded the meeting and Cavusoglu knew that Anastasiades was flirting with a two state solution. Subsequently Mr Akinci, in a desperate attempt to escape Turkey’s suffocating pressure, had proposed to Anastasiades that negotiations should resume on the basis of the Framework submitted by the UN Secretary General from where the talks had left off at Crans Montana,” the former General Secretary of AKEL said.
According to A.Kyprianou, Nicos Anastasiades replied to Akinci with a letter in which he asked him whether he got permission from Turkey to submit the proposal and whether he was talking about the June 30 or July 4 framework.
“We discussed this position of Mr. Anastasiades for a whole year. The UN Secretary General’s representative too was forced to say in public that a framework and a document do exist and it is the one of June 30, which is also noted in the Reports tabled by the Secretary General of the UN,” A.Kyprianou said.
“There is no other document, no other framework of the Secretary General. We subsequently heard the inimitable from ruling DISY party Vice-President Efthymios Diplaros, namely that the document is…verbal,” he added.
“The government gave the right to all the other parties to demonise the Guterres Framework”
Andros Kyprianou said that for the last five years AKEL had been arguing that an explicit reference is made in the Framework to its replacement with something else.
“This something different was the UN Secretary General’s document on the implementation of the agreement, which unfortunately with the Greek Cypriot side held responsible, from what was said in public, its discussion was not made possible,” he stressed.
A.Kyprianou also said that on the territorial issue there is a reference that the issue of Morphou should be discussed and returned to the Greek Cypriots.
AKEL, A.Kyprianou said, has been saying these things for the last five years, but the government was accusing it and saying they were not included in the Guterres Framework.
“The government gave the right, with its tolerance and distortion of events, to all the other parties to demonise the Secretary General’s Framework,” he added.
A.Kyprianou went on to say that “the document contained very important provisions that should have been made use of at Crans Montana. This is what AKEL’s criticism of Nicos Anastasiades is focused on. Namely, that although these very important provisions were indeed there, he did not give the opportunity to discuss them in depth to know how far Turkey was willing to go.”
“The government’s attempt yesterday is – to say the least – naïve and has failed miserably” – “They believe we our stupid”
“The attempt yesterday, which sought to convey the message that supposedly there is a document and that the Secretary General did other things than what his document said, is – to say the least – naïve. It merely confirms what we have been saying for the last five years and which the rest of the political, parties have been demonising, with the tolerance, or if you ask me, with the blessing of Mr Anastasiades,” A.Kyprianou noted.
Regarding the 4 July meeting, A.Kyprianou said that as Nicos Anastasiades himself said, it was an informal meeting between UN Cyprus Talks Special Advisor of the Secretary-General Mr. Espen Barth Eide and the negotiators.
“There was an attempt made by Mr Aide to explain exactly what the Guterres Framework included,” he added.
Commenting again on yesterday’s newspaper report, the former AKEL General Secretary said that “the journalist in question says I was misled and believed in Turkey that there was one document. I will say it again. There is one document only, I was not misled by Turkey at all. The government ruling forces think we are naive and stupid. At the same time, they are trying to hide their own agendas behind plausible and empty slogans.”
“Anastasiades talked about a two state solution before the Council of Cypriots Abroad”
A.Kyprianou said that in December 2018 he had gone to the UN headquarters for contacts with high-ranking UN officials and had a meeting with a delegation from the Council of Cypriots Abroad.
He added that during the meeting he was attacked by members of the Council who asked him insistently why he was criticising Mr Anastasiades so fiercely for supporting a two state solution.
A.Kyprianou said that in his attempt to reply to a barrage of questions, the UN-accredited journalist Apostolos Zoubaniotis intervened, telling them that they were hypocrites.
In fact, he reminded them that in the very same room, Anastasiades had told them that the best option for a solution to the Cyprus problem is a two state solution.
“We have been receiving the worst reports submitted by the UN – Christodoulides had launched a campaign for sanctions that would supposedly hurt Turkey and eventually just eight officials were punished”
“I don’t think there is a single person who disagrees that we are in a much more difficult position ever since Nicos Anastasiades assumed the responsibility for the handling of the Cyprus problem. Our cause if just. We have suffered occupation and yet we are receiving the worst reports from the UN,” A.Kyprianou pointed out.
“As far as the EU is concerned, Mr Christodoulides had started a campaign – with Anastasiades’ blessing – to impose sanctions that would supposedly hurt Turkey and the result is that sanctions have been imposed on…eight employees of the company that is exploring in our Exclusive Economic Zone,” he added.