AKEL opposes proposals for Cyprus to join NATO after a settlement because such a discussion could overturn years of negotiated convergences, party General Secretary Stefanos Stefanou has said.
Speaking on Politis 107.6 and 97.6 radio’s Morning Review programme with Katerina Eliadi, Stefanou argued that there is no indication Turkey would accept a federal settlement in exchange for Cyprus joining the alliance.
No signal from Turkey
Stefanou questioned whether Ankara had given any indication that it would agree to a settlement and the federal reunification of Cyprus if the country were subsequently admitted to NATO.
He said that, in the absence of such a signal, NATO membership could not be presented as a response to a concrete Turkish position or as a proposal capable of bringing Ankara back to the negotiating table.
“Since there is no such message and since this has not even been formally proposed, AKEL rejects it because we want to issue a warning, as we have also done regarding the so-called new ideas being circulated, that these approaches will destroy all the work carried out over the years,” he said.
AKEL insists on the Guterres framework
Stefanou said the issues of security and guarantees had already been addressed during negotiations and were included in the framework presented by the United Nations secretary-general.
AKEL’s position is that a settlement should terminate the existing system of guarantees and intervention rights and replace it with a mechanism overseeing the implementation of the agreement.
“What we are saying is what the United Nations secretary-general has said, namely that the guarantee system will end with the settlement and will be replaced by an implementation mechanism,” Stefanou said.
He rejected suggestions that such a mechanism would amount to a new system of military guarantees.
“What we are saying is that there should be no guarantee system,” he added.
According to Stefanou, introducing NATO into the discussion could alter the agreed basis for security arrangements and reopen an issue for which a specific direction had already emerged at Crans-Montana.
Concerns over negotiated convergences
Stefanou said AKEL’s objection extended beyond NATO membership and reflected wider concern that proposed “new ideas” could dismantle important convergences reached after years of negotiations.
“These ‘new ideas’ destroy extremely important convergences that have been achieved, and if we destroy convergences in order to look for something else, we fear that we will not be able to reach an agreement,” he said.
He argued that negotiations should resume from where they ended, while preserving matters already agreed between the two sides.
“Our view is that we should continue from the point where we stopped because many issues have already been agreed,” Stefanou said.
He warned that reopening existing convergences on governance, security and other central aspects of a settlement could lead to a new and prolonged negotiation from the beginning.
“If we reopen them, they will never be closed again,” he said.
‘A thousand miles away from a solution’
Stefanou said NATO membership should not be presented as an automatic trade-off for ending the guarantee system, particularly when no agreement or corresponding proposal from the Turkish side exists.
He argued that the Greek Cypriot side should not abandon what had already been agreed within the UN framework in favour of a hypothetical model without knowing whether Turkey would accept it or whether it could unlock the process.
“We want to warn that, as with the so-called new ideas being circulated, these approaches will destroy all the work we have done over the years,” he said.
“If we destroy this acquis, we will not find ourselves one mile away from a solution, but a thousand miles away.”
Awaiting Holguín’s contacts
On the next steps in the Cyprus issue, Stefanou said AKEL was awaiting information about the meetings held by the UN secretary-general’s personal envoy in Ankara and Brussels.
He said the possibility of convening another informal expanded meeting would largely depend on the messages conveyed by the UN envoy following those contacts.
