Akel general secretary Stefanos Stefanou repeated the party's position that the Greek Cypriot side must arrive well prepared for its upcoming meeting with UN Secretary-General António Guterres, speaking at the Makedonitissa memorial where he laid a wreath to mark the anniversary of the Turkish invasion.
Stefanou said the Akel delegation was accompanied by veterans of the democratic resistance against EOKA B and the 1974 coup, as well as fighters, prisoners of war and wounded from 1974, all of whom lived through the invasion and its aftermath. He said Akel lays wreaths and flowers every year in honour, gratitude and appreciation of all those who rushed to save the country, adding that they faced a fully armed invader while betrayed and largely unarmed or poorly equipped, and that the country owes them an eternal debt of honour.
Stefanou said honouring them also means renewing the commitment to secure the country's future through the liberation and reunification of Cyprus and its people, something he said can only be achieved through a peaceful solution within the UN framework, based on a bizonal, bicommunal federation with political equality, as agreed since 1977.
Turning to Guterres's upcoming visit to Cyprus, Stefanou said Akel had welcomed the Secretary-General's decision to visit from the outset, seeing it as an effort to push things toward breaking the deadlock that has persisted since 2017 and to restart negotiations. He said the Greek Cypriot side needs to prepare properly and bring very clear positions to the Secretary-General, starting from the position that talks should resume from where they were interrupted in 2017, preserving the convergences already reached and building on the Secretary-General's framework.
He described this as the shortest path toward a solution, and said it would help prevent attempts to steer the process away from its agreed basis or to introduce elements into a settlement that would serve neither Cyprus, nor Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, nor the sustainability and functionality of any eventual solution.
Stefanou closed by saying Akel would be at the forefront of the effort to achieve an overall solution to the Cyprus problem, fifty two years after what he called the twin crime of the treacherous coup and the barbaric Turkish invasion, and fifty two years of occupation of a large part of the country's territory.
