Akel sounds alarm over partition

Akel leader Stefanos Stefanou on Sunday said his party was sounding the alarm over the threat of partition during a memorial for Dervis Ali Kavazoglou and Kostas Misiaoulis, who he said had given their lives for the vision of a free common homeland.

Stefanou said Akel is fighting for a free, independent, peaceful, democratic, common homeland for Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots, Maronites, Armenians and Latins.

“For all that our two heroes fought and sacrificed, it is still relevant today, 58 years after their murder. The vision of a common homeland has as a prerequisite the solution of the Cyprus problem. And at the same time it imposes a refusal to compromise with the dichotomous status quo,” he added.

Akel, he continued, has never believed there are many options before us.

“Either a solution of a bicommunal, bizonal federation with political equality or partition. That is what is really at stake. That was always what was at stake after 1974,” he said.

He said there is no point waiting for better timing for a solution, all that is happening is that partition is getting closer.

“We are sounding the alarm. Partition threatens us. The case for a solution concerns the future of all of us and does not lend itself to petty partisan interests or electoral considerations. After all, the elections are over and the problems require solutions. And these are not solved by rhetorical schemes and verbal acrobatics, but by specific policies that are evaluated and judged by their results,” he continued.

He said the negotiations should resume where they left off in 2017 in Crans Montana on the basis of the Guterres framework.

President Nikos Christodoulides, he continued, has declared his readiness to provide Turkey with incentives to bring it to the negotiating table, saying that this is something that Akel has insisted on for years.

“The energy processes in our region and Cypriot natural gas are the field that can yield strong incentives for Turkey to engage in negotiations on the Cyprus problem. We are convinced that this is where we should stand to create a positive agenda,” he added.

He said at the recent meeting of the National Council, Akel resubmitted the proposal it had submitted to the former president, in December 2020, to turn the issue of energy in the Eastern Mediterranean into a positive agenda.

Kavazoglou and Misiaoulis were murdered by TMT gunmen when they were ambushed on the road to Larnaca on Sunday, April 11, 1964, where they were going to take part in a political rally.