Replies to journalists questions by the General Secretary of AKEL A.Kyprianou after the meeting with the President of DISY
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 4th March 2021, Nicosia
“We have repeatedly said that we want to hear which powers and competences of those that have been agreed – because they have already been agreed – the President wants to be transferred to the constituent entities. When they explain to us which of these powers and competences will go to the constituent entities we will subsequently express our own position. We do not reject the idea of a decentralized authority as a matter of principle, but we want to know which of these powers and competences that have already been agreed for the central government will go to the constituent entities. So far, we have not heard anything from President Anastasiades. When the government ruling forces tell us, we shall state our position.
“We have repeatedly clarified that we do not discuss neither a two state solution, nor confederation”
“As far as we are concerned, I’ll say that we have strong reservations about the way in which the President of the Republic will go to the informal conference, based on what we have seen so far. We still have roughly two months ahead of us. I hope and wish that he understands the critical nature of the period we are going through and that he acts in a way that will remove any pretext from the Turkish side to insist on the unacceptable positions it has been expressing up till now. We have outlined how in our opinion Mr. Anastasiades must operate. We will judge him by how he will behave during this period until the end of April, but especially in the conference itself. “
“Let me clarify first and foremost something with regards the positions of the Secretary General of the UN. Mr. Guterres was very clear. That is, I, he said, am bound by the framework of the decisions of the UN Security Council, which it is quite clear, speaks of a solution of Bizonal, Bicommunal Federation with political equality. Furthermore, Mr. Guterres goes on to say the following. If the two sides agree on a different basis of the solution and come and jointly propose to me another basis, then I am obliged to address the Security Council, to convey the view of the two sides and the Security Council will decide.
Are we going to support there either a two state solution or confederation? If something like this were to occur, AKEL will take a very strongly stand against these positions. That’s one thing I wanted to clear up.
The second thing is because there is a lot of discussion about the invitation to the conference and in what capacity Mr. Anastasiades will go there. As had happened in Geneva, at Crans Montana and today, I believe that Mr. Anastasiades must make it clear that he will be going there as the President of the Republic and as the representative of the Greek Cypriot community at the same time. We went to Geneva, we went to Crans Montana and came back with the same status. Has the entity of the Republic of Cyprus been lost? No, absolutely not. Therefore, this particular point at least, as far as we are concerned, does not concern us.
Let me just say something else similar to what Mr. Neophytou said. Certain political forces/circles are justifiably worried about the informal conference. We must be very careful, very well prepared and be consistent to the principles of the solution of the Cyprus problem. But if we do not go to the informal conference, what will happen? With mathematical precision we will take steps closer to the final partition of Cyprus which will be a disaster.
Now, as far as the statements of the British Foreign Secretary are concerned. The decisive factor is what the two sides will do, I mean the Greek Cypriot side and the Turkish Cypriots, but especially Turkey in the negotiations if and provided that they start. We are the determining factors that will lead to the solution or not. Britain will have to follow suit, in my view.”
“Of course, I would like to clarify that we would like to see the broadest possible support from the political parties for the solution of the Cyprus problem, based on the agreed framework of the solution, namely a Bizonal, Bicommunal Federation with political equality as described by the UN”
“The issue was not discussed much, but we believe that the European Union must be present. There are issues that concern the EU and it should be there to express its own opinion on these issues.»
“Let me say that as the Greek Cypriot side we have accepted political equality since 1991 when it was first introduced by the then Secretary General of the UN Mr. Boutros Ghali. It is a fact that certain political parties initially did not accept it, but in the process political equality was established as a common line of all political parties. I would like to remind you that in the joint statement of Mr. T. Papadopoulos in 2006 with Mr. Mehmet Ali Talat, the framework of the solution is recorded as the solution of bi-zonal bi-communal federation with political equality as described by the relevant Resolutions of the UN. So for AKEL this issue should have been self-evident. We shouldn’t need to discuss it in public.”
“We have submitted our proposal (on the Cyprus problem) to the President of the Republic. We have set out what he must do to remove the 3 pretexts Turkey puts forth. What does Turkey say? Turkey says that the Greek Cypriots do not want the resumption of substantive negotiations, the Greek Cypriots do not want to share political equality and the Greek Cypriots do not want to share the hydrocarbons, the natural wealth of Cyprus.
We therefore proposed to Mr. Anastasiades how he should handle these issues so that these arguments will be rebuffed and fall on deaf ears, or better still the Turkish side’s pretexts and for the Turkish side to be forced to either return to the agreed framework of the solution or remain exposed.
I’d like of course to clarify one thing. We have as our shield the relevant Resolutions of the UN, which speak of a solution of a Bi-Zonal, Bicommunal Federation with political equality. No one can force us to move from this framework for a solution to the Cyprus problem so long as we ourselves do not move away from it.”
The statements were made after today’s meeting with the President of DISY A. Neophytou