Excerpts from a speech of the General Secretary of AKEL Stefanos Stefanou on the Cyprus problem at a memorial service
Sunday 14 January 2024
“…This year marks the 50th anniversary of the treacherous coup d’état and the crime of the Turkish invasion.
Fifty years with Cyprus in chains, with the Turkish occupation troops in half of our country, with barbed wire dividing our lives and directly threatening our future.
Fifty years since the Greek junta and the tribal EOKA II laid the carpet for Turkey to invade.
Fifty years since we became refugees in our own country, since we filled mass graves, since parents dressed in black to mourn their lost children.
Today, fifty years onwards, we are living through the longest period of stagnation on the Cyprus problem. The Turkish side has now officially moved to a two state solution. Turkey is exploiting the stagnation to consolidate the de facto partition on the ground by imposing new faits accomplis. There is no longer any doubt whatsoever that the passage of time favours Turkey’s partitionist plans. AKEL has never been in any doubt of this.
Just as AKEL never had – and has never had – any doubt whatsoever that partition threatens the future of our homeland our people, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.
In view of the critical situation of the Cyprus problem, AKEL presented a comprehensive proposal at the last session of the National Council on how the Greek Cypriot side, and the Republic of Cyprus in general, should act, with the aim of breaking the deadlock and resuming the negotiations.
Our proposal is based on sticking to the agreed basis for a solution of a bicommunal, bizonal federation with political equality, on the continuation of the negotiations from the point where they were interrupted in 2017 on the basis of the Guterres Framework, preserving the convergences recorded so far.
AKEL’s proposal is also based on the formulation of a positive agenda towards Turkey and the Turkish Cypriot community, using the energy factor without annulling the sovereign rights of the Republic of Cyprus and announcing unilateral measures for the benefit of Turkish Cypriots.
We do not claim that our proposal will automatically and necessarily lead to positive developments. It can, however, test Turkish intentions. If our proposals are accepted, we will be able to go the last mile, as the UN Secretary General stated, and achieve a solution that will end the Turkish occupation and reunite our homeland and people.
This is our enduring goal.”