Statements by the General Secretary of AKEL A.Kyprianou
31st December 2018, “Dialogos” web portal
The General Secretary of AKEL Andros Kyprianou stated today that “you don’t convince about the correctness of your arguments on the Cyprus problem with contradictions, regressions and adventurist policies,” while noting at the same time that the President of the Republic Nicos Anastasiades has acted precisely in this way throughout his entire political career.
Mr. Kyprianou was speaking at the traditional New Year gathering of EDON Youth organization in Kaimakli, attended by, among others, AKEL MEP Neoklis Sylikiotis, AKEL Parliamentary Speaker Yiorgos Loucaides and AKEL C.C. Spokesperson Stefanos Stefanou.
“The biggest problem that the Cypriot people as a whole must tackle is the solution of the Cyprus problem in a way that will liberate and reunify our country on the basis of the long-standing decisions of the United Nations, the High-Level Agreements, International Law and the principles on which the EU is founded,” he said.
The General Secretary of AKEL said that it is “We are struggling for a solution that will lead to a united state, a continuation of the Republic of Cyprus, where there will be no guarantee or intervention rights”.
Andros Kyprianou went on to say that “AKEL is struggling for this solution and the attempt by anyone to suggest anything different, isn’t just a big lie, it also reveals their inability to counter our positions with arguments”. We know, he continued, that the Cyprus problem is a problem of invasion and occupation. “We know that Turkey has the main responsibility for the non-solution of the Cyprus problem. We know that the leadership of the Turkish Cypriot community over time bears enormous responsibilities,” he said.
At the same time, however, he added, “we acknowledge that Mr. Akinci has the will to work for a solution of the Cyprus problem.” He recognised that “his positions aren’t identical to our own”, saying that “we need to put forward our arguments, to convince about the correctness of our own positions.”
“We have justice on our side and when you have justice on your side, you also have the arguments to defend your positions and convince all well-intentioned people about what you are saying,” the General Secretary of AKEL noted.
“You don’t convince people by contradictions, with regressions – and permit me to say – by adventurist policies,” he said. And I regret to observe, said Mr. Kyprianou, that, “Mr. Anastasiades, throughout his political career, has always acted in this way with regards the Cyprus problem too, not only on other issues.”
Mr. Anastasiades has been in the presidency of the Republic of Cyprus for six years, he added. “You all remember how he acted in the first year. He adopted the policy imposed on him by the other political parties – with the exception of AKEL.” We opposed his policy, he said, “during those years and we said that this path was a dead-end policy. This was something that was proved and Mr. Anastasiades was forced in February 2014 to retreat.” The General Secretary of AKEL continued by saying that “we subsequently supported the procedure. We were a patriotic party according to Mr. Anastasiades and DISY leader Mr. Neophytou. They didn’t miss the opportunity to point out the patriotism with which AKEL was demonstrating.”
Today, he said, “unfortunately they are flirting with other approaches. On the one hand they are flirting with positions and policies that are disastrous with regards the resumption of negotiations and on the other for the prospect of resolving the Cyprus problem. That’s why we are criticizing them. All of a sudden we are the Party which is facilitating Turkey’s plans. We are the Party supposedly leaving Turkey immune from criticism and criticizing our side.”
“There is no bigger lie than that,” A. Kyprianou said, reiterating that “Turkey bears the greatest responsibility”.
From that point onwards, the General Secretary of AKEL said, “The crucial question is what we are doing to defend the just cause and rights of all Cypriots,” adding that “that’s precisely the point why we criticize Mr. Anastasiades.” According to AKEL’s General Secretary, “flirting with ideas that are abandoning the agreed basis of the solution and lead the Cyprus problem on to dangerous paths, can only cause damage.” He further clarified that “AKEL will never become a complicity to this disastrous course.”
“We will stand against him and those who forces and circles planning procedures and frameworks of solutions that are disastrous for Cyprus and the Cypriot people. We will struggle for the liberation and reunification of our country where Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots, Maronites, Armenians and Latins, will build themselves our common future,” he pointed out.
Mr. Kyprianou also referred to social issues, talking about “enormous social inequalities the people are suffering”.
Unfortunately, he said, “we must say that the Anastasiades-DISY government are copying these policies, even trying to present them as modern, new, pioneering and pointing the finger at us who are resisting these anti-social policies.” “We insist that all people are entitled to a good standard of living, that all people have the right to have a roof over their heads, that there must be no unemployment, especially among the young generation, that there must be a public health and education system which must address all people without discrimination depending on the economic situation of each one.”
We are therefore struggling for all these demands and many other assertions together with the Youth organization of EDON, he said and congratulated the youth of his Party “because it is at the forefront of these social struggles”.
In closing, Andros Kyprianou expressed the wish that 2019 will finally be the year of the solution of the Cyprus problem.
“I am confident that with the intensification of our struggles as the people’s movement in general we will resist and suspend the implementation of anti-social policies being promoted by the Anastasiades-DISY government with the helping hand – I regret to point out – of both the Democratic Party DIKO and other political parties,” he said.
On his part, the General Secretary of EDON Christos Christofias referred to 2018 as “the year that was marked by the re-election of the Anastasiades government and the consequences of all the anti-labour, anti-social and, most importantly for us, the most anti-youth policies that are continuing.”
“In the attempts by the government ruling forces to implement their ideological manifesto, it is young workers who are suffering, through underemployment, meagre wages, with students and school pupils the victims of their experimentations in education, but also the young generation in general who are facing a mountain of problems which the government and EU policies are preparing for them,” he added.
He also spoke about the difficulties “we are facing in our anti-occupation struggle in the efforts to solve the Cyprus problem”. “We hope and that’s what we will be struggling for in 2019, for it be a hopeful year. A year that we will all remember when it will have passed for the struggles that we will have waged as the young generation and as a Cypriot people, for the successes we will have to the benefit of the interests of our people and youth,” he said.