Turkey’s questioning of the validity of Cyprus’ EEZ, the halt of the Turkish visas process by the EU, a new furore surrounding Laiki, and the labour ministry’s demand to get back money overpaid to pensioners, were the main issues on the political parties’ agendas on Thursday.
The letter sent by Turkey to the UN Secretary General, attempting to associate the delimitation of the median line in the Aegean between Greece and Turkey with the delimitation of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the Republic of Cyprus, drew the ire of political parties.
The head of the Green Party-Citizens Cooperation George Perdikis said, following a meeting with President Nicos Anastasiades that the move was a confirmation of Turkey’s “unacceptable stance”.
The deputy chief of the Citizens Alliance, Stelios Amerikanos said that Turkey yet again “proved how unreliable it was in keeping the agreements it makes”. “Will the Anastasiades government reward her once more?” he asked, and wondered whether Cyprus would agree to the opening of chapters for Turkey in next month’s European Council meeting.
Commenting on the statements of the President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz on freezing the process of visas for Turkish nationals, DISY leader Averof Neophytou said that it was “an expected development”. He slammed the opposition parties that attempted to” give the impression last week that 80 million Turks would come to Cyprus”.
The head of the Solidarity Movement Eleni Theocharous said that Schulz’s statements on the EU-Turkey deal on migration, was partly due to her party’s intervention.
“We believe we have had an important contribution in this decision, because we mobilised all partisan connections” Theocharous said. “At last”, she said, “it appears the EU did not give in to Ankara’s blackmail”.
AKEL also expressed satisfaction over the European Parliament’s decision to freeze the process.
But the opposition parties, though in alignment with the government on the visas, slammed them for requesting back money it overpaid to pensioners.
“It appears the picture of low-income pensioners spoil the Anastasiades government’s ‘success story’,” said Amerikanos.
“It is obvious the leaderships of some parties have no contact with ordinary people.”
Both AKEL and EDEK on Thursday extended their wishes to nurses to mark the World Nurses Day, celebrated on May 12.
DIKO, which celebrated its 40th anniversary on Thursday, paid tribute to its founder Spyros Kyprianou and former leader Tassos Papadopoulos, as well as its members “who died fighting for democracy and freedom on the island”.
“We achieved the economic miracle of reconstruction in the difficult years after the invasion. We delivered a strong and prosperous economy following five years of Tassos Papadopoulos’ presidency,” it said. DIKO was not founded for itself. It was established and it exists for the country”.
As the leader of the centrist arena. it said, “we have an obligation towards our history and to the people, to continue. To take Cyprus forward”.
