AKEL Secretary General Andros Kyrpianou expressed the wish that ongoing diplomatic efforts will allow Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades to return to the negotiation`s table the soonest possible.
Kyprianou was speaking after a two-hour meeting with a delegation from the Republican Turkish Party, headed by its President Ozkan Yiorgancioglu, at AKEL headquarters, in Nicosia.
He added that by wasting precious time, efforts for a Cyprus solution, on the basis of relevant UN resolutions and the High Level Agreements, will only be hindered.
Moreover, the Secretary General of AKEL repeated his call to the President of the Republic to utilize the convergences of the past, reached by former President Demetris Christofias and the previous Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, in order to facilitate the negotiations process, once it resumes.
He added that President Anastasiades retains the right to negotiate further on issues he deems necessary to do so.
Otherwise, he said, the President will “only provide an alibi for Eroglu to hide behind our unpreparedness to resume negotiations from where they stopped”.
Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades announced last week his decision to suspend his participation to UN-backed negotiations, aiming to reunify the island under a federal roof, following Turkey`s recent decision to carry out seismic surveys in specific blocks within Cyprus` exclusive economic zone, assigned to international companies.
Kyprianou said that together with Yiorgancioglu they expressed their apprehension over the latest developments in the Cyprus issue.
He concluded by saying that all Greek Cypriot parties agree that the Cyprus problem must be solved through negotiations.
Speaking through an interpreter, RTP President Ozkan Yiorgancioglu said from his part that they discussed with the leadership of AKEL the latest developments in the Cyprus issue, which, he said, “annoyed us all”.
“Our common wish is to resume negotiations that have been interrupted” he said, while calling the newly-appointed UN Secretary General`s Special Adviser to contribute towards this aim.
Yiorgancioglu also noted that the parties` common assessment is that a Cyprus solution is possible, on the basis of the agreements between the two sides and the convergences that were reached between Christofias and Talat.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third.
