The General Secretary of SYRIZA Greece Panos Rigas noted an identity of views on all the issues with regards relations between Greece and Cyprus, stating that SYRIZA and AKEL have an identical position on the issue of the solution of the Cyprus problem.
Representatives of the two parties had a meeting at the central offices of AKEL in Nicosia. Mr. Rigas said that “the blocking of the investigations in the Cypriot Exclusive Economic Zone by Turkey by using and threatening to use violence constitutes a flagrant violation of International Law, of the fundamental principles of the international legal order and of the UN Charter, as well as the rules of International Law, in particular of the Law of the Sea and, of course, of the basic values of the EU”.
As the last European Council meetings have also demonstrated, Greece and the Republic of Cyprus are coordinating their efforts to secure the full support of the EU, he added. “It is a given fact in our opinion that the sharing of the wealth resulting from the hydrocarbons can and must be done, provided that there is a solution of the Cyprus problem. Cyprus’ energy wealth is an incentive and not an obstacle to the solution,” he said.
There is also, he continued, an identity of views with AKEL with regards the position for an immediate resumption of the talks and the Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish Cypriot side must move in this direction. SYRIZA, Mr. Rigas declared, has as its position of principle the peaceful resolution of problems and this is what it is doing in the wider region where Greece, in the midst of the crisis that has passed, constitutes a pillar of stability in the eastern Mediterranean region.
Panos Rigas spoke of an identity of views with AKEL also concerning “extreme-right ideas that are looming in societies”. SYRIZA, he said, was the force which, in the previous period, halted the “Golden Dawn” party in Greece with its political stand and ideological intervention. “The progressive people of Cyprus – AKEL has done so – has to limit the political party which in reality represents a branch of the “Golden Dawn” criminal organization in Greece.”
Our talks are a continuation of the visit of the General Secretary of AKEL to Athens, the SYRIZA General Secretary said, thanking AKEL for the invitation to visit Cyprus, while Christos Christofides, member of the Political Bureau of AKEL, said that the meeting concludes the exchange of views with the ruling party in Greece.
Christos Christofides said that it is particularly important that there is an identity of views on the perspectives, but also the problems that exist, but also a consensus on how to move forward from now onwards.
There is a common understanding, he said, that any Turkish provocations in the Cypriot Exclusive Economic Zone and the Aegean must stop immediately. “The lifting of the provocations against the Republic of Cyprus will create the environment within which the negotiations on the Cyprus problem can be resumed as soon as possible,” he said.
He pointed out Turkey’s unacceptable stand, as he said, but also “a stand adopted by the Turkish Cypriot leadership that at best does not help developments”. These ascertations, Christofides added, by themselves, don’t say a lot of things because our goal must be the normalization of the situation and the resumption of substantive negotiations for the solution of the Cyprus problem.
It is important to comprehend the dangers arising from Turkey’s generally unacceptable and adventurous stand. We should do what we can on our part to lead developments towards the normalization and resumption of the negotiations as soon as possible. Just denouncing the truly unacceptable attitude of Turkey or the Turkish Cypriot leadership, he continued, cannot in itself lead anywhere and it cannot be an excuse for our own omissions and weaknesses in exercising policy.
We are concerned about the strengthening of neo-fascist formations that is happening all over Europe, Christos Christofides said, noting that in Greece “a line was drawn from the forces of the democratic camp in relation to the behavior, presence and activity of those who are expressing the neo-fascist movement”.
We expect Cypriot society, the political forces, all those with democratic sensitivities will react here in Cyprus as well.
. Rigas: Identity of views between SYRIZA-AKEL on the Cyprus problem, the Exclusive Economic Zone and the rise of fascism