AKEL leader Stefanos Stefanou called for a renewed push to restart Cyprus peace talks on Sunday, warning that prolonged deadlock was entrenching Turkish occupation and risking making partition permanent.
Speaking at a memorial event in Dali for Dervish Ali Kavazoglu and Costas Misiaoulis, Stefanou said their killing 61 years ago was not a random act but an attempt by far-right nationalists to silence hope and erase examples of peaceful coexistence and cooperation between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.
He said Cyprus was now facing its longest period of deadlock in the peace process and that no prospect for the resumption of negotiations was in sight. He added that focusing on confidence-building measures had clearly failed and had turned into an obstacle rather than creating momentum, arguing that efforts should now move directly to the core issues of the Cyprus problem while safeguarding previous negotiating gains.
Stefanou said the long impasse was consolidating Turkish occupation day by day, while Turkey continued to push for a two-state solution that undermined the agreed basis of a bizonal, bicommunal federation with political equality. He said the Greek Cypriot side needed a decisive, consistent and active strategy for the resumption of talks, with clear messages and initiatives, without ambiguity or grandstanding.
He also said voices promoting nationalism and division were growing louder, fostering distrust between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots instead of building confidence. At the same time, he said, Cyprus’s involvement in wider geopolitical planning in the region and the adoption of bloc politics were not only sustaining risks for the island but creating new ones.
Stefanou said the message of Kavazoglu and Misiaoulis’ sacrifice was now more urgent than ever, calling for rejection of partition, insistence on a solution that reunites the country and its people, stronger cooperation between the two communities and resistance to nationalism from any side.
At the same event, DEV-İŞ president Semih Kolozali said the common struggle for the reunification of Cyprus and for a country where all Cypriots enjoy basic human rights grew out of the labour movement’s history. He said the interests of Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot workers were shared and called for stronger common class struggle at all levels in relation to the Cyprus issue.
Kolozali also said imperialist powers were continuing to fuel tensions in the region and that Israel was continuing to kill Palestinian civilians. He added that Israel and the United States, by starting a war against Iran, had caused the deaths of many innocent people. He said peace and brotherhood should prevail in Cyprus and the wider region.
He said there was only one form of solution for Cyprus: a united federal Cyprus with a single sovereignty, a single citizenship and a single international personality, based on the political equality of the communities.
Kolozali said that, 61 years after the killing of Kavazoglu and Misiaoulis, the torch they lit by believing in the peaceful coexistence of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots still lit the way for all Cypriots and continued to inspire and strengthen them.
