The government is engaging in communication games in order to vilify AKEL in the minds of the Cypriot people

Statements by the General Secretary of AKEL A. Kyprianou

On the Government Spokesman’s statements on AKEL and its positions on the Cyprus problem

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 22^nd April 2019, Nicosia

What did AKEL actually say? AKEL said to the President of the Republic that for him to be questioning after 45 years the agreed framework of the solution of the Cyprus problem is dangerous and simply facilitates Turkey’s handlings.

The government spokesman told us the following inexplicable which shows that he has humour too. He said that he doesn’t understand why AKEL reacts whenever the President of the Republic attempts to take initiatives for the resumption of negotiations on the Cyprus problem.

I sincerely regret if this is what the government spokesman understood from AKEL’s statements. AKEL criticizes Mr. Anastasiades for precisely the opposite. Namely, for the fact that he has taken no initiative whatsoever for the past two years. We don’t accept games being played with our intelligence and (for the government) to be saying that it is supposedly ready to enter into negotiations at the same time as they (the government ruling forces) have proved that they aren’t ready to engage in negotiations. This was the case in April 2018 when Mr. Akinci proposed the resumption of negotiations from where we had remained at Crans Montana and on the basis of the Guterres Framework. What did the government subsequently do? It asked Mr. Akinci whether he had Turkey’s permission to table the proposal. Furthermore, he opened a huge debate about which Framework the UN Secretary General was referring to.

What is the government doing now? It is trying to distance himself from the agreed framework, engaging in communication games and tricks. Mr. Anastasiades spoke of decentralized federation. For eight months now, all the political parties, everyone and the UN, have been urging him to give a content to this proposal for decentralized federation and he hasn’t done so far.

The President has once again tabled a proposal for a system of parliamentary democracy. This is a proposal that he thought of from 2015. That proposal was rejected by his own negotiating team. He himself told us that he thinks that this thing cannot proceed and three years later he brings it back

All these actions show that an attempt is underway to sidetrack us from the substance. But what is the substance? The UN Secretary General says what the substance is very clearly in his latest Report. Namely, that we must go to talks on the basis of Bi-zonal, Bi-communal Federation, with political equality accepted and on the basis of the Framework of 30^th June 2017. The Secretary General said that for him to accept the resumption of negotiations, the two leaders must convince him that this time they both have the will to go all the way to the end.

The slaps in the face which our government is receiving are therefore numerous and the government seems not to be conscious of it. Instead, it exhausts its time engaging in communication games and tricks in order to vilify AKEL in the minds of the Cypriot people, by saying AKEL that is trying to promote Turkish positions.

AKEL seeks to promote the positions of Cyprus that will serve the interests of both Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. If Mr. Anastasiades and the governing DISY party don’t realise this, our country will face enormous problems in the future and the dangers will be equally huge.

We therefore urge the President of the Republic to assume his share of historic responsibility, to act as a leader and undertake initiatives for the resumption of meaningful negotiations as soon as possible.

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